Using Infrastructure Optimization
to Reduce Greenhouse
Gas Emissions from Oil Sands Extraction and Processing
- Publication date
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Abstract
The Alberta oil sands are a significant source of oil
production
and greenhouse gas emissions, and their importance will grow as the
region is poised for decades of growth. We present an integrated framework
that simultaneously considers economic and engineering decisions for
the capture, transport, and storage of oil sands CO<sub>2</sub> emissions.
The model optimizes CO<sub>2</sub> management infrastructure at a
variety of carbon prices for the oil sands industry. Our study reveals
several key findings. We find that the oil sands industry lends itself
well to development of CO<sub>2</sub> trunk lines due to geographic
coincidence of sources and sinks. This reduces the relative importance
of transport costs compared to nonintegrated transport systems. Also,
the amount of managed oil sands CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, and therefore
the CCS infrastructure, is very sensitive to the carbon price; significant
capture and storage occurs only above 110$/tonne CO<sub>2</sub> in
our simulations. Deployment of infrastructure is also sensitive to
CO<sub>2</sub> capture decisions and technology, particularly the
fraction of capturable CO<sub>2</sub> from oil sands upgrading and
steam generation facilities. The framework will help stakeholders
and policy makers understand how CCS infrastructure, including an
extensive pipeline system, can be safely and cost-effectively deployed