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Petrobras has one of the three largest (if not the largest)
carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects in
operation around the world. The technology used by the company to
remove carbon dioxide (CO2) in the natural gas
production during enhanced oil recovery (EOR) evolved during the
past 10 years, avoiding emissions of more than 22 million metric
tons of CO2 (MMtCO2) to the atmosphere. The
CO2 used for EOR also helps the pre-salt FPSOs to keep a
much longer plateau of production.
Background
The CCUS (Carbon capture, utilization, and storage) technology
is quickly gaining a strong momentum following the rising
consciousness of the need to mitigate the effects of greenhouse
gas. But why has CCUS become so important?
Currently, most of the CO2 emissions come from the combustion of
fossil fuels, especially for power generation. Renewable sources,
which are considered the silver bullet to stop CO₂ emissions,
respond for as little as 14% of the total energy supply (in terms
of metric tons of oil equivalent), and most of that generated by
the 150-year-old technology of hydropower generation, that accounts
for 40% of all renewable energy generated. At the same time, energy
demand keeps growing owing to population growth, improvements in
the global standards of living, and adoption of high
energy-demanding new technologies.
Fossil fuels will remain an important source of energy for
decades to come. But how do we reach net-zero while keeping some
usage of fossil fuels to cope with the rising global energy demand?
The answer relies in in the adoption of a broad range of
technologies. Among them is the CCUS - the group of technologies
that can avoid the atmospheric emission of CO₂ from industrial
processes that uses fossil fuels.
The presalt case
In Brazil, Petrobras' response to the decarbonization challenge
was to remove the CO₂ from the natural gas production of its
Presalt projects and to reinjected it in wells for enhanced oil
recovery (EOR).
Since 2010, a total of 25 pre-salt fields were developed in the
Campos and Santos basins, with CO₂ content ranging from 2% in the
Marlim field to up to 44% in the Mero field. Currently, there are
29 units in operation with a combined gross gas production of more
than 90 MMcm/d. Total CO₂ production of pre-salt fields reached
about 630,000 metric tons in July 2021.
The membrane system is the technology chosen by Petrobras to
strip the CO₂ out of the pre-salt fields' natural gas. The membrane
allows a selective passing of the CO₂ molecules to a separate
environment, removing most of the CO₂ of the feed gas. But not all
molecules of the natural gas are blocked from passing with the CO₂,
which means there is always a loss of natural gas with the use of
membranes, and a huge pressure drop caused by flow resistance (the
pressure can reach about 4 bar). After the separation, the
high-concentration stream of CO₂ has to be compressed be injected
into the reservoir. The deeper the reservoir goes, the higher the
pressure of injection is required, reaching almost 550 bar, and the
larger the compression system and the required power
consumption.
The total current proved capacity of around 600,000 metric tons
of CO2 captured per month across the several FPSOs operating in the
area, is equivalent to approximately 7 MMtCO₂ per year.
Figure 1: Monthly pre-salt CO2 injection by
field
Two other CCUS projects stand out worldwide, both for EOR in the
Permian Basin. Occidental Petroleum's Century plant removes 8
MMtCO₂ from natural gas processing. Shute Creek, an ExxonMobil
facility, captures 7 MMtCO₂ from natural gas processing. This makes
the Petrobras' Presalt development one of the three largest CCUS
projects around the world. With more production units expected to
come online, it is poised to become the single largest one in
operation.
Since 2021 it has been observed a strong reduction of stacked OSVs. The increasing demand has encouraged companies… https://t.co/TcqJsN4JMp
Jul 05
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