carbon capture recycling (ccr) & carbon capture sequestration (ccs)

Transitus will recycle carbon dioxide or will utilise repurposed depleted oil and gas reservoirs (and saline aquifers) using them to permanently store carbon dioxide.

Carbon Capture Recycling
Germany, Belgium, and the UK are three of the world’s largest importers of carbon dioxide. According to the World Bank, Europe imported 504,000 tons of carbon dioxide in 2021. It exported a mere 291,000 tons. Disrupting this trade by manufacturing and using carbon dioxide locally has sustainability and food security bensefits.

Carbon dioxide is used in socially necessary industries. It is used for carbonisation of soft drinks, brewing, purging industrial systems, slaughter, food preservation, greenhouses, medical, fire extinguishment, amongst other uses. Carbon dioxide is mostly manufactured from natural gas, generally as a by-product of fertilizer manufacturing, and brewing. Unfortunately, as a by-product, it is prone to sporadic supply and consequently wild fluctuations in prices causing food insecurity and increased food supply costs. Recycling it locally, especially when it would have been emitted anyway, reduces costs and emissions, and stabilises supply.

Our smaller scale hydrogen refineries will recycle produced carbon dioxide by upgrading it for sale into the food and beverage, medical, and safety industries. This will reduce imports and reduce shipping and the road miles of carbon dioxide transport.

Carbon Capture Sequestration
The North Sea is replete with empty gas reservoirs and offshore aquifers, which can be repurposed to permanently store carbon dioxide. UK low-carbon hydrogen manufactured from natural gas is estimated by the UK government at 250 TWh by 2050, replacing 30% of UK natural gas. The carbon dioxide generated in manufacturing this amount of low-carbon hydrogen is stated by the UK government to be 70Mt and this is to be captured and permanently stored in North Sea geostores.

Refining natural gas into hydrogen on a larger scale will mean that we will want to sequester the carbon dioxide in empty gas reservoirs and offshore saline aquifers. These geostores have held natural gas or saline water for millions of years and thus they will be capable of storing permanently this carbon dioxide.

Offshore aquifers have been utilized for storage of carbon dioxide in Norway for over 20 years (Sliepner and Snovhit fields). Iceland’s Carbfix has stored carbon dioxide since 2014. Sequestration is therefore technically viable.

Britain estimates that it has storage capacity for over 100 years of its carbon dioxide emissions (at current emission rates). Norway estimates it has over 1,600 year’s worth of carbon dioxide capacity based on its current emissions. The Netherlands, Belgium and German North Sea also has geostores, but they are insufficient for Europe’s needs who will need to access UK and Norwegian sequestration sites. This potential capacity is well within the expected timeframe to develop the technology and deploy it at scale to enable a full transition to electrolytic low-carbon hydrogen.