Carbon footprint

CO₂ emissions from capturing, transporting and storing the CO₂ are calculated. Calculations show that these are small – in the range of 5-10% of the CO₂ stored.

In cooperation with DNVGL and Carbon Limits AS, Gassnova has developed a tool to calculate the amount of CO₂ emitted when facilities for capturing, transporting and storing CO₂ are to be built, operated and decommissioned. The tool is not commercially available, but for further questions please contact Gassnova.

What do we mean by carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gases produced which directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂). 

Most of the emissions in any given carbon footprint come from “indirect” sources, such as fuel burned and resources spent to produce materials and goods far away from the final consumer. These are distinguished from “direct” sources of emissions which come from using our own products, such as driving a car or doing an activity. 

How should we calculate the carbon footprint of an activity, process or product? 

Several free online carbon footprint calculators exist, including a few supported by publicly available peer-reviewed data and calculations. These are largely aimed at educating consumers about their activities and preferences.

To be more accurate, calculation of a carbon footprint should follow the cradle-to-grave approach used in life cycle assessments. (These principles are described in ISO standards 14040 and 14044.)

In effect, this means it is necessary to establish a kind of carbon accounting system where all greenhouse gas emissions caused by all materials, chemicals, fuels and transport required to produce a product, run a process, or carry out a certain activity is summarized. As a result, a considerable amount of basic data and emission factors are required to succeed in establishing a reliable carbon footprint.

Why is it important to assess the carbon footprint of CCS?

Questions are often raised whether it is worthwhile introducing CCS as CO₂ emission mitigating measure. CCS has been accused of being both inefficient and high energy consumption. Since the objective of CCS is to reduce CO₂ emissions by capturing and permanently storing CO₂ in subsurface/subsea reservoirs, it makes sense that CCS should not lead to more CO₂ being emitted than is ultimately stored. Gassnova thus felt the urgent need for establishing a possibility to do sound and best possible calculations of the carbon footprint for CCS.

Gassnova’s footprint calculator

The tool is based on an Excel spreadsheet model and the greenhouse gas emission factors are taken from open source databases. Gassnova has used this tool to summarize the carbon footprint of the Longship project.

Project partners Fortum Oslo Varme (now Hafslund Celsio), Heidelberg Materials and Northern Lights has contributed with consumption figures for their aspects of the project in waste-to-energy capture, cement production capture and transportation and storage, respectively.

CO₂ footprint calculated

Results based on input data indicate a carbon footprint (i.e. the CO₂ emitted from all material, chemicals and fuels consumed and all necessary transport and activities involved in constructing and operating one CCS chain) that is in the range of 5-10% of the CO₂ stored. This is further dependent on the number of years the storage facility is in operation and whether the full capacity of the storage site is used. 

In september 2020 FOV asked to revise its input data for the footprint calculations.