CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED SOLID CO2 PENETRATOR MARINE DISPOSAL SYSTEM

A disposal technique for carbon dioxide, consisting of burying solid C O2 penetrators into the deep seabed has been proposed. The expected we ight of these penetrators can be as large as 1000 tons with lengths be tween 20 to 40m and diameters of 4-5m. In order to produce and dispose of such large penetrators, an engineering approach has to be develope d to investigate the feasibility of the process from the sources (indu strial and thermal electrical production sites) to the sink (deep mari ne geological formation). A 5 Mt/year CO2 disposal capacity, has been selected for the study. This corresponds to a 500 MW(e) coal fired pow er plant assumed to be in the vicinity of a coastal port. The selected penetrators are 540 tons weight, approximately 30m high and 4m diamet er. Two concepts have been investigated. The first consists in produci ng penetrators at a land based factory and then shipping them to a dis posal site in specially designed ships having the capacity of carrying 148 penetrators. The second assumes that liquid CO2 can be collected from a port facility, transported by a liquid CO2 container ship to a mobile marine penetrator production and launching platform. The cost o f these solutions have not been evaluated in the present work.