Carbon Capture and Storage as a Harbinger of Valve Industry Growth

For many people who work in the valve industry, the goal of clean energy feels like a threat to the profession, especially in the thermal power market. The focus of this article is not about the rationale or need behind our collective shift toward global carbon reduction. For the valve industry in particular, one approach of CO₂ emissions mitigation — carbon capture and storage (CCS) — is not a doom-and-gloom scenario. Instead, it’s a new frontier that can extend the lifecycle of fossil fuels and simultaneously provide much new work for those in the industry, as various processes of the technologies are valve-intensive. 

There are the other familiar and ubiquitous carbon-cutting mitigation methods such as renewable energy (wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal) and nuclear power, but without CCS technology and abatement, it will be virtually impossible to remove emissions from the global economy. In a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), to meet the global consensus goal of net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050, the world will need to deploy more than 150 times as much carbon capture capacity than we currently have.

Figure 1. Illustration of the overall carbon capture and storage process. Photo Credit: Global CCS Institute

The enterprise of CCS — a means of capturing CO₂ and storing it to prevent its release into the atmosphere — has its roots in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), tracing back nearly 50 years. CCS has quickly become a growing necessity in talks toward achieving net-zero (and eventually negative) emissions as part of the world’s imminent energy transition, especially those countries that produce and consume the largest amounts of fossil fuels. A very viable and least-understood mitigation pathway, CCS involves three main steps:

• Capturing CO₂ at the source 
• Compressing the CO₂ for transport
• Injecting the CO₂ deep into the ground into a rock formation where it is permanently stored

Industrial large-scale emissions processes — those that come specifically from manufacturing and products such as cement, petrochemicals and steel, for example — are a major contributor to greenhouse gases, supplying 22% of global emissions, according to the Global CCS Institute. The most expedient and direct abatement approach is point source capture technology, where the CO₂ is captured from power plants’ smokestacks, which has the greatest potential for reduction of CO₂ emissions compared to other sectors like electricity, agriculture, transportation and commercial/residential buildings.  

Steps one and two of CCS (capture and transport) are where the need and use of valves are paramount, especially in power sectors such as coal, natural gas, ammonia, iron and steel and midstream projects. On the capture side, there are three basic types of technologies that prevent large quantities of CO₂ from being released: pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel with post-combustion. 

Capture of CO₂

The most popular form of capture for industrial CCS (and directly applicable to this industry) is post-combustion, where CO₂ is separated from combustion exhaust gases — involving pressure, temperature, piping and valves. A majority of CCS methods utilize some combination of temperature and pressure. Fluids in these environments require piping and valves, so the overall outlook for the valve industry to benefit from these endeavors is promising. The amine process (see sidebar of terms and definitions) is a particularly strong user of piping systems, so new amine units, as well as retrofits, will necessitate many valves. The specific requirements of these units also will entail valve and piping materials designed to handle the potential corrosivity of the fluids in these processes. Besides the amine process, there are other post-combustion methods that involve the use of absorption and adsorption to separate the CO₂ from the flue gases.

Howard Herzog, senior research engineer at the MIT Energy Initiative, and author of the 2018 book Carbon Capture, in explaining how the demand will impact this industry, said, “The capture part can be looked at as a type of chemical plant. And the storage part can be seen as similar to oil and gas production (except we are injecting into the ground rather than extracting) and many valves are needed. Finally, there’s pipeline transport that’s similar to gas pipelines; and once again, valves are essential.”

Transport of CO₂

Step two of CCS is transport. After the CO₂ is removed from the fossil fuel bloodstream, it needs to be transported for storage, and pipelines are (and will continue to be) the most common mode of transporting large quantities of CO₂. Truck, rail and ship transport are other modes, but they are used primarily for smaller quantities. Currently, most CO₂ pipelines exist to support EOR in western and southern oilfields. In most cases, these pipelines are transporting the CO₂ from naturally occurring CO₂-rich geological formations to areas of active oilfield use. 

Figure 2. CCS transport overview. Photo credit: Global CCS Institute

The current pipeline infrastructure for CO₂ is limited, and significant investment to scale up to levels that can support exponential growth in CCS will be needed. According to the Net-Zero America Project, the United States is currently the worldwide leader in carbon transportation with 85% of CO₂ pipelines globally and will need to spend up to $230 billion on about 68,000 miles of additional CO₂ pipeline by 2050.

The valves in these pipelines are mostly midstream that fall under the API 6D “Pipeline Valves” specification, another extremely important segment of the valve industry. In addition to the API 6D valves, there are compressor stations, separation facilities and other piping systems that utilize a variety of valves. All energized interstate pipelines fall under several federal and state rules and regulations. Among those rules is a requirement that emergency shutoff valves be placed throughout the pipeline’s length. Today, these lines are predominately in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and a few oil-shale-rich western states. By far, the heaviest concentration of CO₂ lines is in Texas. 

While CO₂ lines contain no flammable or inflammable substances, there are some safety concerns. First, the pipelines transporting the CO₂ must be pressurized to ensure single-phase (only gas — not liquid and gas) flow in the pipeline. This pressure must be above the critical pressure of CO_2, which is about 1072 psi. This pressure is energy that, if catastrophically released, could cause physical damage. 

The greatest concern is the gas displacing breathing air in the event of a massive leak, since CO₂ is heavier than the air we breathe. A large, relatively windless release could settle in low areas such as valleys. This could elevate the CO2 percentage to harmful or even deadly levels at about 6% and 10% by volume, respectively. The valve-related effect of this potential scenario could be that more emergency shutoff valves would be required in hilly country or other areas where the vapor could settle.

Storage of CO₂

The third and final step of CCS is storage. The most popular and accepted storage method currently is injecting the CO₂ underground in secure geological formations (Fig. 3) like depleted oil and gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams and saline aquifers. This is commonly done through injection wells, where instead of pumping fluids like oil and gas out of the ground, the compressed CO₂ is pushed down subsurface under high pressure. This is the same process that is used in CO₂ EOR. As one can imagine, the process requires compressors, piping and many valves. In most cases, the injection pressure is usually in the range of 1500 to 2000 psi.

Figure 3. Depiction of carbon capture storage: 1) Saline formations; 2) Injection into deep unmineable coal seams; 3) Use of CO₂ in EOR; 4) Depleted oil and gas reserves.
Photo credit: Global CCS Institute

The mechanism used to direct and funnel the CO₂ into the ground is called a Christmas Tree, and a manifold that sits above the ground and has various valves, fittings and gauges on it. The valves used on these trees are referred to as upstream valves and fall under the API 6A, “Specification for Wellhead and Christmas Tree Equipment” specification. The API 6A valve is also a very important part of the U.S. (and worldwide) valve industry.

A brief note about what is referred to as CCUS, which includes the use or utilization as a separate endeavor of the process where the captured carbon is used instead of stored: At this stage of research and development, it’s largely prohibitive from an economical and practical standpoint, but this is an area for much innovation, development and growth.

Future-looking Growth and Potential

Looking ahead at how these technologies hold the promise of further development and where the United States stands compared to other countries, Herzog explained, “The United States has traditionally been a leader in CCS technology. Other countries that have strong CCS programs include the United Kingdom, Norway and Japan. The Netherlands and Australia also have strong interest, but their commitment has waxed and waned due to politics. China also has CCS programs.”

In considering the urgency issue and how climate change perceptions and politics are inexorably linked to any wide-reaching rollout of CCS initiatives, the outlook is unclear, but change is afoot with new initiatives toward broader CCS implementation in business and government. On this point, Herzog added, “Eventually costs will come down as with most technologies; however, it will always be cheaper to emit CO₂ into the atmosphere (absent climate policy) than to capture and store the carbon. This is why policy (carbon prices, emissions limits) is required to create markets for CCS—then carbon capture is competing against other mitigation methods as opposed to competing with doing nothing.”

From the vantage point of the valve industry, attempts to curb emissions may present a challenge at first glance, but in looking at all the uses for valves in the CCS sphere, growth and demand are practically guaranteed. In this ironic twist, valuable fossil fuel assets would continue to be used while simultaneously holding the promise of CCS and the valve-manufacturing industry by extension. A closing thought from Herzog’s book: “The fossil fuel era will not end because we run out of fossil fuels, but because of restrictions on CO₂ emissions … with carbon capture, we can continue to use our fossil fuels. How much fossil fuel we will use depends on how carbon capture technology evolves. And as the story of fossil fuels demonstrates, we should not underestimate the power of technological change.” 

Learn more about CCS experimentation and research and development underway at a few of our VMA member companies in part two of this series in the upcoming Summer issue of VALVE Magazine.

About the Authors

Margo Ellis is editor-in-chief of VALVE Magazine.

Greg Johnson is president of United Valve. He is a contributing editor to VALVE Magazine and a current Valve Repair Council board member. He also serves as chairman of the VALVE Magazine Advisory Board, is a founding member of the VMA Education and Training Committee and is past president of the Manufacturers Standardization Society. Reach him at greg1950@unitedvalve.com.