Costain CCS Experience

Capture

Costain has experience of a range of carbon dioxide capture technologies. We have worked closely with licensors on the selection and design of chemical and physical absorption technology for acid gas removal, including impurities such as hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans, on various projects. Examples include the selection and work up of design of licensor's amine systems for acid gas removal, working with Shell Global Solutions, for the sulphur removal systems for the Morecambe Bay Rivers terminal.

Costain has developed patented processes that use semi-permeable membranes for bulk carbon dioxide removal and carbon dioxide removal to ppm level. We are highly experienced in cryogenic gas processing and have designed units for air separation, carbon dioxide separation and synthesis gas separation.  

Costain has experience in designing processes to remove sulphur components using Claus Units, tail gas treating, high capacity solvent wash processes and sour water stripping. We pay particular attention to the issues that influence reliability and operability, including: materials of construction, erosion and corrosion avoidance, solvent degradation, foaming, minimising solvent losses and measures to deal with heat stable salts.

Relevant Project Profiles

Removal of carbon dioxide from power station flue gas:
European Carbon Dioxide Test Centre Mongstad. Study for Aibel		Study
Recovery of Carbon dioxide from Power Station Flue Gases for Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), UK / Trichem		Study
Removal of carbon dioxide using formulated solvents:
Rivers Gas Terminal for Conoco Phillips, Cumbria, UK		Project management, detailed engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of an onshore gas compression and sour gas treatement plant.
Upgrade of acid gas processing facility for BG Tunisia		EPC project for modification of Hannibal Gas Treatment Plant.
Base load LNG plant for BP, Egypt		Technical and project management services for Damietta Port LNG facility
Carbon Dioxide removal from natural gas for Tullow Oil UK		Design study for removal of carbon dioxide from natural gas from southern North Sea
Design study for carbon dioxide recovery plant for AGA AB, Holland		Study

Transportation

Costain can design systems for carbon dioxide conditioning for both pipeline and tanker transport. The phase diagram below shows the different conditions in which the carbon dioxide is transported - dense phase for pipeline transport and liquid phase for sea transport. Specialist skills have been developed to accurately assess the behaviour of carbon dioxide containing fluids and rigorous materials selection and corrosion prediction methods are used to ensure appropriate use of construction materials.

 

 

Source: Newcastle University

Pipeline Transport

 

Costain has extensive experience in the design and selection of such large machinery systems, having been involved in selection of machinery (both electrical and gas turbine driven) for natural gas compression systems for the National Transmission System in the UK, natural gas liquefaction refrigeration machinery, the selection of large compression systems for applications with variable demand

 

We also have a wealth of experience in gas dehydration using glycols and molecular sieves to achieve the desired water dew point. We understand the selection of such systems based on economic, operability and safety issues and have designed, engineered and built natural gas compression and dehydration systems in the order of 400 MMSCFD for international global energy companies.

Ship Transport

 

We understand key design aspects associated with carbon dioxide purification and liquefaction, having design and built many carbon dioxide liquefaction plants, using cryogenic distillation and utilising plate fin heat exchangers for compact design and heat integration.

 

We also have experience in sea transport of low temperature liquids specifically floating LNG, for both for re-gasification and liquefaction, where the issues associated with on-board processing and cryogenic storage is a critical aspect of the design. We have been involved in the design selection and marinisation of equipment required for floating LNG production and re-gasification projects and are very aware of the issues associated with equipment selection for onboard process equipment where the forces on the equipment in operation are significantly different from onshore applications.

Sequestration

Costain are a market leader in UK underground gas storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs and salt aquifers, the design of which encompasses large scale compressor selection and gas dehydration for pipeline transport. Design of these facilities has been from concept to construction and has given us an in-depth understanding of the unique engineering, safety and environmental issues associated with the storage of gas underground.

Costain is familiar with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), using carbon dioxide, natural gas or nitrogen, and has the capability to treat the produced fluid of varying composition over time.

Gas storage, large scale gas compressor selection and design:
Gas Plant Infrastructure EPCm for Underground Gas Storage project in Cheshire, UK for E.ON		Full design, specification, procurement, installation and management of gas plant and associated infrastructure for underground gas storage.
Gas storage project FEED for WINGAS in Saltfleetby, UK		Front end engineering design for storage of natural gas in depeleted gas field.

White Papers

Getting to know CCS		Published in Hydrocarbon Engineering, January 2010
Optimize carbon dioxide removal		Published in Hydrocarbon Processing, May 2001

Presentations

Behaviour of CO2 in Transportation Systems		Presented at Carbon Capture & Storage Forum, November 2009