OTC-34843-MS

Impact of Impurities in CO2 Fluid to Carbon Capture, Offshore Pipeline

Transportation and Sequestration Topside Facilities Design During

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Feasibility Study

Qurratuaini Muhamad Nazori and M Rafiq Bin Hamdan, PETRONAS; Murni Shaharom, Agile Energy; Zuriyaty
Yusoff, Farahnajwa Amirrudin, Wan Mahsuri Wan Hashim, Astriyana Anuar, and Zalina Ali, PETRONAS

Copyright 2024, Offshore Technology Conference DOI 10.4043/34843-MS

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Offshore Technology Conference Asia held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 27 February - 01 March 2024.

This paper was selected for presentation by an OTC program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of
the paper have not been reviewed by the Offshore Technology Conference and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any
position of the Offshore Technology Conference, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written
consent of the Offshore Technology Conference is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may
not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of OTC copyright.

Abstract
A depleted gas reservoir field located offshore Malaysia has been identified as a Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
sequestration site to dispose inherent and post-combustion CO2 from domestic and foreign sources to
achieve significant reduction in carbon emission for a more sustainable future. One of the key success
criteria for the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) development is transporting and injecting CO2 fluid into
the reservoir throughout field injection life. Pipelines were identified as the primary means of transporting
CO2 from the capture source to the sequestration site. Transporting CO2 fluid in a 200km pipeline can be
incredibly challenging due to varied CO2 fluid composition and the uncertainties in predicting CO2 fluid
thermodynamic behavior. Type of impurities and Equation of States (EoS) selection will impact the thermo-
physical properties of CO2 and must be considered in the design and operation of topsides facilities and
pipeline. Due to uncertainties and limited data available during feasibility study, some assumptions were
adopted to perform pipeline flow assurance study. This is necessary to determine the design requirement
for an onshore CO2 gathering hub, compression system, pipeline and injection facilities which will be used
to establish feasible operating envelope.
This study adopted a comprehensive workflow to perform CO2 pipeline flow assurance study during
feasibility study to ensure any uncertainties and optimization strategies were considered at the early stage
of CCS development. CO2 fluid modelling was performed considering the impact of impurities to CO2
fluid phase behavior and its thermophysical properties. Thermodynamic predictions from several EoS were
evaluated prior to EoS selection. The selection of a suitable EoS is necessary to ensure robustness of the
proposed design and operating strategy.
During feasibility study, several key data is undefined or uncertain. Hence a range of data and sensitivity
evaluations were adopted in performing the thermohydraulic analysis. Engineering margins were proposed
to provide conservatism to ensure robustness of the design envelope to meet project deliverables. As the
project progresses and more reliable data is made available, the overall design can be refined and further
optimized.
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This paper will focus on comprehensive workflow for purpose of developing the design operating
envelope and defining the recommended methodologies and EoS to be used to perform CCS topsides
and pipeline design during feasibility stage to ensure any uncertainties and optimization strategies were
considered at the early stage of CCS development.

Introduction
A preliminary CCS development concept was proposed where the project intends to capture inherent CO2

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from onshore gas processing facilities and post combustion CO2 from chemical plants and terminal, gather
& treat at onshore gathering hubs and then transport the CO2 to offshore sequestration site located ∼221km
away to meet PETRONAS NZCE (Net Zero Carbon Emission) aspiration by 2050. There is a potential
synergy with foreign import of liquid CO2 (LCO2) to be transported and sequestered together at the same
CCS injection site. The schematic of proposed solution is shown in Figure 1.0. There were 4 development
concepts at different flowrate being evaluated in this study with injection pressure is identified to be 55 barg
during early injection life and 90 barg during late injection life at depleted reservoir. The fluid composition
for base case contains 99 mol% CO2 with some hydrocarbon impurities; C1, C2, C3 etc was developed
based on foreign LCO2 fluid composition. Sensitivity was performed for the worst-case composition consist
of 96 mol% CO2 with some impurities ranging from H2, C1, N2, Ar, H2S, H2O, Hg, etc. and this worst-case
composition was developed based on ISO 27913:2016 Table 1.1.

Figure 1—Preliminary Development Concept

Table 1—CO2 Fluid Composition

Base Case Composition (mol%) Worst Case Composition (mol%)

CO2 = 99.6 CO2 = 96.00

H2S = 100 ppm H2S = 500 ppm

CO = 0.00 CO = 0.04

O2 = 0.00 O2 = 0.02

CH4 = 0.20 CH4 = 0.39

N2 = 0.00 N2 = 0.77

Ar = 0.00 Ar = 0.77

H2 = 0.00 H2 = 2.00

SO2 = 0.00 SO2 = 0.00

OTC-34843-MS 3

Base Case Composition (mol%) Worst Case Composition (mol%)

NO2 = 0.00 NO2 = 0.00

Ethane = 0.01 Ethane = 0.00

Propane = 0.01 Propane = 0.00

Butane = 0.03 Butane = 0.00

Benzene = 0.03 Benzene = 0.00

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Toluene = 0.03 Toluene = 0.00

Study Objectives
The objective of the study was to determine the optimum pipeline design & operating envelope of the
CO2 pipeline and injection facilities for various development concepts which shall ensure the optimal
CO2 transportation from onshore gathering hub to the offshore CO2 injection site. Sensitivity to CO2 fluid
specification including impact of impurities to CO2 fluid thermodynamic behavior and various subsurface
injection conditions were also evaluated in this study.

Methodology
A structured methodology was used in this study consists of CO2 fluid characterization utilizing
MULTIFLASH software version 7.2 and steady state pipeline flow assurance study utilizing OLGA version
2021.1.0. Figure 2 below shows the methodology adopted in this study. First step involved identification
of CO2 sources to the gathering hub and development of CO2 base and worst-case fluid composition. Then
Equation of states (EoS) evaluation is performed to select the best EoS which could provide numerical
stability, fast simulation run-time and high accuracy in physical & transport properties prediction. The
selected EoS will be used to evaluate the impact of impurities, which are non-condensable gases consist of
H2, CH4, N2 and Ar, and other components such as water, Hg, and H2S on the CO2 fluid phase envelope and
thermophysical properties prediction. In the last step for fluid characterization, fluid file will be generated
for both base case and worst-case composition to be used in subsequent flow assurance analysis.

Figure 2—Study Methodology

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For steady state pipeline flow assurance study, OLGA was used to ensure consistent result with
subsequent transient simulations. Pipeline capacity checks were performed for early life and late life
injection using various pipeline sizes for CO2 base case fluid. To determine the maximum capacity of the
pipeline at various pipeline sizes, the pipeline boundaries were modelled as pressure nodes. Arrival pressure
at injection platform was specified based on the respective Injection Tubing Head Pressure (ITHP) in early
and late life. Once the pipeline size is selected, the maximum ITHP will be quantified to maintain the
selected pipeline size operating & design envelope. The steady state pipeline hydraulic study will be re-

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run for the selected pipeline size using worst case composition to evaluate the impact of impurities towards
pipeline operating and design envelope.

Results and Discussion

Equation of States (EoS) Assessment
Several EoS were evaluated to identify the optimum EoS to develop the Vapor Liquid Equilibrium (VLE)
and predict thermophysical properties of CO2 base dry fluid composition as indicated in Table 1. The
EoS evaluated includes Redlich-Kwong-Soave Advanced with Peneloux volume shift factor (RKSA), 1978
Peng-Robinson with Peneloux volume shift factor (PR78A), Groupe Européen de Recherches Gazières
(GERG-2008), and RKS Cubic Plus Association (CPA) EoS. Figure 3 shown the phase envelope generated
by respective EoS for CO2 base composition. The phase envelope demonstrates the impact of heavy
hydrocarbon components to the dew point pressures prediction of CO2 fluid. Bubble point pressures
predictions are in a good agreement for all EoS with pure CO2 saturation line. At temperature of −14°C
to 4°C and pressure of 10 barg to 25 barg, PR78A, RKSA and CPA EoS seems to overpredict the two-
phase region compared to GERG EoS prediction. However, it is expected that the normal operating will
be outside of this region.

Figure 3—Phase Envelope for CO2 dry fluid base composition

Literature review [ref 2,3] indicates that GERG-2008 to be highly accurate for physical property
prediction for most binary and tertiary mixtures of CO2 with impurities. Density and viscosity predictions for
CO2 base fluid composition by all EoS at different operating condition were compared against GERG-2008
prediction and were summarized in Table 2. The density prediction shown less than 3% deviation for all
EoS except for operating condition at dense phase region where the deviation is within 8 to 10%. The
average absolute deviation (AAD) for density prediction by PR78A, RKSA and CPA EoS is 2.7%, 2.9% and
2.89% respectively where PR78 EoS showcase lowest AAD. Viscosity prediction for all EoS shown similar
OTC-34843-MS 5

prediction as all EOS using SuperTRAPP model for transport properties prediction in MULTIFLASH
software.

Table 2—Density and viscosity prediction comparison between

GERG-2008, PR78A, RKSA and CPA EoS for dry fluid base composition

Pressure Temperature EoS Density Difference to EoS Difference to

Parameter EOS Phase
(barg) (°C) (g/m3) GERG (%) Viscosity (cP) GERG (%)

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GERG-2008 0.09318 – 0.01798 -

PR78A 0.09477 1.713 0.01798 −0.002

65 Gas
RKSA 0.09335 0.191 0.01798 −0.002

Reservoir CPA 0.09335 0.186 0.01798 −0.002

48
condition GERG-2008 0.07548 - 0.01985 -

PR78A 0.07627 1.045 0.01985 −0.002

111 Gas
RKSA 0.07537 −0.140 0.01985 −0.002

CPA 0.07537 −0.146 0.01985 −0.002

GERG-2008 0.17740 - 0.01802 -

ITHP - PR78A 0.17997 1.447 0.01802 0.006

55 21 Gas
early life RKSA 0.17568 −0.969 0.01802 0.006

CPA 0.17569 −0.966 0.01802 0.006

GERG-2008 0.83391 - 0.08287 –

ITHP - PR78A 0.78472 −5.899 0.08290 0.041

90 21 Dense phase
late life RKSA 0.76205 −8.617 0.08290 0.041

CPA 0.76221 −8.598 0.08290 0.041

GERG-2008 0.00318 - 0.01458 -

CITHP - PR78A 0.00318 0.078 0.01458 −0.002

0.7 15 Gas
early life RKSA 0.00318 0.01876 0.01458 −0.002

CPA 0.00318 0.01287 0.01458 −0.002

GERG-2008 0.01953 - 0.01458 –

CITHP - PR78A 0.01962 0.457 0.01458 −0.002

9 15 Gas
late life RKSA 0.01955 0.101 0.01458 −0.002

CPA 0.01955 0.096 0.01458 −0.002

GERG-2008 0.65557 - 0.05338 -

Export PR78A 0.60164 −8.227 0.05340 0.043

150 55 Dense phase
condition RKSA 0.58844 −10.241 0.05340 0.043

CPA 0.58853 −10.226 0.05340 0.043

From this assessment, it was recommended to use GERG-2008 EoS to represent CO2 fluid
thermodynamic and physical properties in subsequent process simulation analysis as GERG EoS showcase
the most accurate prediction of CO2 thermophysical properties compared to experimental data. However,
GERG-2008 EoS is computationally demanding. If it is severely impacting simulation run time or causing
OLGA simulations to crash, PR78A is recommended especially for transient simulations as it produced the
lowest deviation to GERG-2008.
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Impact of non-condensable impurities in CO2 fluid

Presence of non-condensable gases will increase the bubble point pressure prediction of CO2 fluid. From
Figure 4 it can be seen the largest effect is from H2 followed by N2, Ar and CH4. However, with the presence
of these impurities the dew point line remained unchanged. This will reduce the single-phase operating
envelope causing the pipeline arrival pressure needs to be increased above the bubble point pressure to
maintain single phase transport throughout the pipeline. Apart from that, presence of non-condensable gases
in CO2 fluid will reduce the CO2 fluid density hence will impact the pipeline and storage site capacity.

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Therefore, the H2 amount shall be limited as low as possible.

Figure 4—Phase Envelope for CO2 fluid with non-condensable components

Impact of these impurities to the fluid thermodynamic and thermos-hydraulic behavior of the expected
CO2 fluid composition needs to be assessed to quantify the impact to design and operability of the pipeline.
Therefore, for pipeline hydraulic steady state analysis, sensitivity on the CO2 composition was performed
based on worst case composition as shown in Table 1 as it was taken as the lowest CO2 fluid specification
with only 96 mol% of CO2 and maximum H2 amount of 2 mol%.

Impact of water content in CO2 fluid

Presence of free water in CO2 rich fluid will cause severe corrosion issue. Using CO2 base fluid composition,
sensitivity on water dew point line and hydrate equilibrium line was performed at two different water content
which are 100ppm and 500ppm of water. The sensitivity was performed using three (3) different EoS;
PR78A, RKSA and CPA Infochem. From Figure 5, it was found that at both water contents evaluated, the
water dew point lines generated using CPA EoS is more conservative compared to PR78A and RKSA.
Therefore, CPA EoS was recommended to generate water dew point and hydrate equilibrium line for a
conservative prediction of water and hydrate formation and mitigation design of the pipeline.
OTC-34843-MS 7

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Figure 5—Water Dew Point Line Comparison

Figure 6 shown the pipeline operating envelope, during normal operation where the dense phase CO2
with 500ppmv water can be transported via pipeline with arrival pressure of 65 barg without any risk of free
water and hydrate formation as the ambient seawater temperature in Malaysia is high, where the minimum
temperature is 18°C. The water solubility in CO2 fluid is at least 2000ppmv under this operating condition.
However, risk during transient event especially during start-up operation must be further evaluated. Due to
the significant corrosion risk, ice formation and hydrate issue which could cause pipeline blockage, it was
proposed such that the water concentration should be kept as low as practicable ∼50 ppm. Based on past
project experience it is possible to achieve this specification with the use of solid desiccant dehydration units
such as molecular sieves, however there is a high CAPEX/OPEX cost associated with this equipment. A
structured technology selection evaluation is required to assess the optimum dehydration system that result
in the best lifecycle outcome.

Figure 6—Water and Hydrate Risk Assessment for Base Case Fluid Composition

Impact of H2S and Mercury (Hg)

It was observed that Hg content up to 500ppb and H2S up to 500ppm have negligible impact to CO2 Vapour
Liquid Equilibrium (VLE) & thermophysical properties prediction. However, these components may pose
health and safety risk to people or environment over an extended period, hence their presence in CO2 rich
fluid should be limited as per ISO guideline.

Pipeline Steady State Analysis

A summary of the pipeline sizes selected for each development theme is shown in Table 3. The inlet pressure
of the pipeline was limited to 200 barg and taken as the Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure (MAOP)
of the pipeline. With a margin of 15%, the design pressure of the pipeline was estimated to be 230 barg and
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is within the pressure rating of a 1500# pipeline. This is based on highest operating experience in industry
as per internal guidelines.

Table 3—Hydraulic Pipeline Sizing

Capacity Achievable
Theme Capacity (MTPA) Export P (barg) ITHP (barg) PL Size (inch)
(MMscfd) ITHP (barg)

1 1.19 64 10 160

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2 1.7 91 55 (Early Life) 10 130
200
3 8.3 444 90 (Late Life) 18 112

4 11.84 633 22 135

From Figure 7, the pipeline arrival pressure for CO2 fluid base case at injection platform is proposed to
be at least 65 barg during early injection life to maintain single phase transportation in the pipeline. The
pressure will be choke down to required ITHP of 55 barg and the resulting temperature downstream of
choke valve will be verified within the proposed piping and tubing Minimum Design Metal Temperature
(MDMT). For worst case fluid, the arrival pressure needs to be increased to at least 85 barg to ensure single
phase transportation in the pipeline. No change is anticipated in pipeline size required to operate at this
higher arrival pressure since the selected pipeline size has been evaluated for higher arrival pressure of 90
barg during late injection life. JT cooling across the choke valve need to be validated and ensure that the
temperature is higher than selected piping and tubing MDMT.

Figure 7—CO2 fluid pipeline operating envelope

Result of pipeline sizing may differ if ITHP prediction are higher than data provided during feasibility
study stage. Based on maximum operating pressure of 200 barg at the inlet of pipeline, sensitivity was
performed to determine the achievable ITHP based on the selected Theme's pipeline size. All arrival
pressures show there is ample margin in the achievable ITHP if the required ITHP increases from the
feasibility stage data proving that the selected pipeline size is robust to injection pressure uncertainty. It
shall be noted that the results of the pipeline capacity analysis are highly dependent on the ITHP values used
in the study. As subsurface evaluation matures and more data is made available, it is imperative to rerun
and verify the pipeline sizes recommended from this study at later engineering phases of the project.
OTC-34843-MS 9

Conclusion & Recommendation

During feasibility study stage, several key data is undefined or uncertain. Sensitivity evaluations need to be
performed and engineering margins is required to provide conservatism for a robust development concept.
EoS evaluation is crucial to minimize design uncertainties. Level of impurities in CO2 fluid allowed to be
transported in the pipeline need to be proposed at the early stage to ensure optimum onshore gathering hub
processing, pipeline and injection facilities design as well as economic viability. Table 4 shown the proposed
CO2 fluid injection specification based on the study outcome during feasibility study stage with reference

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to ISO 27913 guidelines and other CCS projects.

Table 4—Proposed impurities limit in CO2 injection fluid

Components ISO 27913 Standards CCS Project Proposed Limit Justification

Northen Light –
Economy of Export Compression
CO2 > 95 mol% 99.95 mol% Kasawari > 95 mol%
System & Pipeline design
CCS – 85-90 mol%

Northen Light <50 ppm Impact on Compression System

H2 < 0.75 mol% < 1.0 mol%
Aramis < 0.75 mol% Design, VLE, H2 embrittlement

N2 < 2 mol%
To maintain single-phase transportation
CH4 <4 mol%, total for all < 4 mol%, total for
in the pipeline. Presence of
non-condensable gasses - all non-condensable
volatile components increase
<4 mol%, total for all gasses including H2
Ar CO2 fluid bubble points pressure
non-condensable gasses

Hydrocarbon content should have dew point

C2+ <2.5 mol% Gorgon: 0.3 −1.5 mol% < 2.5 mol% such that condensation in the pipeline does
not occur within the operating condition

Manage Hydrate, Ice

H2O < 200 ppm Northern light < 30 ppm < 100 ppm
formation & Corrosion

CO < 0.2 mol% Northen Light < 100 ppm < 1000 ppm Stress Corrosion Cracking

H2S < 200 ppm Northen Light < 9 ppm < 10 ppm Sulfur Stress Cracking

NOx < 50 ppm Northen Light < 10 ppm < 10 ppm Corrosion

SOx < 50 ppm Northen Light < 10 ppm < 20 ppm Corrosion

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Company technical authorities, project teams and Consultants for the
support and guidance throughout the execution of this work.

References
1. ISO 27913 - Carbon dioxide capture, transportation and geological storage — Pipeline
transportation systems.
2. CALSEP report "Accuracy of PVTsim Nova simulation results for CO2 with impurities"
3. Byeong Soo Shin, Won Gu Rho, Seong-Sik You, Jeong Won Kang, Chul Soo Lee (2018) -
Evaluation of Thermodynamic Models for Predicting Phase Equilibria of CO2 + Impurity Binary
Mixture
4. Chapoy et al, "Effect of impurities on thermophysical properties and phase behaviour of a CO2-
rich system in CCS", International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 19, (2013), 92–100.