ABB and Pace CCS partner to drive CCS growth

ABB has announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Pace CCS, a provider of engineering solutions for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) market.

Together, the two companies say they will apply their respective expertise to make it easier for industrial companies to implement CCS infrastructure by lowering the CAPEX and operational investment required to enter this market.

CCS involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from industrial processes and then transporting these from where it was produced, via ship or in a pipeline, to be stored underground. For countries to achieve their net-zero commitments, uptake by industry needs to grow 120-fold by 2050, according to McKinsey & Company analysis.¹ If successful, CCS alone could be responsible for reducing carbon emissions generated by the industrial sector by 45%, according to ABB.

“To date one of the biggest challenges to the mainstream adoption of CCS has been a lack of operational practice across the full value chain, but the combined expertise of ABB and Pace CCS can change this,” said Matt Healey, Chief Executive Officer of Pace CCS. “While companies can see the benefits of CCS, there is still a reluctance to make the investment without clear knowledge of how things will work on the ground, at every stage of the process.”

The ABB and Pace CCS partnership will address this through use of digital twin technology, which provides a virtual replica of a real, physical process or facility. The technology simulates the design stage and tests scenarios to deliver proof-of-concept to ensure the design is fit for purpose. This will demonstrate to their customers how they can smoothly transition into CCS operations. The companies say the solution will map out various scenarios, including subsurface modelling, and will incorporate ABB Ability OPTIMAX energy management system to forecast and manage power consumption.

“Carbon capture and storage is a critical component in accelerating the global decarbonisation agenda. While we add new, renewable energy sources into the mix, we will still need to access traditional energy infrastructure,” said Brandon Spencer, President of ABB Energy Industries. “We need to make these more sustainable, minimising emissions, and this can be achieved by taking the carbon dioxide they produce out of the atmosphere and into the ground for storage.”

ABB said it is committed to driving industrial energy efficiency, helping its customers reduce their annual carbon emissions by at least 100 megatons by 2030.

_{1. McKinsey & Company 2022, Scaling the CCUS industry to achieve net-zero emissions, <<https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/scaling-the-ccus-industry-to-achieve-net-zero-emissions>>}

Image credit: iStock.com/Leonid Eremeychuk