In the context of carbon reduction efforts, discussions evolve around hydrogen compression, as well as compression requirements related to CO2 capture, transportation and sequestration. In this paper, compression requirements for these applications are discussed.

CO2 is generated when fossil fuels are used. The study includes realistic descriptions of the necessary compressor designs for the compression of CO2 from the capture point to the pressures needed for transport. Pipeline considerations for the transport of CO2 are presented, together with the requirements for compressors in the pipeline transport and the subsequent sequestration. Realistic gas compositions, depending on the source of CO2 are provided, and used in the study.

The compression of Hydrogen, either as pure hydrogen, or as hydrogen-natural gas mixture, as well as considerations on transporting the gas in pipelines are studied next.

The use and creation of hydrogen imposes specific questions on the use of turbocompressors. These questions involve the requirement to compress hydrogen for significant pressure ratios, the impact of transporting hydrogen in pipelines, or by other means. Part of the discussion is also the location of blue hydrogen production versus green hydrogen production, based on the fact that transport of CO2 or natural gas requires less energy than the transport of hydrogen.

In the concluding discussion, the option of transporting hydrogen to a power plant versus transporting natural gas to said power plant, and transporting captured CO2 back to a sequestration site, is evaluated.

Introduction and Background

Greenhouse gas reduction hinges on the use of hydrogen, as well as CO2 avoidance, capture and sequestration [1,2,3]. In both cases, gas compression is necessary. The gas compression requirements associated have to address the fact that the challenges in compressing hydrogen are almost exactly opposite from the challenges of compressing CO2. This includes the fact that most compression duties in this field will usually not be for pure gases, but gases with a certain amount of other gases mixed in. In the case of CO2, many applications require operations in the supercritical region.

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