Carbon Sequestration and CTL
Technology in West Virginia
West Virginia GIS Technical Center
Evan Fedorko
Outline
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Fischer-Tropsch CTL
Spatial data development
Sequestration inquiry tool development
http://www.WVCarb.org
Site Rating Model development
Fischer-Tropsch CTL
• Aka, coal liquefaction, coal to liquids, CTL
synfuels, etc. Two primary methods:
TWO:
ONE:
Data Development
• Infrastructure Data
• Sequestration Data
– Source: WVGES
• Sequestration potential per unit area
• Will be implemented into NatCarb.org
CTL Infrastructure Requirements
• Standard stuff: electricity, roads, coal supply,
etc.
• Water, water, water! $$$ to move!
• Carbon sequestration proximity. $$$ to move!
• Existing pipelines.
Natural Gas Sequestration
Deep Coal Sequestration
Sequestration Per Unit Area
• Source data: shapefile polygons – blobs with a
number attribute of capacity
• At a specific point…
• How much carbon dioxide
can be sequestered
within X distance?
• Problems!
Sequestration Per Unit Area
• To develop this tool, we must undergo raster
conversion.
• Total sequestration (metric tons) must be
converted to:
• Metric tons PER 90m pixel
• S per 90m = sequestration/(area sq. m/8100)
• 90 meter pixels result in values within ~2% of
actual.
Tool Development
• Data development has been driven by the
need to answer this question:
• “How much carbon can we put in the ground
within 10 miles of THIS point?”
Sequestration Explorer
Website Development
http://www.wvcarb.org
Ratings Development
• Goal: To rate (1-100) sites in West Virginia for
their suitability to host a CTL facility.
• Model will be scripted, repeatable, and
variables can vary as necessary.
• Model is constructed around weighted
distance decay functions.
– Carbon sequestration decays by distance, volume
and economic value.
– Infrastructure decays by distance and cost.
Ratings Development
• Rating sequestration “neighborhoods”
•• Option
Option1:
2:given
givenaaneed
needfor
fora
predetermined
a predeterminedamount
amountofof
sequestration,
what
sizeof
sequestration (10
years
neighborhood
doand
we several
need?
CTL production),
• Use radius
in a(1,distance
neighborhood
sizes
5, 10,
decay function
20 miles),
which sites offer
Difficult
to calculate
the •MOST
sequestration
in
Statistically over-values
the •SMALLEST
sequestration variables
neighborhood?
Ratings Development
• Sequestration
X = cost per mile
Z = oil > coal > gas
•
can be retrieved with an existing GIS
function, neighborhood analysis, focal statistics.
Calculates a sum within a neighborhood.
– Somewhat resource intensive to calculate
Ratings Development
• Infrastructure
• Sequestration
X = cost per mile
Z = oil > coal > gas
Ratings Development
• Final ratings equation, sum of all weights:
D-R-A-F-T
Future Work
• Inclusion of a “click and rate” tool for potential
CTL sites
• Model refinement
• New research into distance metrics for
sequestration
• “New energy economy” data clearinghouse
Summary
• We discussed:
– Spatial data development
– Sequestration inquiry tool development
– http://www.WVCarb.org
– Site Rating Model development
Questions?