Decarbonising Offshore Production: Application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Methodology to a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) System for a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Unit

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a detailed LCA methodology and real data for CCS on offshore floating platforms, useful for further system optimization and comparative studies.

🏢実務担当者:Demonstrates a viable pathway to reduce offshore production emissions by ~88% using CCS, relevant for oil & gas companies evaluating decarbonization options.

🏛政策担当者:Quantifies environmental benefit and payback period of CCS, supporting policy incentives for offshore CCS deployment.

Abstract Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a crucial technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in hard-to-abate sectors, including offshore oil and gas operations. This work provides a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a Carbon Capture and Storage system integrated on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit to treat the flue gases generated by the onboard power generation. The scope includes both topside installation and subsea infrastructure for transporting CO2 to the storage site. The assessment quantifies emissions from construction and operation over 25 years, evaluating the environmental performance of the entire CCS system as a decarbonization solution for offshore production fields. The study has been structured into the following key phases: System layout analysis to identify the main building blocks.Definition of the system's life cycle phases.Establishment of system boundaries.Design of the system and data collection from various departments.Execution of the LCA and computational analysis. The first 3 steps ensure proper analysis boundaries and avoid missing environmental impacts. System design focused on collecting and calculating technical data—such as weights, materials, and construction times—for all CCS components. The LCA was performed using the midpoint approach and Global Warming Potential over 100 years (GWP100) metric, covering the entire system lifecycle from component fabrication to operation, and adopting a cradle-to-gate perspective for greenhouse gas emissions quantification. The findings provide a comparative evaluation between the investigated system's performance before and after the CCS plant implementation. Moreover, considerations are made quantifying CO2-eq emissions generated throughout the plant's lifecycle in relation with its storage capacity. Considering the results, it can be asserted that the implementation of carbon capture and storage systems for the decarbonization of offshore oil and gas production sites represents an efficient and effective solution. Comparing the emissions generated from the same system before and after CCS implementation, the net CO2-eq emissions reduction results in 87.9% less. Furthermore, even though the construction and operation of such facilities result in notable CO2-eq emissions, the hourly storage capacity of an average-performance CCS system ensures that the additional emissions associated with the installation of such infrastructure are offset within a reasonable and relatively short timeframe. The study of a real case application confirms that carbon capture and storage technology is one of the main solutions of a global strategy against climate change, and it can be immediately deployed for offshore applications. Indeed, while greenhouse gas emissions should be avoided whenever possible, hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as the offshore industry – which still play a significant role, particularly in the production of energy and raw materials – could achieve a substantially reduced, close to net-zero, climate impact through the implementation of CCS technologies.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.4043/36879-msfirst seen 2026-05-17 06:49:50 · last seen 2026-05-20 05:14:47