Technical potential and abatement costs associated with the use of process emissions from sugarcane ethanol distilleries for EOR in offshore fields in Brazil

This study evaluates the technical feasibility and the abatement costs of the use of CO2 that is generated by the fermentation of ethanol produced in the South-Central region of Brazil to perform enhanced oil recovery using CO2 (CO2-EOR) in oil fields of the Campos basin. This mitigation alternative includes the capture of CO2, its transportation to the location of use and injection. The fermentation of ethanol produces a high concentration stream of CO2 and therefore has a low cost of capture. The technical feasibility analysis demonstrates the potential to use approximately 80% of the CO2 that is emitted by the distilleries. The abatement costs vary with the costs of dehydration, compression and injection of CO2 and with the type of investor in the CO2-EOR infrastructure, which could be an oil company or a set of distilleries. When an oil company invests in the EOR infrastructure, the average abatement cost is approximately US$ 200 per tonne of CO2. When distilleries are the investors, the average abatement cost is approximately US$ 350 per tonne of CO2. This disparity is because the revenue from selling the oil that is produced by EOR is much higher than the revenue from selling the CO2 at the wellhead.