Carbon Sequestration and CTL Technology in West Virginia West Virginia GIS Technical Center Evan Fedorko

Outline Fischer-Tropsch CTL Spatial data development Sequestration inquiry tool development Site Rating Model development

Fischer-Tropsch CTL Aka, coal liquefaction, coal to liquids, CTL synfuels, etc. Two primary methods: ONE:TWO:

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

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 1: given a need for a predetermined amount of sequestration, what size neighborhood do we need? Use radius in a distance decay function Difficult to calculate Statistically over-values sequestration variables Radius = ? Option 2: given a need for a predetermined amount of sequestration (10 years of CTL production), and several neighborhood sizes (1, 5, 10, 20 miles), which sites offer the MOST sequestration in the SMALLEST neighborhood? R = 1, 5, 10, 20 miles Q = ?

Ratings Development Sequestration can be retrieved with an existing GIS function, neighborhood analysis, focal statistics. Calculates a sum within a neighborhood. – Somewhat resource intensive to calculate X = cost per mile Z = oil > coal > gas

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 – – Site Rating Model development Questions?