Aim of the consortium is to yield an understanding of the interplay between CO₂ sources, the CO₂ transport network and storage facilities within a shared grid of pipelines and reservoirs. For this purpose it is necessary to determine the qualities and compositions of the CO₂ emanating from various industrial sources of a regional cluster (power plants, cement factories, steel works and refineries), the quantities emitted and how the emissions of individual plants vary in time.

Based on the time series of the CO₂ streams fed into the cluster a common transport pipeline network can be designed. This design has repercussions for the control of the network, regarding the CO₂ injections allowed. The features of the source plants and the pipeline will be combined with the characteristics of the geological injection and storage in an overall model encompassing the whole chain from producers to the reservoir.

For the smooth operation of a pipeline network and a reservoir is essential to obtain an accurate balancing of the carbon stream flows from the producers. For this purpose a novel concept must be developed for large industrial facilities. The transshipment of the CO₂ stream by sea will also be studied, to address the option of offshore geological storage. For this purpose it is necessary to develop a plant that transforms the CO₂ to the desired condition before ship loading.

Furthermore, the sea handling of the shipped CO₂ will be investigated: through ambient warming undesirable evaporation and under certain conditions escape of CO₂ may occur. In addition, the allowable compositions and quantities of the CO₂ for geological storage need to be defined. This will highlight the operating conditions that will allow detailed design of the producing plants and the pipeline network and thus yield reliable cost estimations.

For the present research consortium further specialised partners have been added to the project partners of the completed project COORAL. The findings of COORAL will flow into CLUSTER.