Cost model & CAPEX

Segments & booster stations

How the route cost and booster stations add up to total CAPEX.

With the diameter known, CO2GIS prices the route and adds booster stations where the pressure budget requires them.

Segment investment

Each segment’s pipe cost reuses the same COMET cell costs that drove the routing, weighted by the length crossed in each cell:

I_p = B_c \cdot D \cdot \sum \left( C_{\text{cell}} \cdot L_{\text{cell}} \right)

$B_c$ — standardised cost factor = 1357 €₂₀₁₀/m² (editable in the Price Estimation tab)
$D$ — diameter (m)
$C_{\text{cell}}$ — the COMET cost of each crossed cell
$L_{\text{cell}}$ — the length of route inside that cell (m)

Because $I_p$ reuses $C_{\text{cell}}$ , the least-cost route is, by construction, also the cheapest to build.

Cost year. With the default values ( $B_c$ = 1357, α = 0.547 M€/MW, β = 0.42 M€), all monetary outputs are in €₂₀₁₀ — the reference year of the COMET model. To work in current prices, replace these defaults with cost figures for your target year.

A note on $N$ . The $N$ inside $C_{\text{cell}}$ (the COMET formula) is counted differently at each stage. When building the cost surface for routing, it’s the number of road/rail features present in the cell — see the Crossings tab. When pricing the route, it’s recomputed as the number of actual intersections between the pipeline and those features in each cell — see the Price Estimation tab.

Segment length & boosters

A single segment can sustain a maximum pressure drop of 3 MPa. At the admissible $\Delta p / L = 0.02$ MPa/km, that caps a segment at:

L_{\max} = \frac{3\ \text{MPa}}{0.02\ \text{MPa/km}} = 150\ \text{km}

The maximum drop (3 MPa) and the admissible $\Delta p / L$ (0.02 MPa/km) are defaults you can change in the Price Estimation tab. The segment length is recomputed from them automatically — so 150 km is the default result, not a fixed limit.

Routes ≤ 150 km are a single segment. Longer routes are split into ≤ 150 km segments, with a booster station between each consecutive pair. Each booster’s compressor power and cost:

S_c = \frac{M \cdot \Delta p}{\rho \cdot B_{\text{eff}}}, \qquad B_{\text{eff}} = 0.75\ \text{(default, editable)}

I_B = \alpha \cdot S_c + \beta

with the compressor power $S_c$ in MW and the booster cost $I_B$ in M€ (€₂₀₁₀ with the default coefficients).

α = 0.547 M€/MW — variable cost: each additional MW of compressor capacity adds ~547 k€ (editable).
β = 0.42 M€ — fixed installation cost per station, independent of its size (civil, electrical, instrumentation) (editable).

Total CAPEX

I_{\text{total}} = \sum I_p + \sum I_B

Pipe segments dominate the total; boosters are a marginal share.

References

Segment pressure budget (max 3 MPa, admissible $\Delta p / L$ 0.02 MPa/km → the 150 km spacing) and the booster parameters ( $B_{\text{eff}}$ , the $I_B$ relation, α = 0.547 M€/MW, β = 0.42 M€): Seixas, J. et al. (2015). Roteiro Nacional para a Captura e Armazenamento de Dióxido de Carbono — CCS Roadmap Portugal. Universidade de Évora / Global CCS Institute. hdl.handle.net/10174/17160
Standardised cost factor $B_c$ and the underlying cost model: van den Broek, M. et al. (2013). Region Specific Challenges of a CO₂ Pipeline Infrastructure in the West Mediterranean Area. Energy Procedia, 37, 3137–3146. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2013.06.200

Next: Precise vs fast mode.