Ocean storage of the captured CO2 from fossil fuel burning is a possible option for mitigating the increase of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Moving-ship type of CO2 ocean storage is a concept whereby captured CO2 is delivered by ship to a site and injected into the deep ocean by means of a pipe suspended beneath a ship as it slowly moves through the water. In case of bad weather conditions, CO2 marine transport and operation on the sea should be adjourned although CO2 would be captured at the plant every day. It is, therefore, required that the system would have the buffer storage at the port and the extra shipping ability to recover the delay of schedule. Since the large scale of such spare capability might lead to the increase in cost, it is needed to investigate how to plan the system allowed for weather conditions reasonably. In this study, a time series model of sea state through one year is generated for a hypothetic ocean storage site, based on the wind data observed with satellite remote sensing, and simulations of CO2 marine transport and operation on the sea are carried out considering the operational limit of sea state. In this approach, the continuing bad weather days or the frequent occurrences of rough sea condition during the specific season are counted. Three kinds of system are applied for the simulations and compared; 1) CO2 carrier and release ship are used separately and moored tandem for CO2 shift at the site, 2) CO2 carrier and release ship are used separately and moored in parallel for CO2 shift, 3) ship is used as a CO2 carrier and release ship. The third one would not need mooring and CO2 shift operations on the sea which are sensitive to the sea state, but would need long- and every-time operation of pipe handling. The results are assessed as capital and running cost per tonne of CO2.

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