An integrated, institutional-grade carbon sequestration financial model for CCS infrastructure, covering construction, operation and financing across a fully flexible timeline — with three integrated statements, a cash waterfall, LCOC and complete lender metrics, built in Excel.

Carbon transport and sequestration is where captured emissions actually go. CO₂ taken off industrial processes and power generation has to be moved and then stored permanently underground — and that infrastructure is a business in its own right, distinct from the capture plant it serves. It earns a tariff for taking CO₂ off emitters’ hands, carries enormous upfront capital cost, and operates over decades. Financing it is a project finance problem, not a corporate one.

This carbon sequestration financial model was built to hold that structure properly. It helps organisations evaluate the financial feasibility of transporting and sequestering carbon emissions from a range of industrial sources, capturing every essential input across construction, operation and financing — and resolving them into the metrics a developer, sponsor or lender needs to reach a decision.

Alongside the standard project-finance suite — Project and Equity IRR and NPV, minimum and average DSCR, LLCR, PLCR, equity payback and a full cash waterfall — the model calculates the Levelised Cost of Carbon (LCOC), the figure that determines what tariff the infrastructure must charge to be viable.

LCOC: The Tariff Test

Returns tell you whether a project is worth building. The levelised cost tells you what it must charge. By spreading total lifetime cost across total lifetime tonnage handled, LCOC gives you a single per-tonne figure — the floor beneath any T&S fee you negotiate with emitters, and the number against which carbon pricing, tax credits and abatement alternatives are all judged.

Because this carbon sequestration financial model derives LCOC from the same assumption set that drives the cash flows, you can watch it move as you flex processing capacity, capital cost or utilisation — the variables that most often decide whether a CCS project proceeds to financial close.

Assumptions You Control

Every driver of viability is an explicit, editable input. The assumptions cover:

Lender & Investor Outputs

The model resolves your assumptions into the full set of metrics a financing decision turns on:

• Project IRR & NPV — returns to the project as a whole
• Equity IRR & NPV — returns to shareholders after debt service
• Levelised Cost of Carbon (LCOC) — cost per tonne across the asset’s life
• Minimum & Average DSCR — the coverage lenders scrutinise first
• LLCR & PLCR — loan life and project life coverage ratios
• Equity Payback Period — time to recover shareholder investment
• Cash Waterfall & Debt Service Profile — the full cascade of cash through the structure
• Integrated Financial Statements & Dashboard — income statement, balance sheet, cash flow and a fully linked dashboard

Two Phases, a Flexible Timeline and Three Scenarios

The model separates construction and operation cleanly, and lets you set the length and granularity of each — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual — independently. A precise monthly build can sit alongside an annual operating period, giving detail where it matters without an unwieldy file. That flexibility matters especially for CCS, where operating life often runs for decades beyond the build.

Every revenue and cost assumption can be entered across three scenarios and switched at a button. The debt funding drawdown carries three scenarios of its own — valuable when negotiating terms with financial institutions — and repayment can be profiled as annuity, even-principal or sculpted, each showing its impact on IRR immediately.

Who This Is For: The carbon sequestration financial model is built for anyone assessing the economics of permanent CO₂ storage:

• CCS and carbon infrastructure developers building the case for a transport and storage network
• Industrial emitters evaluating the cost of abatement against carbon pricing and alternatives
• Energy transition and infrastructure investors assessing returns and structuring equity
• Lenders and debt advisors testing coverage ratios and debt sizing on long-life assets
• Project finance advisors preparing bankable models for financial close

Why This Model

New to these metrics? Read an overview of the debt service coverage ratio. For a model built to your own specification, see our project finance advisory services, or browse the full range of PPP and project finance templates.