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ELCOGAS: Europe’s IGCC pilot CCS in Japan Review of 2008: Legal and regulatory developments First CCS laws are not poles apart CCS: where are we now? January / February 2009 Issue 7

CGGVeritas: land seismic monitoring for CCS The value of carbon oxides for CO2 storage UK Committee on Climate Change report: CCS is essential technology ccj7_32pages:Layout 1 21/01/2009 17:50 Page 2

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Contents Leaders CCS legal review of 2008 Calum Hughes and Catherine Burke of Martineau review the unfolding European CCS legislative structure and discuss some of the issues which will be of concern to CCS project investors and developers 2 First CCS laws are not poles apart British and Australian Federal and State governments passed the first laws for CCS at January/February 2009 Issue 7 the end of last year and an EU Directive is nearing adoption. In this article Richard Harwood, barrister, 39 Essex Street Chambers, London and Claire Smith, Senior Associate, Clayton Utz, Sydney set out the new laws and examine how far a common Carbon Capture Journal system of regulation is emerging 213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UK 4 www.carboncapturejournal.com Tel +44 (0)207 510 4935 CCS: Where are we today? Fax +44 (0)207 510 2344 Lord Ronald Oxburgh, Past Chairman, Shell Transport and Trading and President of the CCS Association, talks about how far we have come in the last year and what still Editor needs to be done Keith Forward 8 [email protected] Publisher Karl Jeffery Projects and policy [email protected] CCC report outlines UK plans to tackle climate change Subscriptions The Committee on climate change (CCC) in the UK has recommended a minimum [email protected] 34% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, with a 42% cut if a global deal is achieved. CCS is cited as an essential technology for these plans Advertising sales 12 Alec Egan Tel +44 (0)207 510 4944 UK CCS experts mission to Japan [email protected] A mission of UK experts was undertaken to Japan from 29 September to 3 October 2008, with support from the Science and Innovation Section of the British Embassy Tokyo. A wide range of discussions were held with officials from government departments, and public and private sector organisations 13 Carbon Capture Journal is your one stop information source for new technical Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute to be launched developments, opinion, regulatory and The Australian Government has begun plans to launch the Global Carbon Capture research activity with carbon capture, and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in January 2009 15 transport and storage.

Carbon Capture Journal print magazine is Separation and capture mailed to over 2,000 power company executives, government policy makers, Toshiba Corporation to build CO2 capture pilot plant investors and researchers, with a further Toshiba Corporation will install a post combustion capture pilot plant at Sigma 500-1000 copies distributed at trade Power Ariake Co. Ltd.’s Mikawa Power Plant, in Omuta City, Fukuoka, Japan 20 shows, as well as being downloaded approx. 2,000 times as a pdf. ELCOGAS - integrating IGCC with CCS ELCOGAS, a consortium shared by European utilities, is building the first pilot plant Subscriptions: £195 a year for 6 issues. To for CO2 capture and hydrogen production to be integrated in an operating 335 MW subscribe, please contact Karl Jeffery on IGCC plant 21 [email protected] Alternatively you can subscribe online at www.d-e-j.com/store Transport and storage

Front cover: Latest technology advances in land seismic monitoring for carbon capture The ELCOGAS and storage integrated Seismic offers a robust solution to the problem of monitoring geological CO2 IGCC carbon storage over time. By Jean-Louis Gelot, Country Manager Russia, CGGVeritas capture pilot 24 plant (see page 21) The value of carbon oxides Commercially valuable chemical compounds, such as synthesis gas, formaldehyde, methanol and acetic acid can be synthesized from CO2. Their production can be an aid in the deferment of the expense of carbon capture and sequestration. By Harrell Sellers, IBM Systems and Technology Group, and Michael Perrone, IBM Watson Research Center 27

Carbon capture journal (Print) ISSN 1757-1995 January - February 2009 - carbon capture journal 1 Carbon capture journal (Online) ISSN 1757-2509 ccj7_32pages:Layout 1 21/01/2009 17:50 Page 2

Leaders - legal and regulatory review CCS Legal Review of 2008

2008 has been the most important year to date in the development of the legal framework governing the implementation of CCS projects in the UK and Europe. In this article Calum Hughes and Catherine Burke of Martineau review the unfolding European CCS legislative structure and discuss some of the issues which will be of concern to CCS project investors and developers.

European CCS Directive and ration of the proposed storage site is required Alterations to the ETS Directive to obtain it such exploration may only be In January 2008 the European Commission performed by the holder of an exploration adopted a proposal for a Directive on the Ge- permit. ological Storage of Carbon Dioxide (the Exploration permits will be issued by CCSD). the member states and will give the holder It sets out a legislative framework an exclusive right to explore a fixed territo- which concentrates mainly on CO2 storage rial area for a fixed amount of time. There is but, despite the narrow title, also addresses no indication given in the CCSD that the par- CO2 capture and transportation. ty carrying out the data collection, analysis, In December 2008 the European Par- etc. will have exclusive rights over the data liament (EP) approved the CCSD subject to it collects and the granting of an exploration certain amendments. These have been agreed licence does not guarantee that a storage per- by the Commission and the CCSD is likely mit, allowing the licensee to operate the site, to become law in early 2009. will be granted. The CCSD is intended to remove legal Following the EP’s recent amendments, obstacles to CCS in Europe and provide a the exploration licensee will be given ‘prior- clear legal structure in which CCS projects ity’, under certain circumstances, in the can be developed. The fine detail of CCS granting of an operation licence for the site “The emerging legal framework for the law will vary from member state to member which they have explored. It seems likely governance of CCS projects must be seen as a state and any organisation developing CCS that typical oil and gas concession licensing positive step towards the realisation of this within the EU will need to consider these models will be followed and exploration li- essential technology.” - Calum Hughes, trainee solicitor, Martineau variations. censees will be given first refusal of opera- The CCSD governs CO2 storage in the tions licences. onshore and offshore territories of the Euro- However, some commentators have pean member states but it also prohibits CO2 suggested that the intention of the CCSD’s geological storage by EU member states be- wording in this area is to leave the way open Member State to provide the Commission yond specified geographical boundaries. for a state funded exploration phase and sub- with that draft permit. An operation licence The intended effect of this prohibition sequent leasing of storage sites to operators. cannot be issued until either, the Commis- is not entirely clear. It could be to prevent It remains to be seen how the various sion’s opinion has been received, or the four the export of CO2 for sequestration outside member states will use the legislative flexi- months time limit is up, and there is there- the EU, or to prevent storage sites inside Eu- bility given by the CCSD when drafting their fore no restriction on how long the licensing rope with boundaries extending past EU bor- national legislation but it is difficult to con- process might take. ders from being used, or possibly both. ceive of private investors undergoing the ex- This will be a crucial issue for those Whatever the case, clarification will be pense of finding and proving the suitability scheduling CCS projects and prudent poten- important for projects close to the edge of of a storage site without either being paid or tial investors are likely to allow for addition- EU territories (including offshore territories) having the prospect of obtaining rights in re- al delay, and additional cost, unless the re- and any projects where export from, or im- lation to its exploitation. view procedure timescales are clarified. port into, the EU is proposed. Once a storage site has been approved The CCSD also deals with two of the A large portion of the CCSD addresses its operator will require a storage permit. Ini- largest financial risks in CCS projects: the the selection, evaluation and permitting of tial proposals for the CCSD gave the Euro- liability for leaks and maintenance of the site CO2 storage sites. Member states are free to pean Commission powers to review and re- after injection of CO2 ceases; and the choose the areas within their territories from ject applications for storage permits. achievement of the conditions precedent to which potential storage sites will be selected This met with opposition and the Com- the eventual hand-over of the closed site, but in doing this should consider the require- mission’s right to reject has been removed along with its associated liabilities, to the ment that any selected sites must pose no although the right of review remains. Sensi- state. significant risk of negative environmental ef- bly, time limits on the Commission review Storage permit obligations on operators fects, CO2 leakage or detriment to human process have been applied by the EP, but the will include the provision of monitoring, health. application of these is indefinite. corrective measures and post-closure plans The CCSD requires that the level of The Commission is required to issue its and there is a requirement for the provision these risks be assessed using geotechnical opinion on an application within four months of financial security to cover the associated data in the categories it prescribes. Where of receiving a draft storage permit but there post closure costs as well as the cost of any this data is not already available and explo- is no limit on how long is to be taken for the leaks.

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Exactly how the value of these securi- ties will be calculated is not yet clear. Trans- fer of responsibility for closed sites to the state can only occur once evidence has been provided that the stored CO2 is completely contained for the indefinite future. What evidence will be required before a member state becomes obliged to accept hand-over of, and the ongoing liability for, a closed storage site from an operator is also unclear. What is clear is that the level of risk chosen as acceptable for the selection of a storage site: that ‘there is no significant risk of leakage’ is lower than that required for the hand-over of the site to the state: that CO2 will be ‘completely and permanently con- tained for the indefinite future’. The recent EP amendments have also added that there shall be no transfer of a site until the end of a non-specified term, to be determined by the member state, and unlike- Carbon storage pilot projects around the world (Image ©CO2CRC) ly to be less than 20 years, and that the oper- ator shall have made an ‘financial contribu- tion’ to the member state. comprehensively environmental risks and The Act does not require that the party These are sure to be key issues for those the permitting of CCS operations, it places carrying out the activities hold a licence; a considering venturing into a CCS project in all the concomitant financial cost and risks licence holder could appoint a third party to Europe. entirely with the project developer and carry out the licensed activities provided it Another point of financial interest as- avoids the partial distribution of these to it- ensures the licence conditions are not sociated with the CCSD is that it refers to self or the member states. breached. It should be noted however, that, the inclusion of CSS within the EU Emis- There are opportunities for these bur- although it is not mentioned in the Act, if li- sions Trading Scheme (ETS) post 2012. This dens to be minimised when the CCSD is cences are to comply with the CCSD, they inclusion has been presented by many as transposed into national law and how far this will have to apply conditions as to the per- recognising, for the first time, that a plant fit- is done will be of key importance to the sonnel actually managing and operating the ted with CCS can take credit for the CO2 it speed at which CCS projects obtain sanction. site and their competence. stores. In addition, while there is no specific However, the existing ETS system does UK Energy Act provision in the Act for separate exploration not require carbon credit surrender unless The Energy Bill received royal assent and and operation licences to be issued, it would CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. CO2 became the Energy Act on 26 November seem that such separate licences will be re- capture would prevent such emissions and 2008. The sections dealing with CCS have quired if the licensing system under the Act avoid this requirement whether or not CCS not yet been brought into force, but when is to meet the requirements of the CCSD. is explicitly within the scheme. this is done they will introduce a licensing The terms and conditions imposed by Therefore, the inclusion of CCS in the regime for the storage of CO2 in UK waters the licence are entirely at the discretion of ETS actually only ensures that there is a and the associated exploration and construc- the Secretary of State but there are some in- penalty, and therefore deterrent, applied to tion works. dicators in the Act of what these might be. leaks from CO2 storage sites in the form of The Act does not deal with CO2 cap- In general the suggestion is that the increas- a requirement to furnish carbon credits com- ture or transportation or onshore storage. It ingly typical risk management model com- mensurate with such leaks. is also worth mentioning that the Act is not prising: operator provided financial security While a deterrent against leaking sites pursuant to any European legislation and to cover licence obligations; continuing op- is obviously required for environmental pro- does not cover all of the provisions of the erator responsibility after site closure; and tection, the financial burden that underwrit- CCSD. the eventual hand-over of the site, and its ob- ing this risk will place on a project budget is Therefore, additional UK law will be ligations, to the state, will be followed. enormous, and could have been reduced, or needed to comply with the CCSD once it en- The Act makes it a criminal offence to at least better quantified. ters into force. Nevertheless, in the areas that breach the conditions of a licence, or to car- There are several other key issues it does cover, the Act appears to conform to ry on activities which require a licence if a raised by the CCSD but, overall, it seems the requirements of the CCSD and should licence has not been issued. Where licence clear that the EU recognises that its UN ob- not therefore require modification once the provisions are not complied with, directions ligations with respect to Greenhouse Gas CCSD is law. can be made for corrective measures and ,if (GHG) reduction will not be achieved with- The Act is worded very broadly and these are not complied with by the licence out CCS and it wishes to facilitate CCS de- provides that CO2 storage and related activ- holder, the licensing authority is empowered velopment in Europe. ities shall not be carried out except in accor- to have the measures carried out and recover However, while the CCSD addresses dance with a duly issued licence. the costs from the licence holder.

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Certain, as yet undefined, data relating to be specified by the Secretary of State. for the Kyoto protocol; and the recent to each storage site will be held on a public Given the potential role of EOR in the fi- amendments to Australian legislation to in- register. There is a requirement that informa- nancing of early CCS projects it should be corporate CCS. tion unreasonably prejudicial to any party’s hoped that clarity on this issue is provided commercial interests should not be held on as soon as possible. Conclusions the register, but it remains to be seen what The fact that the UK is pushing ahead The emerging legal framework for the gov- information will be considered to fall within with CCS legislation before the CCSD is ernance of CCS projects must be seen as a this category. adopted in final form gives a strong indica- positive step towards the realisation of this The Act addresses the issue of CCS in- tion that the UK government recognises the essential technology. The CCSD and Energy stallation decommissioning costs by apply- importance and potential of CCS and wishes Act provide adequately for workable licens- ing the rules for abandonment of oil and gas to be pro-active in encouraging the indus- ing regimes and the protection of the envi- installations contained in the 1998 Petroleum try’s development. However, as with the ronment. However, the legislation as it Act. This will require the submission, upon CCSD, the detail is not yet present to allow stands is not drafted to give financial pre- request, of an acceptable abandonment pro- those developing project budgets to ade- dictability to those preparing budgets for gramme and the subsequent carrying out of quately quantify some large line-item costs CCS projects and seeking funding. the programme. with sufficient confidence, particularly with Unlike the oil and gas case however, respect to post-closure risks. the Act does not provide for the abandon- About the authors ment provisions to cover for submarine International legislation Calum Hughes has 20 years experience pipelines. This omission may be addressed Internationally there is also a great deal of in engineering and the project manage- once the CCSD becomes law. positive legislative activity: modifications of ment of upstream oil and gas and gas stor- The interaction of CCS with oil and gas international marine legislation to remove le- age projects and is currently completing operations is also vaguely dealt with in the gal barriers to sub-sea CO2 storage; progress his training as a Solicitor at Martineau. Act. Carbon storage for the purposes of en- in the debate regarding the inclusion of CCS Catherine Burke is a partner in the En- hanced oil recovery (EOR) falls within the into the Kyoto flexible project mechanisms; ergy and Projects team at Martineau. auspices of the Act only in circumstances yet the continued development of a replacement

First CCS laws are not poles apart

British and Australian Federal and State governments passed the first laws for Carbon Capture and Storage at the end of last year and a European Union Directive is nearing adoption. This article sets out the new laws and examine how far a common system of regulation is emerging. By Richard Harwood, barrister, 39 Essex Street Chambers, London and Claire Smith, Senior Associate, Clayton Utz, Sydney

The draft European Union Directive and the Council of member states. The Di- Marine Environment of the North-East At- In January 2008 the European Commission rective is therefore likely to be adopted lantic (OSPAR Convention) have only been proposed a European Union Directive on soon. amended to permit CO2 storage in sub- Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide. The seabed geological formations rather than the directive will provide for carbon capture to United Kingdom Energy Act 2008 water column itself. be regulated by Integrated Pollution Preven- The British government is proposing off- The licensing authorities will be the tion and Control and pipeline transport and shore carbon storage in a process licensed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate storage would be subject to Environmental by the Energy Act which was enacted on Change and the Scottish Ministers. As the Impact Assessment. 26th November 2008. government owns the seabed within United New large combustion plants will have The use of a ‘place in, under or over’ Kingdom waters the expectation is that the to be carbon capture ready. However the the territorial sea or waters in a Gas Impor- operator will also enter into a Crown lease. main purpose of the Directive is to create a tation and Storage Zone for the storage of Installing carbon capture equipment new regulatory regime for on-shore and off- CO2, or conversion of any natural feature and any requirement that combustion plants shore carbon CO2. there for such storage or exploration will re- are carbon capture ready will be dealt with The aim of geological storage will be quire a licence. by development consent and IPPC regimes. ‘permanent containment of CO2 in such a Gas Importation and Storage Zones On shore power station projects above 50 way as to prevent or reduce as far as possi- will be designated in the UK’s ‘Exclusive MW will now require development consent ble negative effects on the environment and Economic Zone’. under the Planning Act 2008 rather than any resulting risk to human health’. Whilst the Act allows storage ’in’ the Electricity Act consent. Waste and water directives will be sea, the relevant international conventions Smaller projects may obtain planning amended to permit CO2 storage. On 17 De- (the Convention on the Prevention of Ma- permission from local authorities. There is cember 2008 the European Parliament rine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and no specific UK regime for on-shore carbon adopted the proposal with amendments Other Matter (1972 London Convention) storage, but it could be promoted as under- which had been agreed by the Commission and the Convention for the Protection of the ground gas storage under the Planning Act

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3rd Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Value

February 26-27, 2009 Hilton Brussels Brussels, Belgium

Platts 3rd Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage conference will once again assemble the CCS community to debate the structural challenges faced, discuss and review CCS projects in their various stages and look to uncover opportunities in what will become a changed regulatory environment to ensure CCS lives up to its potential.

Event Highlights Include: I Delivering the new EU regulatory framework I Project progress reports from Shell, BP Alternative Energy, E.ON Energie, RWE Power, TOTAL, Vattenfall Group, StatoilHydro ASA, Hydrogen Energy and ConocoPhillips European Power I Overcoming the obstacles needed to successfully deploy CCS

Hear From the Following Organisations: Bellona Europa aisbl, Bluesource, BP Alternative Energy, Carbon Capture & Storage Association, CCS Rapporteur, CERES, Climate Change Capital, ConocoPhillips European Power, E.ON Energie, Greenpeace, Hydrogen Energy, Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), Platts, Pöyry Energy Consulting, RWE Power, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Shell International Petroleum Company Limited, StatoilHydro ASA, TOTAL, US Department of Energy, Vattenfall Group

Executive Sponsor: Networking Reception Sponsor: For more information quote 'CCJAD' and contact: Stacey Knox [email protected] +44(0)-20-7176-6226 www.events.platts.com ccj7_32pages:Layout 1 21/01/2009 17:50 Page 6

Leaders - legal and regulatory review

2008 or, for smaller schemes, under the Gas Act 1965 or planning applications. Howev- er the British government does not present- ly support on-shore storage.

Australia – Federal – Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Greenhouse Gas Storage) Act 2008 Australia has been a little quicker than the UK and Europe on introducing carbon stor- age legislation both offshore and on-shore. On 21st November 2008 the Australian Federal Parliament approved the Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Greenhouse Gas Storage) Act 2008. The legislation is extremely detailed (comprising 444 pages of amendments) and applies to waters between the 3 mile nauti- cal limit and outer limit of continental shelf. Initially the greenhouse gas to be regulated is CO2 but other substances could be en- Didcot power station in the UK where a carbon capture test facility was opened last year compassed in the regime. (Image ©RWE Npower)

Australian – States – Western How the CCS regimes will function The Queensland Bill also allows permit Australia, Victoria, South Australia It is useful to consider how the European, holders to apply to the relevant minister for and Queensland Australian and British laws deal with major a declaration to preserve their interests for The first project specific legislation incor- issues which will arise: licensing; protection up to 10 years. The draft Directive does not porating CO2 injection and storage activi- of other interests; site closure; financial se- have a dormant period, but the UK envisages ties was adopted by Western Australia in the curity; compensation for those affected by this could be done by a Crown lease. Barrow Island Act 2003. CCS activities, penalties and long-term lia- This implemented an agreement be- bility. Protection of other interests tween the State government and a joint ven- There is a danger of conflict between carbon ture for a gas processing project on Barrow Licensing storage and other interests, particularly ex- Island. It provides that ministerial approval All the legislation provides for licensing of isting petroleum titles. is required for the injection of CO2 into un- exploration, site preparation and storage ac- The draft Directive was amended by derground reservoirs. tivities. Usually permits will be granted for the European Parliament to ensure that the The first standalone carbon storage different stages, with the draft Directive dis- storage sites selected ‘should not jeopardise legislation in Australia was the Greenhouse tinguishing between exploration permits and other energy options such as renewables or Gas Geological Sequestration Act 2008 storage/injection licences. the security of the EU’s energy supply’ and passed by the State of Victoria on 5th No- In the European Union exploration per- to allow member states to preserve their eco- vember 2008. mits will be for three years, with a potential nomic interests in hydrocarbons. The Act states that its purpose is to ’fa- three year renewal, but Australian assess- Conflicting uses would be prohibited. cilitate and regulate the injection of green- ment or exploration permits will last be- In Australia the potential for adverse impacts house gas substances into underground geo- tween five years up to a maximum of twelve from greenhouse gas activities (e.g. drilling logical formations for the purpose of perma- years, indicating a difference between Fed- exploration wells or injection activities) on nent storage of those gases, including to fa- eral, Victorian and Queensland Government petroleum operations (or vice versa) will not cilitate and regulate the exploration for suit- views on how long the exploration phase necessarily be a sufficient reason for pro- able underground geological storage forma- should last. Federal and Victorian laws also hibiting them. tions, as part of Victoria's commitment to envisage the granting of special authorisa- If there are competing interests the Fed- the reduction of atmospheric greenhouse gas tions for particular investigations (e.g. seis- eral Government will encourage parties to emissions’. mic surveys and baseline investigations in- reach commercial agreements. Where that The State of Queensland’s Greenhouse volving well drilling) and a licence for in- is not possible, the Federal Government has Gas Storage Bill, released in December jection activities. included a "significant risk of a significant 2008, has a similar purpose, and is expected In comparison, the Queensland Bill impact test" in the Act to provide some in- to become law in 2009. The State of South proposes to regulate injection and storage ac- vestment certainty for greenhouse gas pro- Australia has amended its existing Petrole- tivities under a lease. The UK legislation is ponents and to protect petroleum titlehold- um Act 2000 to allow CO2 injection into more general, but a Crown lease may be re- ers. natural reservoirs. quired. This test is based on the probability of It is envisaged that installation of car- Australian Federal and Victorian Acts al- the adverse impact occurring and the eco- bon capture equipment (including retro- low the relevant minister to authorise an oper- nomic consequences of that impact such as fitting activities) will be dealt with under ex- ator to hold a potential site dormant between increased capital and operating costs or re- isting State and Territory environment and exploration and injection for up to 15 years duction in petroleum recovery or greenhouse planning regimes. until projects become commercially viable. gas injection rates or storage capacity.

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For greenhouse gas and petroleum ti- that the site is secure, a minimum of 20 years favour of any registered licence-holder if tles (created post-commencement of the leg- will have to elapse following closure before specific criteria are met. islation), protection is given to the first rights a site can be transferred. This is consistent In comparison, the Victorian Act and to be granted. Ultimately, the relevant min- with the Australian Federal Government's Queensland Bill are silent in respect of the ister will have the final say as to which ac- estimates. transfer of long-term common law liabilities tivity proceeds taking into account the pub- from the operator to the State and the Bar- lic interest. Financial security row Island Act contains an indemnity from The Victorian Act and Queensland Bill All regimes enable financial security to be the Joint Venture in favour of the Western adopts a similar approach, although in required for the future licence obligations, Australian government. Queensland the minister can approve a "co- including the final closure procedures and It remains to be seen whether State ordination arrangement" that deals with post-closure monitoring of the site. These Governments will amend their legislation to safety and the spatial relationship of each securities will need to be long term in nature, ensure consistency with the Federal Act. party. particularly given the prolonged periods be- A feature of the draft Directive is its fore responsibility can be transferred. Conclusion concern that access to permits and storage The first carbon capture and storage legisla- sites will be granted on a fair and open ba- Compensation for landowners tion has been enacted. Common issues have sis. Other companies should be able to use Storing any substance under a person’s land been identified and there are similarities in CO2 transport networks and storage sites, without their consent is trespass and a the general approaches. for payment, in accordance with certain cri- landowner would therefore expect to receive Much is likely to evolve in time as this teria, to prevent operators being shut out of some payment for allowing storage. Off- lawmaking is dealing with a technique which energy supply by a lack of CO2 storage ca- shore storage will usually be in seabed is not yet in use and many of the practical pacity. owned by the State itself, and the British and and scientific problems have yet to be ad- In Victoria the minister will be able to Australian Federal legislation both envisage dressed. grant access to storage facilities where com- that the right to store will be leased from the It would be a miracle if legislators had mercial agreements cannot be reached. Crown. successfully predicted and answered all the The Victorian law gives the Crown legal problems that lie ahead. Site closure and handover ownership of all ‘underground geological The closure of a site is the final cessation of storage formations’ more than 15.24 metres CO2 injection. However it must then be en- below the ground, without compensation to About the authors sured that the site is safe. That raises a ma- landowners. This mirrors the approach of Richard Harwood jor issue. The only entity able to monitor most states to the expropriation of oil and [email protected] and rectify sites over hundreds of years is a gas reserves. Richard is a national or international governmental body. Compensation is however payable to barrister at Private companies are unlikely to last resource authorities’ whose resources are 39 Essex that long, so ultimately sites have to become sterilised or landowners whose property is Street Cham- a state responsibility. Governments do not affected by the operations (including de- bers, Lon- though wish to pick up the costs of commer- creases in market value of the land). don. 39 Es- cial storage sites so the question arises as to In Queensland, occupiers may also be sex Street is when responsibility changes from the opera- eligible for compensation. The draft Direc- one of the top tor to the state. tive does not deal with landowner rights at ten barris- Broadly a storage licence, permit or all. UK legislation on onshore underground ters’ cham- lease can only be surrendered when the site gas storage requires landowners to be com- bers and has is safe (i.e. does not present a risk to public pensated if storage rights are compulsorily been award- health or the environment). The Australian acquired. ed Environmental and Planning Chambers Federal Act sets out a number of prescriptive of the Year for the last two years. Richard requirements that the minister can direct the Penalties and Long-term Liabilities is also a case editor of the Journal of Plan- licence-holder to do such as plugging or Each legislative regime has introduced a ning and Environmental Law. closing off any wells in the licence area range of offences and penalties for non-com- (whether or not they were made by the li- pliance but there is very little consistency. Claire Smith cence-holder) and undertaking various activ- The UK proposes unlimited fines and up to [email protected] ities to eliminate or mitigate the risk of 2 years imprisonment. Claire is a greenhouse gas leakage on other activities In Australia, the Federal Government Senior Asso- (e,g. fishing and petroleum operations) and has imposed a 5 year imprisonment sentence ciate at Clay- protect the environment and health and safe- for unauthorised exploration and injection ton Utz, Syd- ty. activities. In contrast, the State regimes on- ney. Claire The Victorian Act and Queensland Bill ly have monetary penalties with the pro- previously require the operator to have reduced storage posed Queensland bill envisaging a maxi- worked as an leakage risks to as low as reasonably practi- mum penalty of A$750,000 compared to a environment cable. The draft Directive requires all avail- maximum of only A$11,000 for offences un- counsel for able evidence to indicate that the stored CO2 der the Federal regime. BP plc on will be completely contained for the indefi- Long-term liability has been a hotly de- global envi- nite future. bated issue in Australia. The Federal Act in- ronment and climate change issues. Unless the member state is satisfied cludes an express indemnity provision in

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Leaders - CCS review CCS: Where are we today? In a presentation at The 2nd Annual European Carbon Capture and Storage Summit in London, Lord Oxburgh set out the progress made in 2008 and looked forward to some of the challenges ahead. Lord Ronald Oxburgh, Past Chairman, Shell Transport and Trading and President of the CCS Association The Cost Curve countries and do Lord Oxburgh began by looking at the McK- not have a lot insey abatement curve (right). Plotted verti- else.” cally is price in euros, going from 0-150, and “Given that plotted horizontally is a number which is gi- if you burn it in gatonnes of CO2, which goes out to 28. “On a power station, the McKinsey/Vattenfall calculation we need it is the most to be somewhere in the region of 30 Gt/year CO2-rich source saving by 2030,” he said. per unit energy “These columns represent a series of produced, clear- measures which can be taken to abate CO2. ly we have to do All the things over on the right have negative something about costs, so those are things that we should be coal. Not only doing already simply to save money regard- coal, but coal is less of saving CO2. On the left is a series of the main driver more expensive ways of saving carbon.” if we are going “I think McKinsey and Vattenfall would to control cli- be the first to say that you can criticise a great mate change and deal in detail about the numbers here, but I emissions.” things that are going to attract a great deal of think the broad scope of the thing is roughly attention here because, as I shall emphasise right. Carbon capture and storage appears in Carbon Capture Technology in a minute, the capture is the most expen- three places here: within enhanced oil recov- “Capture technology continues to move for- sive part of the operation and probably the ery (EOR), on new coal-fired and retrofitted ward, but on the other hand I think there is one where there is greatest scope for cost re- to existing power stations. Overall, this is still enormous scope for technical develop- duction.” based on getting about 3 Gt. Remember that ment here. We have pre-combustion, IGCC “There is a lot of work going on in new number because we are going to come back and oxyburn. We know that these are feasi- solvents. There is a very interesting approach to it later and I think it is probably too small, ble technologies.” by a Danish company, Novozymes, who be- for reasons that will emerge.” “Then we have post-combustion, large- lieve that they will be able to develop an en- “The one general point to make is if you ly today based on solvent extraction of CO2, zyme which will make the extraction process are in a situation where politicians are talk- you might think of using membranes, but in the solvent very much more efficient.” ing about this, there is sometimes a tendency there is a big footprint and this is the tech- “Of course, if it becomes much more ef- to think of this as a priority list, do the cheap nology which we will have to use, retrofitting ficient you can put the gases that you have to things first. Obviously, that is true. Over legacy coal-fired power stations, and it is treat through more rapidly and you can there- here to the left are things we ought to be do- worryingly space-consuming.” fore deal with smaller plant and reduce the ing anyway.” large footprint that I showed you a moment “However, the important thing to recog- EU carbon capture test facility ago to something much smaller.” nise is that the different columns have differ- “The Esbjerg DONG plant on the west coast “Their CEO spoke at a conference I at- ent time constants associated with them and of Denmark is where the EU CASTOR proj- tended a couple of weeks ago, would you be- if you want to do some of these things by ect built a solvent-based extraction system. I lieve in the Taj Mahal in Mumbai, of getting 2030 or 2020 you have to be starting now. It want you to concentrate on the area circled a 90% reduction in plant size; if that works, is not a time priority list at all, therefore, and around a big open space. The next slide fantastic.” it is important to remember that.” shows the plant after the CCS element has “There are other approaches. The sol- been put in and you can see that it increases vent approach is largely chemical, but one Aspects of the World Distribution of the footprint of the power station by about could also think of various physical ap- Oil, Gas and Coal 25%. That represents a space challenge and proaches as well.” “The thing you need to remember is that the obviously it represents a financial challenge reason that coal is so important is that it is as well. This is going to be a serious limita- Transport and Storage going to be burnt. Why is it going to be tion if we have to find that amount of space “I think transport and storage are pretty well burnt?” for every legacy power station where CCS is understood. You need pipeline networks and “Clearly, the USA, China and India are applied.” there are going to be people talking about that the three most energy hungry economies in today. There is a lot of experience of mov- the world and they have rather more than half New approaches ing around CO2 in the US where it has been of the world’s coal resources. The USA is “All of these techniques involve relatively used for enhanced oil recovery for over 30 undoubtedly going to burn that coal for rea- high additional capex and, of course, an effi- years.” sons of energy security and China and India ciency loss and we now have to ask whether “However, it is a major logistic chal- are going to burn it because they are poor there are new approaches. I think these are lenge. It is just a matter of getting everything

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right, getting your sources on time at the “This adds up to something like a 30% same time as your transport network so that increase in the cost of electricity. However, I Current CCS proposals people do not have temporarily stranded as- cannot emphasis too much the uncertainty of “If we look at the map on this slide, which sets.” these numbers, because no one has really comes from the Scottish Centre for Carbon “It is a big organisational role and in done this in anger and done it properly yet. Storage website, the balloons represent Britain this could be a serious practical limi- Some of these costs may turn out to be too places around the world where things are go- tation simply because there are major plan- high and some too low, but the point is that ing on and it represents quite a lot.” ning constraints and the long time taken for at costs like this it is going to be very diffi- “Thus we have made progress, but there construction. However I do not think there cult to see extensive development in the de- are areas in which we have to make a lot are likely to be many technical surprises here; veloping world and that is the real prize, as I more progress. First of all, how are we go- they are mostly organisational.” shall emphasise in a minute or two, because ing to pay for carbon capture and storage? “On storage, again there is a reasonably there you have to retrofit.” Ideally, it should cost emitters less to use car- good understanding of CO2 underground “Taking a Chinese power station and bon capture and storage than to pay the car- from the enhanced oil recovery and we have telling the operator, ‘We would like you to bon price, but of course the trouble is that at spoken about abandoned oil and gas reser- put on this kit which will mean that you will present CCS is relatively expensive and the voirs and saline aquifers. Using these tech- get less electricity from the fuel that you put carbon price is low.” nologies there is not a big technical chal- in and per unit tonne’ when he is selling into “For investment in CCS you have to lenge, there is just a great amount of work to a price-capped market does not look like a have a stable carbon price and it has to be rel- be done and knowing it can be done is not a winner. Therefore, these costs really do have atively high, probably around $60/tonne, reason for delaying it. Since we know how to come down.” something of that sort. The point is that by to do it, it should not be put off. That is go- the time you get this through market mecha- ing to take a lot of time and needs starting Where Are We Today? nisms it is probably going to be too late.” very soon.” “As I said at the beginning, we are a great “There are other approaches, of course. deal further on than we were this time last Why should government share cost? A number of countries are talking about us- year. There is an increasing EU commitment “Why should government share the cost? It ing deep sea ponds, shallow depressions on to carbon capture and storage.” is partly that the carbon price is uncertain and the ocean floor and putting high-density CO2 “A couple of months ago the Australian partly that there simply is no commercial in- liquid in those. It will probably turn rather government committed AUS$100 million per centive. However, there is also the urgency. rapidly into hydrate and sit there for quite annum to setting up a new global carbon cap- Implementation is necessarily slow, it is long lengths of time. That has not been re- ture and storage institute. Just a little over a heavy engineering, it is know-how and learn searched, but some countries may feel that week ago they held a meeting in London to by doing, it cannot be done fast.” they do not have an alternative.” discuss how this institute should be set up.” “In addition, early movers are carrying “There is also the possibility, which “The rationale given by Kevin Rudd, risks. They carry technology risks that what may be applicable in some countries, of re- their Prime Minister, who attended this meet- they are trying to do may turn out to be more acting hot CO2 streams with powdered sili- ing by video conference, was that something expensive or will not quite work as they want cates to produce carbonates and then you like a global institute on CCS is needed to it to. have materials that you can use for building”. spread experience and to get people talking Perhaps more importantly though, as “Long into the distant future I think the to each other. He said, ‘If we wait for the the technology moves on their kit is already Holy Grail here is to take the CO2 that you normal international processes to churn in place and other people can do it more are producing in these situations and artifi- away, take full course, we will set this thing cheaply, so there is a serious risk of stranded cially reproduce photosynthesis, because of up in five years time.’ assets. A variety of mechanisms could be course what plants do is pull CO2 from the ‘It is much better’, he said, ‘if we put used to support this, which I am not going to atmosphere, take water and fundamentally the money on the table now. We want it to talk about, but I am sure other people will to- they make complex organic molecules.” be global. We do not want it to be an Aus- day.” “This is what some chemists are now tralian thing, but we will finance it now and “Of course, the regulatory aspects are trying to do and if you could do that at pow- then we hope that it will be useful and other important. There has been a lot of work on er stations, the implications would go long, people will come in and it will be an interna- this and, indeed, a lot of progress, I have to long beyond carbon capture and storage. tional contribution operation and the Aus- say. Verification, liability for emissions es- There would be a whole new fuel source, a tralians can then fade into the background.’ cape, licensing, compliance, all of these whole new source of materials and what have That is an important new initiative.” things are making headway. In addition, you. These things have to be thought about “We also have the Vattenfall initiative there is the question of monitoring and the for the distant future.” at Schwarze Pumpe, which is now working. question of insurance.” It is an oxyburn initiative and on this slide is Capture Cost Estimates the site. They are taking something off the Scale of Future CCS Business - Trillion “The best study I think so far on the cost of stream of this larger power station. This is dollars per year all this is still the Climate Change Capital one the little bit that you can see in the picture. I “It is worth recognising how big this is going which was done a little over a year ago. As think that is a major step forward. It is only to be. Around about 8 Gt of CO2 are emit- can be seen on this slide, it shows the in- 30 MW, but it is doing the whole thing.” ted per annum today and if you assume that creased capex for capture. It increases the “We have a number of projects which the cost of CCS is round about $60/tonne and cost of the power plant by somewhere be- are much closer to fruition than they were last around about 50% of the available point tween 20% and 50%, the opex for capture year: one in Abu Dhabi, Mongstad in Nor- sources are captured and you do a little bit of somewhere between 10% and 30% and the way, and at Eston Grange in the UK, and a multiplication (you can use pretty much any efficiency loss the same.” number of others.” figure you like), you come out with some-

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thing that is close to a trillion dollars a year “As we went through the 1970s, 1980s business. That is not very different from the and 1990s, per capita use of energy rose very present oil industry.” slowly and then, suddenly, per capita use “If you look at the business shares of went up very rapidly and you can see where where this is going to go, you have the cap- China is today. You can see where the devel- ture and gas handling, which is going to be oped countries are, with just fewer than one power plant manufacturers, operators, and in- billion people but with roughly five times per ternational oil companies. You have trans- capita energy use of the Chinese today.” port, pipeline constructors, operators and “If you think about it, if you multiply a managers and again international oil compa- per capita use of energy by number of people nies.” you end up with an area which is proportion- “You have the storage site identification al to the energy use and because it is largely conventional market forces simply will not and management and that is going to be geo- fossil fuel, it is the emissions of the devel- deliver in time and therefore government in- logical surveys and international oil compa- oped countries. If you do the same for Chi- tervention is needed, partly to share the tech- nies. It could well be that carbon capture and na, it looks like that and you can see that to- nology risk, partly to share the risk of strand- storage becomes a major new business for in- day Chinese emissions are roughly half those ed assets, and partly to ensure that the appro- ternational oil companies.” of the developed world.” priate framework is in sight for the right in- “If we look at Chinese coal-fired plant frastructure to be built in time. This is a ma- Energy and Emissions building plans going forward to 2015 how- jor business opportunity for the oil industry “To drive home the importance of what we ever, Chinese emissions are comparable to and, indeed, many others, but the business are doing look at my penultimate slide (right) those of the developed world. Frankly, if that potential is massive.” in which I plot tonnes of oil equivalent, happens and the same thing happens in India amount of energy used per capita vertically and elsewhere, we are on a hiding to nothing Further information and population horizontally. It is a very un- in managing climate change, but if we apply From a presentation given on Tuesday 3rd usual slide, but it is worth paying some at- CCS it goes down. That is the goal.” December 2008 at The 2nd Annual Euro- tention to. I have this shown for China and pean Carbon Capture and Storage Summit you can see that in 1965 the per capita use of Conclusions in London. energy was very small and the population “My conclusions are, first of all, that there is www.cityandfinancial.com/ccs2 was just under 800 million.” an urgent global need for CCS. Secondly,

DURHAM UNIVERSITY

Department of Earth Sciences Professor in CCS and Geo-Energy

The Department of Earth Sciences and the Centre for Research into Earth Energy Systems (CeREES) seek a Geoscientist with an international reputation, proven leadership skills and vision to lead a research group in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), with a focus on storage. The individual will direct research efforts in this and other non-petroleum energy themes and thereby become a leader within CeREES. CCS is a new research initiative and the individual will be expected to coordinate research, set the vision and inspire fellow researchers. A proven track record in attracting funding from the private sector, research councils and from the EU are essential. Strengths in reservoir engineering, subsurface geoscience, low temperature geochemistry, seismic interpretation and other areas of Geo-energy research would be advantageous. You will be expected to undertake research of the highest international quality and to initiate and lead interdisciplinary research collaborations across Durham and external to the University. Furthermore you would be expected to contribute to the strategic vision for energy research within the university. You will also be expected to teach on undergraduate courses and be involved in the supervision and training of postgraduate students.

This post is jointly funded by Ikon Science and DONG Energy Please quote reference 2783 when applying Closing date: 25th February 2009 Further details of the post and an application form are available on our website (https://jobs.dur.ac.uk) or telephone 0191 334 6501; fax 0191 334 6504 ccj7_32pages:Layout 1 21/01/2009 17:51 Page 11 ccj7_32pages:Layout 1 21/01/2009 17:51 Page 12

Projects and Policy CCC report outlines UK plans to tackle climate change The Committee on climate change (CCC) in the UK has recommended a minimum 34% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, with a 42% cut if a global deal is achieved. CCS is cited as an essential technology for these plans.

The report highlights the need for a rapid de- buttressing the carbon price lever by estab- velopment of CCS and the emissions targets lishing a clear and publicly stated expecta- it proposes will make building new coal fired tion that coal-fired power stations will not power plants without CCS virtually impos- be able to generate unabated beyond the ear- sible after 2020. ly 2020s.” It calls for a virtual complete decarbon- “One way to achieve this would be to isation of the power sector by 2030, using a establish a requirement that coal-fired pow- range of option including renewables, new er stations cannot be built beyond a certain nuclear build and CCS. date without CCS (say 2020), that those built "CCS generation is an essential tech- before that date will be given a deadline for nology for reducing global emissions, but retrofitting CCS (say in the period 2020- needs to be developed rapidly. CCS will al- 2025), or that plants which choose not to ways be more expensive than conventional retrofit should be allowed to generate for a fossil fuel generation because of the addi- very limited number of hours.” tional process steps involved. But it is a tech- Alternatives could be: nically feasible solution and best estimates (i) to set emissions standards (i.e. com- suggest that it is likely to play a major role pany specific ceilings on the g/kWh emis- in a cost-efficient global abatement strate- sions from power generation) gy," says the report. (ii) to establish a floor price within the "It is now essential to invest in projects EU ETS. which demonstrate the effectiveness of vari- “These and other possible options war- rant further consideration.” ous CCS technologies in large-scale installa- tions, and which identify the feasible timescales and likely costs of extensive de- About the report Secretary of State to provide an opinion. ployment." The Committee on Climate Change was These include: It also mentions that the application of appointed in ‘shadow’ form in March • What should be the target for UK emis- new technologies such as CCS in cement and 2008, becoming a statutory committee on sions reduction by 2050? steel is likely to be feasible and economical- 1st December 2008 when the Climate • Whether budgets should cover CO2 ly viable. Change Bill became law. emissions, or all greenhouse gas (GHG) It sets out three budgetary periods, Its core function is to recommend what the emissions, including the relevant non- 2008-12, 2013-17 and 2018-22 and says that level of the UK’s ‘carbon budgets’ should CO2 gases CCS may be demonstrated to be economic be. These budgets are established by the • How far CO2/GHG emissions reduction towards the end of the last period. Climate Change Act and will define the should be achieved by domestic UK ac- "The contribution of CCS during the maximum level of CO2 and (potentially) tion, and what reliance on emissions re- first three budget periods [...] is likely to be of other greenhouse gases (GHG) which duction credits bought from other coun- limited given that this technology has not yet the UK will emit in each 5 year budget pe- tries is acceptable? been demonstrated at the appropriate scale." riod, beginning with 2008-12. • Whether and how international aviation It call for a ban on conventional coal- The Climate Change Act requires the and shipping should be included in the fired power generation without CCS. A con- Government to gain Parliament’s approval UK’s targets and budgets ventional coal plant “should only be built on to a proposed level for the next three • The implications of the recommended the expectation that it will be retrofitted with budgets, setting a trajectory of UK budgets for economic growth, energy se- CCS equipment by the early 2020s,” it con- CO2/GHG emissions over the next 15 curity, the competitiveness of particular cludes. years. The Committee is required to make industrial sectors, fuel poverty, and for “Given reasonable estimates of likely recommendations on this basis. specific regions and devolved administra- carbon prices in the 2020s, it is unlikely that This first report of the Committee on Cli- tions. conventional coal-fired generation will be mate Change therefore recommends UK The Committee’s recommendations on the economic even if no other policy levers are carbon budgets for the three periods 2008- first of these issues – the target for 2050 – in place. But there is a danger that uncertain- 12, 2013-17 and 2018-22. In addition, it have already been presented in a letter to ties about future carbon prices could result covers issues on which the CCC is re- the Secretary to State delivered on 7th Oc- in investments that lock the UK in to carbon quired to report by the Climate Change tober 2008. intense generating plant.” Act, or on which it has been asked by the www.theccc.org.uk “There is therefore a strong case for

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Projects and Policy CCS UK Experts Mission to Japan

A mission of UK experts on CCS was undertaken to Japan from 29 September to 3 October 2008, with support from the Science and Innovation Section of the British Embassy Tokyo. A wide range of discussions were held with officials from government departments, and public and private sector organisations. We summarise the main outcomes.

Policy sure period. It was felt that the approach tak- Type of Anticline Sedimentary The Japanese Government appears to apply en by the UK Government (led by the De- Formation capacity, basin capacity, a more interventionist role in helping CCS partment of Energy and Climate Change), in- Gt CO2 Gt CO2 to develop in Japan than the UK government cluding its consultation on regulation and its Depleted oil does in the UK. Whereas Japan applies a di- associated approach to implementation of and gas 3.5 27.5 rigiste model, the UK has tended to adopt a the requirements of the EU Directive, would Identified laissez-faire or free-market approach. be of value to the Japanese Government. aquifer 5.2 The Japanese Government, through the Identified Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Finance closure 21.4 88.5 (METI), has undertaken a consensual plan- Japan does not have an emissions trading ning approach with the key companies and scheme, though there has apparently been Total capacity 30.1 116.0 research institutes. There is, consequently, a some initial discussion on establishing one. strong ownership of, and identification with, Without an ETS, or an equivalent carbon tax, Grand total 146.1 the national CCS programme. it is not clear how the financial incentives There also appeared to be a reasonable for developing and deploying CCS will be Table 1: Estimates of geological storage level of clarity in the roles ascribed to each present in the Japanese context. capacity in Japan organisation and over a reasonable length of The immediate priority appears to be time. This dirigiste approach has advantages the development of one or more pilot plants. that will take substantially longer to estab- in reducing inefficient competition and in In December 2008, the European Union lish. encouraging long-term commitment to in- agreed a package of climate and energy There is an absence of the basic geo- vestment. measures, including a directive on CCS and logical data that would permit a more de- The Technology for the Earth (RITE) inclusion of CCS within the EU ETS. tailed evaluation of the storage capacity. centre, based in Kyoto, conducts research As a consequence, the EU ETS remains With the exception of Hokkaido Island and into the complete CCS value-chain from the principal policy instrument internation- one or two other locations in Japan, which capture to storage, and includes engineering, ally for facilitating CCS deployment. Japan- have been explored for oil and gas, there are geology, economics, systems analysis and ese companies will be looking eagerly to the very few bore holes at a sufficient depth in public perceptions. The Institute also has a European market for opportunities to export Japan. This makes it difficult to evaluate the strong relationship with industry. The exis- their CO2 capture technologies. geology and, consequently, CO2 storage ca- tence of RITE depends upon a strategic, fo- pacity in detail. cused and secure funding stream from Public awareness In the Osaka Bay area, there are a small METI. Kansai Electric Power Plant Company number of deep boreholes, which has per- (KEPCO) has an excellent programme of mitted a provisional assessment. A storage Regulation public engagement and dissemination. A capacity of around 4.2Gt CO2 has been esti- Domestic regulations regarding CO2 storage key focus of KEPCO concerns its relation- mated. A programme of seismic surveying in Japan (onshore and offshore) are current- ship to its local and wider community. and targeted deep drilling is now required to ly being formulated by the Japanese Govern- It was felt that the UK power utilities make a more realistic estimate of capacity. ment. could draw constructive lessons from this As described in the London Conven- positive attitude of engagement and the com- Capture tion, the purity of CO2 for geological stor- mitment to being a real part of, and con- The extent of investment by Japanese com- age must be 'overwhelmingly CO2'. For tributing to, the community. panies such as Mitsubishi, J-Power, Hitachi, capture with amine-based solvents, the Min- KEPCO, Toshiba and others, in one or more istry of Environment (MoE) has interpreted Storage of the capture technologies, was impressive. the term 'overwhelmingly CO2' as ≥99% Estimates of geological storage capacity in In a couple of cases, the investment dated CO2. Japan have been updated since they were back to the early- to mid-1990s. For other capture processes, the MoE previously reported in the early-1990s. The Post-combustion capture technology has not yet come to a decision. For oxyfuel, new estimates provide higher values than the appears to have been developed incremen- for example, the requisite purity level could earlier study indicated. The new estimates tally since that time. Not only that, but sev- conceivably be lower. It appears that the li- are summarised in Table 1. eral companies were exploring all three of censee with be required to make a case to the Though this is encouraging, a note of the main capture technologies. This portfo- MoE if the purity of CO2 in the captured caution is required. The updated estimates lio approach keeps the selection of capture stream is to be less than 99%. are probably over-optimistic; they are based technology, for particular circumstances, The Japanese Government has not, as upon generic assessments of suitable geolog- open. yet, adopted the notion of handover of the ical formations, rather than on the detailed The extent of investment by industry in CO2 storage site to the state in the post-clo- assessment of potential storage reservoirs capture technology reflects a long-term com-

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Projects and Policy

mitment to CCS. This, of course, is instru- tion at a relatively large scale. The logistical mental in the involvement of Japanese com- challenges in assembling or constructing panies in projects internationally, e.g. in Aus- large CO2 capture removal plant may pres- tralia, Germany, Norway, the UK and the ent a problem in some parts of the world. USA. The IEA's ‘Blue Map trajectory’ (Ener- Furthermore, a company such as Mit- gy Technology Perspectives 2008, IEA, subishi Heavy Industries (MHI) may be in- Paris) anticipates the need for 55 new 500 volved in the entire CCS chain up to the MW power plants with CCS to be installed point of CO2 compression for transportation every year from 2020 onwards. to the storage site. It possesses the capabili- Based on discussions with MHI, the to- ty to design and manufacture the power plant tal amount of amine required on a daily ba- equipment, the CO2 capture plant and the sis (to replenish the solvent) can be estimat- solvent. ed. These preliminary calculations indicated This involvement allows the potential that, in principle, there were no constraints for greater integration and optimisation at to the use of amine-based capture technolo- the plant design stage, as well as the poten- gy with respect to logistics of production and tial for lower transaction costs arising from supply of the amine itself. companies working together along the val- Since some amine-solvents are on the ue-chain. This integration could, in princi- 'red list' of EC50 chemicals (a measure of ple, encourage a ‘virtuous circle’, in which toxicity), however, there are still questions Mitsubishi’s 10 ton/day coal fired CO2 capture demonstration plant in Matsushima, Japan innovation and learning are facilitated and regarding their environmental impacts that communicated along the value-chain. need to be addressed. Deployment For post-combustion capture at large- There were also some encouraging es- scale, chemical absorption is likely to be the timates of overall post-combustion CO2 cap- Japanese companies are well placed to ex- preferred route for the next several years. ture costs (gate costs) from a coal-fired pow- ploit opportunities from 'low hanging fruit'. Detailed discussions during site visits sug- er plant with amine-based solvent of approx- This includes CO2 capture arising from gested that it would be possible to scale-up imately US$60/tonne CO2 - assuming that Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) existing amine-based technologies (operat- other impurities in the flue gas had been re- projects, e.g. at gas processing plants. On the ing at about 300 tonnes of CO2 capture per moved. other hand, the Conference of the Parties to day) to a sufficient size for a typical coal- These compare with estimates made in the UNFCCC 14th Meeting (COP14) in Poz- fired power plant (producing, say, 20,000 the context of the EU Directive of approxi- nan, Poland, in December 2008, failed to tonnes CO2 per day). mately US$120/tCO2 for first-of-a-kind come to agreement on inclusion of CCS A possible constraining factor could be demonstration plants and between US$30 within the CDM. The Japanese firms visited the logistics of manufacturing the CO2 cap- and US$55 per tCO2 when the technology are also investigating CO2 capture from ce- ture plant; economies of scale favour opera- was fully advanced. ment and steel plants.

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Projects and Policy Policy, company and regulation news

Global Carbon Capture and Storage turing CO2 using both Post-Combustion including CCS, must also be acceptable to Institute to be launched (PCC) and Oxyfuel carbon capture methods. Member States," said Commissioner Piel- www.pm.gov.au RWE npower is also due to begin con- bags. The Australian Government has begun struction of a CCS pilot plant at its Aberthaw He also stressed that the funding must plans to launch the Global Carbon Cap- coal-fired station in Wales next year. The be structured to avoid windfall profits for the ture and Storage Institute (GCCSI) in plant, due to be complete in 2010 will be the operators, to the ETS as little as possible and January 2009. first to capture CO2 direct from a commer- to meet state aid rules. The Global CCS Institute, which will cially operating power station in the UK. The ZEP at the same time unveiled a be headquartered in Australia, will provide DONG Energy is also actively in- new report aimed at speeding up the deploy- international policy and management over- volved in the development of CCS technolo- ment of the EU-wide CCS Demonstration sight to the goal of delivering at least 20 gy. Its CCS pilot plant at Esbjerg Power Sta- Programme which is intended to achieve the commercial scale CCS plants around the tion in Denmark, part of the CASTOR R&D commercial availability of CCS by 2020. world by 2020. project, is Europe’s largest CO2 capture fa- “It is widely accepted that CCS is one The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin cility to date and has been capturing the gas of the key solutions for combating climate Rudd, announced the establishment of the since 2005. change - while building a bridge to a truly GCCSI in September, with a commitment to sustainable energy system,” said Dr. Graeme provide $100 million per annum in funding. BP pull out of UK CCS competition Sweeney, Chairman, ZEP, and Executive So far eight organisations have signed www.bp.com Vice-President of Future Fuels & CO2, up as founder members: Shell International BP has confirmed its intention to with- Shell. Petroleum; Rio Tinto Ltd; Mitsubishi Cor- draw its entry to the UK CCS post com- “As a result, it is imperative that CCS poration; Anglo American; Xstrata Coal; bustion pilot demonstration competition. receives the support and structure required Services Petroliers Schlumberger; Alstom; BP cited its failure to pull together a to become a commercial reality and realize and The Climate Group. consortium to take the project forward, after its potential of reducing CO2 emissions in It aims to accelerate the development initially entering a sole bid. the EU by up to 400 million tonnes a year by of CCS technology and pave the way for its Environmental Finance has reported 2030,” he added. commercial deployment, and is the only or- that RWE npower is asking the UK’s High The report concluded that the current- ganisation working with governments and Court to review the government’s decision ly proposed CCS projects across the EU can industry on a global basis to achieve the ad- to leave it off the shortlist. satisfy the majority of the criteria that need vancement of CCS. According to Environmental Finance, to be tested, within the programme of 10-12 It will also facilitate the G8 goal of de- the company believes it was not treated fair- demonstrations. livering at least 20 commercial scale CCS ly in being allowed to respond to any short- It also said that industry is prepared to plants around the world by 2020. comings in the initial bid. take on the commercial and technical risks An initial meeting in London in No- It was initially excluded on a 'techni- associated with building the demonstration vember 2008 was attended by more than 165 cality'. projects, although a funding gap of €7-12 delegates, including representatives from 21 billion will remain to meet the costs of build- key countries such as China, India, Japan, EU commissioner supports CCS ing and running the additional CCS installa- the United Kingdom, Norway, Netherlands, investment through ETS tions and reduced plant efficiency. the United States, and Canada, as well as europa.eu It said that the speeding up of the ten- multinational companies, and a range of re- At the Zero Emission Platform (ZEP) dering and permitting process, and creating search organisations. General Assembly in Brussels, EU energy an appropriate regulatory climate, is integral commissioner Andris Piebalgs stated his to ensuring the EU CCS Demonstration Pro- RWE npower buys into UK CCS support for using carbon allowances un- gramme delivers CCS as a commercially vi- competition entry der the ETS to fund 12 CCS demonstra- able technology by 2020. www.rwe.com tion projects. It wants to see a 'fast track' process RWE npower has taken a 75% stake in Commissioner Pielbags said that the where the demonstration plants are planned Peel Energy CCS Ltd, formerly jointly Commission will be sending a positive sig- and permitted by 2010, built by 2013 and owned by Peel Energy and Danish com- nal regarding the so-called Doyle-Davies fully operational from 2015, opening the pany DONG Energy, restructuring a joint amendment, to use 500 million ETS Emis- way to up to 120 full-scale CCS plants in Eu- venture pre-qualified for the UK Govern- sions allowances from the ETS New En- rope by 2030. ment’s CCS Demonstration competition. trants Reserve for the building of 12 CCS de- Various emissions sources, including Should the project be successful in the mo projects. power plants with different fuels and the competition, RWE npower would be in- This fund could be worth up to €20 bil- CO2 streams from other industries, like steel volved in the 400MW CCS project to cap- lion depending on the cost of carbon emis- or cement plants should be looked at, and the ture CO2 whihc would then be transported sion allowances. three primary means of capturing CO2 - pre- to disused gas fields in the North Sea where "The amendment can offer means of and post-combustion and oxyfuel tested. it would be permanently stored. helping all new low carbon technologies Different modes of transporting CO2 - The project could be up and running demonstration, including early CCS projects, pipelines on- and offshore and across bor- by 2014. to cover part of the additional demonstration ders, and transport by ship and the two pri- RWE npower has already commis- costs regular power plants will not face. mary means of storing CO2 - depleted oil sioned a separate test facility at its Didcot However, any use of the EU ETS new en- and gas fields and saline aquifers should be coal-fired power station in Oxfordshire, cap- trants' reserve for low carbon technologies, investigated.

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Projects and Policy

Epcor progresses with CCS project in Alberta www.epcor.ca Epcor Utilities has been invited to prepare more detailed proposals for the compa- ny’s two projects that were submitted to the $2 billion Alberta CCS fund for con- sideration. The first application was for its Inte- grated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project to be located at Genesee. The project has the potential to capture more than one and a quarter million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year when running at full capacity. The second proposal was for a pilot Epcor’s Genesee Generating Station where the pilot project and IGCC plant will be situated project, located at EPCOR’s Genesee 1 pow- er generation plant, which would test an “This project marks a major milestone sibility of combining a high-efficiency gasi- amine scrubbing process to remove CO2 in our leadership’s vision to provide clean fier, a power generation plant and equipment emissions from the flue gas and be designed energy, reduce carbon emissions and pro- to capture and store CO2. to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by be- mote sustainable development,” said Masdar The plant would use coal and solid bio- tween eight and 10%. CEO Dr. Sultan Al Jaber. mass. The companies are evaluating possi- Epcor must now prepare a fully inte- The FEED follows a successful eight- ble sites. grated proposal that also includes capture, month feasibility study conducted by Mas- The study will assess which depleted transportation and storage of carbon dioxide. dar in 2007 to investigate CO2 emission oil and gas fields would be suitable for CO2 EPCOR is also involved with the Al- sources in Abu Dhabi and evaluate the tech- storage. Because of the volume of CO2 in- berta Saline Aquifer Project (ASAP), the In- nical and economic feasibility of CO2 cap- volved, the study will consider both onshore tegrated CO2 Network (ICO2N) plan, the ture and transportation to oil reservoirs. and offshore fields. Heartland Area Redwater Project and the J P Kenny, also a Wood Group compa- Wabamun Area Storage Project (WASP). ny and operating from their Abu Dhabi of- Setback for CCS inclusion in CDM These consortiums include more than fice, will be responsible for FEED services unfccc.int 35 organisations that are working to address for the CO2 pipeline network that will con- Plans to allow organisations to earn cred- the transportation and sequestration of CO2 nect the capture sites in Abu Dhabi to the oil- its for CCS under the clean development and the regulatory, safety and permitting is- field injection sites. This work is scheduled mechanism (CDM) have been dropped at sues associated with CCS. for completion in the 4th quarter 2009. the climate change talks in Poznan. The proposal, led by Australia, was Mustang Engineering secures design ETI launches first CCS project proposal supported by a majority of representatives contract for Masdar www.energytechnologies.co.uk and the IEA but Brazil and a few other coun- www.mustangeng.com The ETI is looking for a lead coordinator tries blocked the move. The decision will Mustang Engineering, based in Houston for a project to accurately assess the UK's now be postponed until next year. and a subsidiary of international energy storage capacity for CO2. This effectively rules out its inclusion services company John Wood Group, has The ETI aims to create a portfolio of in the new climate change treaty which will been selected to provide front-end engi- CCS projects and has significant funding be signed in Copenhagen next year. neering and design (FEED) services for available. This is the first such project. The Masdar’s CCS project in the United Arab deadline for this stage was 6pm on Friday FutureGen back on the table? Emirates. 28th November. www.thesouthern.com The project constitutes the first phase It will be a desk-based study, using Discussions regarding reviving Future- in a series of facilities capturing carbon diox- public domain and (where appropriate) data Gen have been held with President-elect ide emissions from Abu Dhabi’s industrial from offshore operators. The ETI says it an- Barack Obama's nominee for energy sec- and power generation plants. ticipates that the results from this appraisal retary, Steven Chu according to Illinois The CO2 will be transported in a will go into the public domain. newspaper The Southern. pipeline network and injected in Abu The project aims to bring together a U.S. Senator Dick Durbin and a dele- Dhabi’s oil reservoirs for enhanced oil re- consortium of key UK universities and other gation of Illinois congressional members at- covery. organisations able to make a significant con- tended the discussions where they made The objective of the CCS network is to tribution to meeting the project objectives. sure, according to Durbin, that "Dr. Chu un- reduce Abu Dhabi’s carbon footprint and re- derstands the importance of FutureGen to place the vast amount of natural gas current- Shell and Essent study CCS in Holland Illinois and is fully aware of the delegation's ly re-injected into oil reservoirs. www.shell.com commitment to moving the project forward." In the first phase ending in 2013, Essent and Shell have signed an MoU for Dr. Chu has not yet made any firm around 5 million tons of CO2 per year will a feasibility study into a 1GW low CO2 committments, although he said DOE would be captured from three emission sources: a IGCC power plant in the south-west part focus on "bringing [CCS] technology along gas-fired power plant, an aluminium smelter of the Netherlands. as quickly as possible." Obama has however and a steel mill. Shell and Essent will evaluate the fea- previously talked about reviving the project.

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Projects and Policy

New research institute at Stanford gcep.stanford.edu Stanford is establishing a $100 million re- search institute to focus on energy issues, including CCS. Lynn Orr has been named overall direc- tor of the new institute, which will function as an independent laboratory reporting to the dean of research. Orr is a professor in energy resources engineering. He has been the director of Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Proj- ect (GCEP), where researchers are involved in more than 40 research projects to find ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as- sociated with energy. GCEP's research portfolio includes the science of materials used to convert solar en- ergy to electricity, biomass energy conver- sions, advanced batteries, fuel cells, ad- vanced combustion, and carbon capture and Elliot Kennel (left), research professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, describes for storage. Wu Xiuzhang (right) the process developed at WVU to convert coal directly to liquids at low GCEP, launched in 2002, will become temperature and pressure. Coal liquefaction typically requires high temperature and pressure, a part of the new institute, as will the 2-year- which translates into higher cost. Wu, the deputy chief engineer of the Shenhua Group of China, old Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency and his colleagues met with experts at WVU under a U.S. Department of Energy agreement (renamed the Precourt Center for Energy Ef- between the organizations to share information and expertise. (Photo: Trina Wafle, NRCCE) ficiency), an organization dedicated to find- ing ways to wring more energy savings out sources push the dominant conventional coal where the plant is under construction, has the of buildings, cars, the electricity grid and ba- source from 74 per cent in the current elec- geological resources necessary to support a sic human behavior. tricity mix down to 25 per cent. sequestration project. In the pure green scenario, coal power With support from the U.S. Depart- Greening the Grid Powering Alberta’s sources, retrofitted with carbon capture and ment of Energy, WVU and Shenhua Group Future with Renewable Energy storage, provide the source of seven per cent have been evaluating the economic and en- pubs.pembina.org/reports/gree of Alberta’s electricity. vironmental impacts of the direct coal lique- ningthegrid-report.pdf faction technology. A Pembina Institute report says that Al- WVU experts meet with Chinese coal While commercial coal-to-liquids berta should invest at least as much in re- to liquids leaders processes exist, these are known as indirect newable energies as CCS. wvutoday.wvu.edu coal liquefaction and require breaking coal The report shows how Alberta can Officials from China’s leading research down into molecules of carbon monoxide switch its electricity source from coal to and corporate energy organizations met and hydrogen, which are building blocks that clean renewable energy sources in 20 years, with West Virginia University faculty and are then processed into diesel fuel. Direct creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gas and U.S. Department of Energy leaders to dis- coal liquefaction processes attempt to bypass creating a more stable price for energy. cuss advances in converting coal to trans- the breakdown of the coal into such small The purpose of the report is to deter- portation fuels while capturing and stor- molecules to make liquid fuels directly. mine to what extent cleaner alternatives to ing CO2 emissions. Information gained by the researchers coal, nuclear and other non-renewable re- The meeting was organized by the U.S. will be shared with those in the U.S. to help sources can be deployed to meet Alberta’s China Energy Center, a program of the Na- promote the transfer clean coal technologies. electricity consumption over the next 20 tional Research Center for Coal and Energy WVU has been working with the U.S. years, which is expected to be almost twice at WVU. Department of Energy and the China Nation- the current levels of consumption. The Shenhua Group in China is devel- al Development and Reform Commission "Findings show that it is possible to oping the world’s first commercial direct under an agreement known as the Protocol meet all future requirements for electricity coal liquefaction plant in northwestern Chi- on Cooperation in the Field of Fossil Energy in the province using a combination of re- na at a cost of about $1.5 billion. The plant Technology Development and Utilization newable plus cleaner transitional technolo- will eventually transform millions of tons of since 2002. gies," the report says. coal into thousands of barrels of liquid fuel It concludes that "The preferred ap- per day. Report finds clean technologies are proach of the Alberta government to date — WVU experts said the Shenhua Direct not reaching developing nations carbon capture and storage — may or may Coal Liquefaction plant will likely be well www.cerna.ensmp.fr not need to play a role in reducing the envi- suited to a large scale carbon capture and A report into climate related technologies ronmental impact of electricity in the most storage project. Fletcher and his colleagues, has found that much more could be done cost effective way." WVU professor Tim Carr and Julio Fried- to transfer innovations to the developing Two scenarios are presented. In the man of Lawrence Livermore National Labo- nations. pale green scenario, renewable energy ratory, noted that the Ordos basin in China, The report, Invention and Transfer of

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Projects and Policy

Climate Change Mitigation Technologies on It also a Global Scale, comes from the CERNA Re- gives support search Programme on Technology Transfer for key con- and Climate Change, supported by the cepts underly- OECD and the Centre for Industrial Eco- ing the Boucher nomics at the Ecole des Mines de Paris. CCS bill. It looked at the development of clean The Edi- technologies, including CCS, over a 25 year son Electric In- period, and found that those countries that stitute (EEI) ratified the Kyoto protocol saw an accelera- Board of Direc- tion in patent filings over the period 1998- tors framework 2003. for the first It also looked at how many of those time recom- patents were shared beyond the country of mends to Con- origin. Only 18 per cent of clean technology gress a unified patents were extended beyond developed industry posi- countries to developing countries, while tion for allocat- three quarters was between developed coun- ing emissions The McKinsey Quarterly CCS presentation reviews the technology for capture, transport and storage of CO2 tries. allowances dis- China, Russia and South Korea were tributed to the utility sector under potential McKinsey Quarterly CCS presentation exceptions, being major innovators in their cap-and-trade legislation. www.mckinseyquarterly.com own right. The EEI Board recommended that the McKinsey has released an interactive de- initial emission allowance allocation to the piction of the technologies involved in Zurich launches CCS insurance products electric power sector should be 40 percent, CO2 capture, transport and storage, www.zurichna.com equal to its portion of U.S. carbon emissions. which it says is intended to provide a Zurich Financial Services Group has in- It also sets out the technologies that are background for informed discussion. troduced Carbon Capture and Sequestra- essential to achieving emissions reductions. tion Liability Insurance and Geologic Se- "Near term targets should be guided by USCAP releases blueprint for climate questration Financial Assurance. efforts on energy efficiency, renewable ener- legislation The products are designed to meet the gy and, to some extent, new nuclear," it says. www.us-cap.org insurance needs of CCS projects from design "Medium-term targets (10-20 year time The U.S. Climate Action Partnership (US- and operational phases through to closure frame) should be synchronised with deploy- CAP) has released a set of policy recom- and post closure events at the geologic stor- ment of other technologies, including ad- mendations, "A Blueprint for Legislative age sites. vanced clean coal with carbon capture and Action", for developing legislation that They can be applied not only to clean- storage and new nuclear." would create an environmentally effective er coal operations, but also to a variety of in- and economically sustainable national cli- dustrial processes, onshore and offshore, al- European CCS research initiative mate protection program. though not all coverages are available in all receives funding The report says a robust technology jurisdictions. www.ntnu.no/eccsel transformation program that results in sub- The CCS Liability Insurance Policy The European Carbon Dioxide Capture stantial investment in new technologies is a covers pollution event liability, business in- and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure critical complementary measure to a nation- terruption, control of well, transmission lia- (ECCSEL) initiative will receive €81 mil- al strategy to cap and reduce GHG emis- bility and geomechanical liability. lion in funding to set up a research infra- sions. USCAP recommends a program that The GSFA Policy covers specified clo- structure. features federal support for emerging tech- sure and post closure activities. Norway, Germany, France, Switzer- nology research and early demonstration and Zurich said the products "have elimi- land, the Netherlands, Hungary. Poland, deployment of new technologies. nated a significant barrier to widespread de- Croatia and Denmark are all involved, with "USCAP recommends that Congress ployment of this critical technology in the around a third of the funding going to Nor- provide needed regulatory certainty and sub- long-term mitigation of carbon emissions.” way. stantial financial incentives to facilitate and The Norwegian University of Science accelerate the early deployment of carbon US utilities back ‘aggressive’ CCS and Technology (NTNU) and independent capture and storage (CCS) technology, in- deployment research organisation SINTEF are coordinat- cluding addressing financial and regulatory www.eei.org ing the international effort, which will see barriers that could delay wide-spread de- An industry association of US electric util- 15 joint laboratories built across nine coun- ployment." ities has put forward an updated climate tries. Norway will host five of the 15 labora- "USCAP recommends implementing change framework, calling for an 80 per- tories at a hub in Trondheim. CO2 emissions standards for coal plants ini- cent reduction of carbon emissions by Two new labs in Norway, which will tially permitted after January 1, 2015, sub- 2050 from current levels. cost around €23 million in total, will focus ject to Congress providing adequate funding "The aggressive development and de- on scrubbing and low temperature separation for CCS and needed regulatory certainty be- ployment of carbon capture and storage cou- technologies for removing CO2 from power ing in place; and retrofit requirements for pled with advanced coal technologies are station flue gases. Other labs will investigate coal plants initially permitted after January necessary to preserving the coal option," it storage technology, improving combustion 1, 2009 and prior to January 1, 2015, subject says. and the materials and processes used. to deployment thresholds being met."

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Separation and Capture

Capture news

Toshiba Corporation to build CO2 duce the cost of capture pilot plant capturing CO2 www.toshiba.co.jp for the power Toshiba Corporation will install a post industry and combustion capture pilot plant at Sigma that Air Prod- Power Ariake Co. Ltd.’s Mikawa Power ucts has specif- Plant, in Omuta City, Fukuoka, Japan. ically focused Construction of the plant is scheduled on the purifica- to start in spring 2009, and the commission- tion of the re- ing and validation testing is expected to be- sulting oxyfuel gin in August. combustion Toshiba says it has succeeded in de- flue gas, devel- veloping an amine solvent that consumes oping a robust minimal energy during CO2 separation and process for the capture, and has confirmed on a bench- efficient re- scale test that it matches industry leading moval of trace standards. impurities. The Mikawa pilot plant is designed to The re- capture 10 tons of CO2 a day from the boil- duction of er flue gas of the coal fired thermal power these impuri- plant. ties to an ac- Beyond proving system performance, ceptable purity plant verification will encompass a wide level is neces- Toshiba’s post combustion pilot at the Sigma Power Mikawa power plant in range of tests aimed to accumulate know- sary before any Japan will test a low energy amine solvent how required for the design of utility-scale carbon cap- power plant application, says Toshiba. tured could be These include the effects of the ther- transported for underground storage. Alstom to construct pilot in Poland mal power plant flue gas contents, such as White described Air Products' patent- www.alstom.com SOx, on the operation of the system when ed sour compression technology, which us- Alstom and PGE Elektrownia Bełchatów integrated with other power plant equip- es a staged compression process to optimise S.A. have signed a MoU for the develop- ment, such as turbines and boilers. pressure, hold-up and residence time to al- ment and implementation of carbon cap- Toshiba is targeting installation of its low removal of impurities including sul- ture and storage (CCS) technology at the system in demonstration plants in Japan and phur dioxide, nitrous oxides, mercury, and Bełchatów power plant in Poland. overseas in parallel with the validation tests other heavy metals from the CO2 contain- In a first phase, Alstom will design and at the Mikawa pilot plant. ing gas during the compression process. construct a pilot carbon capture plant at the Its goal is to meet emerging needs for This allows cost savings in the oxyfu- existing unit 12 of the Bełchatów power commercial scale CCS systems for thermal el combustion process and minimises the plant, which would capture approximately power plants, an area where demand is ex- content of these components in the se- 100,000 tonnes per year of CO2 using Al- pected to grow from around 2015. Toshiba questered CO2, White said. stom’s amines technology. says it will accelerate its research and de- Air Products' oxyfuel sour compres- The pilot will be jointly operated by velopment efforts to support early estab- sion technology has been demonstrated in Alstom and Elektrownia Bełchatów and is lishment of this business. experimental work carried out by Imperial expected to be in operation by mid 2011. College London with actual flue gas from During the second phase, Alstom and Air Products oxyfuel capture Doosan Babcock's 160kW coal-fired rig in PGE plan to build a larger CCS project to technology paper Renfrew, Scotland, as part of the Oxycoal- capture CO2 produced by the new 858 MW www.airproducts.com/co2_cap- UK Project. lignite-fired unit currently being built by ture White presented the findings of this Alstom for Elektrownia Bełchatów. This The paper describes Air Products' oxy- work in the paper which he co-authored CCS plant will be in operation by 2015. fuel sour compression technology that with Laura Torrente Murciano and David Lignite and hard coal are the mainstay optimises the compression process to re- Chadwick, both of the Chemical Engineer- of the Polish power generation sector and move impurities in the gas to make car- ing Department at Imperial College, and the reduction in CO2 emissions resulting bon sequestration possible. David Sturgeon of Doosan Babcock Ener- from the Belchatow CCS project would be Air Products' Vince White presented gy Limited. higher than 1 million tonnes per year. the paper, called "Purification of Oxyfuel- "The data shows that impurities re- The Bełchatów CCS initiative is one Derived CO2", at the 9th International Con- moval can be achieved during compression of the candidate projects to the EU Flagship ference on Greenhouse Gas Control Tech- and without more expensive and complex Programme for Carbon Capture and Stor- nologies (GHGT-9) in Washington, D.C. flue gas de-sulfurization units and de-NOx age. White said oxyfuel technology can re- units," said White.

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Separation and Capture ELCOGAS - integrating IGCC with CCS

ELCOGAS, a consortium shared by European utilities, is building the first pilot plant for CO2 capture and hydrogen production to be integrated in an operating 335 MW IGCC plant.

The ELCOGAS IGCC plant is the largest IGCC plant in the world to use a single gasi- fier and gas turbine, and in 2008 celebrated the 10th anniversary of commercial operation with coal gas. Since 2005 ELCOGAS has been in- volved in a CO2 capture research project, with the objective of validating at industrial, bench and laboratory scale the technologies of pre-combustion CO2 capture and H2 pro- duction associated to an IGCC Power Plant. The industrial scope will be tackled through the assessment of commercial tech- nologies for CO2 separation and H2 produc- tion in a 14 MWt Pilot Plant installation to be integrated in the infrastructure of the Puertol- lano IGCC Plant. This installation is being realized as a modification of the existing IGCC process, and conceptually is an extension of the gas The ELCOGAS plant with a 3D schematic of the new IGCC plant cleaning processes already existing in the plant. According to ELCOGAS the installation It is granted by MICINN and JCCM (na- Process will become a unique carbon capture facility tional and regional government) and it is part The process consists of a shifting unit to con- providing a multi-fuel capacity (coal gas with of a Spanish national initiative, “Advanced vert CO to CO2, a CO2 separation unit, and without sulphur compounds), and gener- technologies of CO2 conversion, capture and based on absorption processes with amines, ating a multi-product portfolio: ‘pure’ CO2 storage” that integrates other related projects: and a H2 purification unit (PSA). (95% purity), CO2 with H2S, H2 rich stream Sour and sweet catalysts will be tested (80% purity), pure H2 (99.99% purity), and a • Project #2 explores CO2 capture with to obtain technical and economic yields at residual gas (containing 50% H2). oxyfuel technology and is being coordinated full scale, obtaining CO2 capture costs at dif- Civil works started in December 2008, by CIUDEN ferent purity grades. and construction will be finished in mid 2009. • Project #3 deals with study and regula- tion of geological storage of CO2 in Spain Status IGCC pilot and is being developed by IGME Main equipment design and supply has been The ELCOGAS IGCC plant produces elec- • Project #4 focuses on public awareness contracted: tricity from solid fuels (fuel design is a mix- of CO2 capture and storage technologies and • Engineering: Empresarios Agrupados ture of coal and petcoke). The solid fuel is is being developed by Ciemat. (June 2007) gasified to obtain a synthesis gas that is driv- en through a cleaning process to remove fly- ash and other pollutants such as halogens, cyanides, sulphur and nitrogen compounds. The clean gas is used in a combined cycle to produce electricity.

Project targets The targets of the project are: 1) to demonstrate the feasibility of CO2 capture and H2 production in an IGCC power plant that uses solid fossil fuels and wastes as main feedstock. 2) to obtain economic data enough to scale it to the full Puertollano IGCC capacity in synthetic gas production. The project is being developed by ELCOGAS in collaboration with UCLM uni- versity and Spanish research institutions IN- CARCSIC and Ciemat. The process in ELCOGAS’ IGGC pilot plant

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Separation and Capture

• CO2 and PSA units: Linde (Jan 2008) ucts: XtL availability, improvement of IGCC integra- • Reactors: Tecnical (May 2008) (biofuels and tion. • Catalysts: Johnson Matthey (Feb less carbon • Dissemination of results: participation on 2008) intensive liq- forums and conferences, offering of consult- • Control: Zeus Control (May 2008) uid fuels pro- ant services, promotion of technical visits to Construction started in November 2008 to duction); the plant. finish in July 2009. new uses of One year of tests is expected to obtain syngas (as fu- detailed data at different conditions and dif- el for fishing About the company ferent grades of CO2 and H2 purities. ships: PEIX- ELCOGAS is a European company estab- After 2010 the pilot plant will be of- EVERDE lished in April 1992 to undertake the plan- fered to the R&D and industry community project); co- ning, construction, management and oper- as a platform, integrated in an operative gasification ation of a Gasification Integrated Com- IGCC, to projects researching syngas uses, of coal, binedCycle plant of 335MW, located in CO2 separation and treatment processes, and wastes and “The integration in an Puertollano (Spain). H2 purification and use. biomass (PI- existing IGCC plant of this It is a demonstration project,support- IBE project); Pilot Plant for CO2 capture is ed by the European Commission under the Future research and development other fuels: a great engineering THERMIE Program. Its objective is to challenge” - Pedro Casero, The main focus areas of ELCOGAS’ R&D municipal pilot plant project manager prove the feasibility of using low value fu- plan are: wastes, auto- els in power plants,with lower environmen- • CO2 emission reduction in utilization motive tal impact, in order to develop a sustain- of fossil fuels: pilot plant for CO2 capture wastes. able model of “cleanenergy” production. and production of H2 and electricity • Other environmental improvements: ELCOGAS is shared by European (PSECO2 project) liquid wastes reduction, improvement of gas utilities (Portugal:EDP; Italy:ENEL; • IGCC efficiency optimisation (im- cleaning systems, improvement of sulphur France:EDF; Germany:Siemens, Krupp- prove auxiliaries consumption, improve- recovery system, optimisation of operation Koppers; Spain:ENDESA, Iberdrola, ments of efficiency based on CARNOT as- and additive parameters, emissions reduction Hidrocantábrico). sessment, supervision online of main equip- during startup and other transitory situations. The plant started its commercial op- ment.) • IGCC process optimisation: analysis eration in 1996 with natural gas and with • H2 production by gasification of fos- of gasifier materials, control of syngas cor- syngas in 1998. Up to December 2007 its sil fuels: H2 production studies (HY- rosion processes, control of membrane cor- total accumulated electricity production DROSEP project), H2 treatment and purifi- rosion in the reaction chamber, improve- was 16,062GWh and 10,314GWh when cation research (SPHERA project). ments on ceramic filters performance, in- considering IGCC operation. • Diversification of raw fuels and prod- crease of gas turbine and other equipment

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Transport and Storage Latest technology advances in land seismic monitoring for carbon capture and storage Seismic offers a robust solution to the problem of monitoring geological CO2 storage over time. By Jean-Louis Gelot, Country Manager Russia, CGGVeritas

During the last 10 years, the seismic indus- try has jumped into the 4th dimension, time. By repeating seismic surveys at various time intervals during the production of an oil and gas field and comparing these surveys, seismic is able to show the fluid movements and pressure changes in a reservoir, and undrained compartments can be more easily identified. Time-lapse or 4D seismic is becoming part of the reservoir management toolkit and today most offshore wells are drilled with the support of 4D seismic images. In carbon capture and storage, 4D seis- mic is also a key technique for the monitor- ing of the injection: how is the CO2 bubble expending laterally? Are there leakages lat- erally or through cracks in upper aquifers or up to the surface? The following examples reveal various Figure 2 : repeatability test technologies that are operational for seismic monitoring of CCS in salt caverns, depleted oil and gas reservoirs or aquifers. Field applications of seismic monitor- Active Seismic Figure 1 shows the seismic amplitude ing are very wide and include: fracturing, The main challenge of 4D seismic is the re- sections for 4 surveys (1994, 1999, 2001, natural depletion of oil and gas fields, injec- peatability. Seismic images from different 2002) over the offshore Norwegian Sleipner tion of water, gas, CO2, underground gas surveys should be the same except for the CO2 storage area. There, the extension of storage, sequestration of CO2 and acid gas- producing reservoir or storage zone. The re- gas plume and cap rock integrity can be es. The time scale is also very wide ranging peatability quality will depend on the: monitored with a high degree of precision from a few hours for fracturing to • accuracy of sources and receivers lo- and accuracy. hundreds/thousands of years for sequestra- cation. Ideally locations should be the same. tion. If this can be achieved on land, it is more The repeat cadence is also highly vari- difficult with marine streamers due to ma- able ranging from non-stop to lapse of a few rine currents. years between surveys. In this article we will • changes in surface conditions: water focus on some new technology developed temperature in marine seismic, weathered for the seismic monitoring of onshore reser- zone in land etc. voirs. Other geophysical methods such as • geophysical instrumentation which gravimetry and electromagnetic survey are might not be the same from one survey to the also tested. However, they do not offer the next: different source signal, radiation pat- spatial resolution of seismic. terns, recording system. Seismic monitoring techniques include Only sophisticated processing tech- active seismic (usually reflection seismic, niques can compensate partially the errors just called seismic in this article) and pas- due to lack of repeatability. Ideally acquisi- sive seismic (microseismic). Seismic usual- tion must be carried out with better repeata- ly will monitor changes in fluids contacts bility and saturation and pressure within the reser- Land seismic has a lower quality due to voir itself or within other layers where flu- noisier environments and changing weath- ids might have migrated. Passive seismic ered zone conditions during seasons. Figure will monitor for example the expansion of 2 shows a simple test of repeatability over a fractures during a fracturing job, the pre- nine day period. In both cases, the receiver ferred path of water in fractured carbonates, is 150 meters deep. The seismic source is on the reactivation of cracks and faults during the ground surface for the upper case and Figure 1: CO2 sequestration gas or liquids injection and or withdrawal. two meters deep for the lower. The impact

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of the heavy rain on July 24th on the seismic response is very important when the seismic source is on the surface. It is much lower in the other case and a 4D signal for a deeper reservoir would be masked. Usually, the most robust Figure 5: Microseismic events magnitude attribute to identify changes in the reservoir is the travel time within the reservoir. The The following example shows the ap- monitoring might need meas- plication of microseismic during water in- urements of travel time jection in a carbonate reservoir. (fig 6) changes as low as 1/10 msec. 10 years of 4D technology Figure 8: Fracturing monitoring development with French In- stitute of Petroleum and Gaz injection and salt solution production wells de France have led CGGVeri- were inverted, a microseismic corridor was tas to design a unique system detected between the 2 wells, then some based on buried sources and events were related to the reactivation of receivers. The system SEIS- buried source SEISMOVIE 3: Figure faults in the cap rock and well collapse. MOVIETM uses low energy (1Kw) piezo- Well productivity can be largely im- electric vibrators (fig. 3) cemented in holes proved by fracturing the producing forma- at 10cm intervals and hundreds of single or tion. Fracturing jobs are complex. New frac- multicomponent geophones cemented at 10 tures must not reach surrounding aquifers; to 30m depth. Therefore the impact of quantity of propant must be properly esti- weathered zone becomes less and the geom- mated. Real time recording of microseismic etry is fixed with perfect repeatability. events will help to control the fracture Seismic response change in an heavy growth during the few hours of the fractur- oil reservoir in Canada under an EOR ing job. process of steam injection (SAGD) can be Figure 6: carbonate waterflood monitoring Usually a few multicomponent re- monitored daily (fig 4). About the company From a single observation well, 2000 CGGVeri- events were recorded during a 49 day peri- tas says it od. They show a seismic corridor between has been the 2 northern injection and producing wells pushing the which are already producing water. Other limits of producing wells are not wet yet but will be seismic for in the future as microcracks are likely to con- more than nect and communicate between them and in- 70 years jection wells. and has The construction of a cavern in a salt taken the formation for an underground gas storage re- leadership Figure 4: Monitoring SAGD heavy oil recovery quires a careful monitoring of the cap rock for the 4th integrity (fig 7). 6822 microseismic events dimension. Jean-Louis Gelot, Country The seismic response was recorded were recorded during a 2 year period. CGGVeri- Manager Russia, CGGVeritas continuously, with one new shot every 30 They are associated to the salt dissolu- tas manu- seconds, during only one month period. tion process. At the beginning, events are lo- factures most of the industry equipment Every day, more than 2000 shots were cated around the injection well. After 1 year, (SERCEL affiliate), acquires, processes stacked in order to get a reliable seismic im- and interprets data all over the world. age. The 30 images were compared. The VSFUSION, a joint venture with BAK- 0.15 msec red anomaly located on the right ER, builds upon the two companies’ ex- pair of horizontal wells represents the pertise in VSP processing services and en- change in travel time and is related to the hances them using CGGVeritas expertise steam front propagation. in surface and ocean-bottom cable seismic acquisition and processing. Passive Seismic www.vsfusion.com Changes in subsurface pressure create mi- The author would like to thank CGGVeri- cro-earthquakes. The magnitude of these tas LAND 4D division and MAGNI- events might be as low as -3 on the pseudo- TUDE, the Microseismic division of VS- Richter scale (fig 5). A -2 event corresponds FUSION for their contribution. to a crack of 0.3m2 with a slip of 0.1mm (en- Contact: jean-louis.gelot at ergy of 1 gram of dynamite). This is the do- Figure 7: Salt cavern for underground gas cggveritas.com main of microseismicity. storage

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ceivers are installed in an observation well mic data acquired on demand at specific located at less than 500m from the treated phases of the project or for a few days every well. New real-time migration processing few months. technology can be used with a few hundred surface receivers offering more flexibility as Planning a seismic monitoring project no observation well is required. Figure 8 Seismic monitoring projects will fail due to shows the events of new fractures located by poor design. Their implementation must be a radial geometry of the surface receivers. carefully prepared, including: • a feasibility study. All existing data Simultaneous active and passive (geology, geophysics, logs, production, etc.) seismic monitoring are taken into account. Models are built, 4D With a permanent installed seismic monitor- seismic responses are estimated and an ac- Figure 9: Permanent active and passive ing system, processing techniques allow us quisition geometry is recommended. monitoring system to separate both the active and passive part. • A small scale field pilot monitoring of (fig 9) Then they are both processed and in- no more than a few months is performed in enough experience has been accumulated for terpreted for their various objectives. Pas- order to validate modeled parameters and de- similar conditions. sive seismic data is acquired at no additional sign the large scale industrial monitoring • Finally the full scale monitoring proj- cost. Sources can be activated and new seis- project. This step might be skipped when ect is implemented.

Transport and storage news

University of Texas engineer presents proach, but not prohibitively more. In proper understanding of how to manage risks ‘leak free’ CO2 storage method essence, the incremental cost can be regarded and geological uncertainties," says DNV. www.utexas.edu as the price of risk reduction. This is an im- The current JIP focuses on establishing Steven Bryant, engineering professor at portant consideration because all stakehold- a transparent, predictable and cost-effective The University of Texas at Austin, will ers will want the greatest assurance of secure site selection approach by: present new research at the ninth annual storage for the lowest cost." • providing guidance on the proper man- International Conference on Greenhouse The talk was on Nov. 19 at the Omni agement of risks and geological uncertainties Gas Control Technologies that examines a Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. • providing guidance in deploying con- storage method that could eliminate the current best engineering practices risk of CO2 escaping via buoyancy. DNV coordinates unified approach to • providing open references to ensure the The biggest risk associated with geolog- qualifying CO2 storage sites confidence and trust of stakeholders and the ic carbon-dioxide sequestration is that the www.dnv.com public CO2, which is less dense than water, will es- DNV is now developing a standard • simplifying demonstrations of compli- cape from the storage formation through methodology for characterising, selecting ance with legal and regulatory requirements buoyancy. But Bryant, who directs the Geo- and qualifying proper sites for geological in legislation, directives, conventions, etc, and logical CO2 Storage Research Project at The storage of CO2 – both offshore and on- harmonizing implementation University of Texas at Austin, believes he and shore. This work is being carried out to- • explaining how to obtain emission re- his team have a novel solution. gether with Norwegian authorities and duction credits. The framework developed by Instead of injecting the compressed CO2 more than 10 of the world’s key oil, gas and the JIP should also provide a protocol with directly into a deep underground formation, coal players. links to decision gates in field development Bryant offers this alternative: drill wells in the DNV has assembled key industry play- projects to assist operators, authorities, veri- deep, salt-water filled formation, pump out ers and launched a joint industry project (JIP) fiers and other stakeholders to: the salt water, dissolve the carbon dioxide in- to develop a standard methodology for char- • define the desired storage site attrib- to the salt water in a mixing tank at the sur- acterising, selecting and qualifying proper utes, including the data and analysis require- face, and then inject the CO2-laden water sites – both offshore and onshore. ments necessary to provide confidence that back into the same formation. This will provide guidance on how to es- the storage site has the desired attributes The CO2-laden water is much more tablish permanent, safe and cost-efficient stor- • assign and rank risks (and uncertain- dense than compressed CO2, and slightly age of CO2. The JIP is open to new partici- ties) based on the available (and missing) da- denser than the original brine. Thus, it will pants until the end of 2008. ta have no tendency to rise toward the earth's The JIP has attracted wide interest from • define an environmentally friendly and surface, in contrast to compressed CO2, the authorities and oil, gas and coal-fired economically acceptable site operation proce- which is buoyant under typical storage condi- power industries. In addition to DNV, the dure, including compliance with standards, tions. partners so far are Gassnova SF (responsible legislation and applicable directives "Our idea is the equivalent of injecting for managing the Norwegian state’s involve- • define requirements for a Monitoring, carbonated water. This process has several ad- ment in CCS activities), Gassco AS, IEA Verification, Accounting & Reporting vantages, but the most important is that it Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, Statoil- (MVAR) programme, including requirements eliminates the risk of sequestered carbon Hydro, BP, Shell, Petrobras, RWE Dea, for mitigation and remediation plans dioxide escaping from the storage formation," Schlumberger, Vattenfall AB, BG Group and • manage storage sites in accordance Bryant says. DONG Energy. with a transparent, consistent and cost-effec- "Our work shows that this alternative "The key to a successful CO2 storage tive process that meets the expectations of the process does cost more than the standard ap- project is appropriate selection criteria and a authorities, stakeholders and general public.

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Transport and Storage The Value of Carbon Oxides Commercially valuable chemical compounds, such as synthesis gas, formaldehyde, methanol and acetic acid can be synthesized from CO2. Their production can be an aid in the deferment of the expense of carbon capture and sequestration. By Harrell Sellers, IBM Systems and Technology Group, and Michael Perrone, IBM Watson Research Center

Taking care of the environment will methanol was have its price recently $0.33 The second law of thermodynamics requires per gallon (one that any event that happens is accompanied metric ton by a “tax” or expense that must be paid in methanol is 333 order for that event to occur. gallons). This is This applies to everything including presently a 5.2 carbon capture and sequestration. There will billion dollar per be an expense associated with the reduction year commodity. or elimination of carbon oxide emissions With the from any process. methanol de- Underground storage incurs transporta- mand from Chi- tion and monitoring expenses, deep sea stor- na rising and the age is accompanied by transportation ex- use by Toshiba penses, mineralization generates bulky, of methanol- heavy carbonates to dispose of that sequester driven fuel cell more oxygen and alkaline earth metals than applications, in- carbon (calcium carbonate, limestone, is Ca- cluding micro- CO3 having as many calcium atoms as car- methanol fuel bon and three times as much oxygen). cells, the market A strategy to offset much of the ex- is expected to in- Figure 1- the results of reactor simulations employing palladium as the catalytic metal and a feed gas composed of carbon dioxide and methane pense of carbon capture and sequestration is crease by at least to use the carbon dioxide as a raw material a billion dollars to make chemical compounds that have per year for the next ten years. future use, for example, replacing the ex- down-stream commercial value. The annual world-wide acetic acid de- tracted coal in coal mines. Compounds with commercial value mand is about 14 billion pounds and increas- The synthesis gas (syngas) is an ex- that can be synthesized from carbon dioxide ing at about 3% per year. Formaldehyde tremely important raw material in the chem- include methanol, acetic acid, formic acid, production is 13 billion pounds per year. ical industry. In industrial processes syngas C2 hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, synthesis Among the promising products of the is a precursor in the syntheses of ammonia, gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hy- conversion of CO2 is the production of poly- methanol, amino-resins, petrochemicals drogen), fuel-hydrogen and others. carbonate plastics. Since 1996, when the de- such as vinyl acetate and many others. For example, the methanol institute in- mand for polycarbonate plastics was 2 bil- There is significant opportunity to, at dicates that the world-wide market for lion lbs, the world-wide demand has grown least partially, abate the expense of the car- methanol is presently 47 million metric tons 10% per year. bon oxide environmental issue by producing (1 metric ton is 2,204.62 lbs). The price of Polycarbonate plastics can be stored for commercially valuable chemicals. Sign up to our free e-mail newsletter at www.carboncapturejournal.com

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Feasibility: energetics and compound stream commer- purification cial value. Since carbon dioxide is a very stable gas- The compu- phase molecule, there is a tendency to be- tational model de- lieve that it is not suitable for use as an oxy- scribes the adsorp- gen source or that it is difficult to make oth- tion and desorp- er compounds with it. This is not the case. tion of chemical For example the reaction between car- species and the re- bon dioxide and methane to make graphite actions that take and water is thermodynamically favorable at place on the sur- room temperature ( ΔG° = -29 kJ/mol). faces of the catal- The challenge in this case is to find a ysists. Results of catalyst that will accelerate the rate of the re- reactor simula- action so that the reaction will occur in a tions agree well timely fashion. with results from The traditional method for producing experimental ob- synthesis gas, a mixture of CO and hydro- servations in the gen is to react methane with water as the chemical litera- oxygen source. The process runs at around ture. 700 °C over a Ni catalyst. This is consid- An important Figure 2 - products from reactor simulation (first differential slice) having ered to be the most economical way to pro- result is that the feed gas composition of 80% CO2 and 20% CH4 duce hydrogen gas. catalytic surfaces The reaction between methane with do not lose effica- CO2 as the oxygen source is only slightly cy due to buildup less thermodynamically favorable and, when of carbon on the incorporated as part of the carbon sequestra- catalytic surface tion technology at coal-fired electrical gen- when CO2 is a erating stations, the process can utilize the component of the waste heat that otherwise leaves the exhaust feed gas. stack. The model- The reaction between CO2 and excess ing reveals that methane generates water, graphite (or soot) this is due to the and hydrogen gas. This may well become a fact that CO2 is a prominent method for obtaining fuel-hydro- good scavenger of gen (hydrogen gas). atomic carbon on The commercially valuable products the metal surface we discuss are either gases, such as synthe- forming two mol- sis gas (CO + H2 ), formaldehyde, and the ecules of carbon C2 hydrocarbons or liquids at room temper- monoxide. ature such as methanol, acetic acid, and oth- Previous ex- ers. Technology exists for the separation of perimental studies gases. The Air Products corporation makes have noted this available gas separation technology. but were not able The liquids, water, methanol, acetic to elucidate the Figure 3 - products from reactor simulation (first differential slice) having feed gas composition of 20% CO2 and 80% CH4 acid, formic acid and others can be separat- underlying reason. ed by distillation utilizing the waste heat Other impor- from the coal-fired electrical generating sta- tant modeling re- tion. sults are the distribution of products from the tion the amounts of CO2 and CH4 in the feed The sea-level boiling points of reactor. Palladium was chosen as the cat- gas are equal and the total pressure is 1 bar. methanol, acetic acid and formic acid are: alytic metal in these simulations because it The operating temperature ranges from 64.7, 118.1, 100.8 °C, respectively. These is a common catalytic metal and there are ex- 350 to 700 K. The catalytic surface (palla- temperatures are well below the stack tem- perimentally derived results with which we dium) does not have any intentionally ad- perature of an operating coal-fired electrical can compare. sorbed promoters or inhibitors. generating plant so there is more than However, palladium may not be the Certainly the components of the feed enough waste heat for the distillation sepa- best catalytic metal for this application. Fig- gas are the most abundant chemical species ration of these liquids from a mixture. ure 1 shows the results of reactor simulations evolving from the catalyst surface of the first employing palladium as the catalytic metal differential slice and many differential slices Proof of concept: the catalytic and a feed gas composed of carbon dioxide are necessary for efficient conversion of approach to CO2 conversion to and methane. CO2. commercially valuable products These results are relevant to the first These results indicate that a number of We have developed a computational model thin slice (differential slice) of a plug-flow compounds having down-stream commer- of catalytic reactors for the conversion of reactor and the amounts determined after one cial value can be synthesized from a feed gas carbon dioxide to compounds having down- week of reactor operation. In this simula- the components of which are readily avail-

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able onsite of a coal-fired electrical generat- gen desorption and the C2 hydrocarbon evo- compounds can be synthesized from CO2 to ing station. lution with elevated CO2 levels in the feed aid in the deferment of the expense of car- An important aspect of the modeling is gas (Figure 2). bon capture and sequestration. that we are free to vary the conditions under As one might expect the data in Figures This can be facilitated by employing a which the reactor operates. These conditions 2 and 3 indicate increased molecular hydro- catalytic approach. The state of the art is are temperature, pressure, feed gas composi- gen evolution and increased total desorption now such that reactor simulations from com- tion, catalyst composition and the presence of the C2 hydrocarbons when the feed gas is putational models of catalytic reactors can or absence of co-adsorbed inhibitors and impoverished with respect to carbon diox- contribute significantly to the development promoters. ide. of this technology. We can vary these parameters and com- The total desorption amounts of the putationally optimize the reactor perform- oxygen-bearing species seem to be less sen- ance. In this discussion the ‘desorption sitive although there are trends evident. amount’ is the total amount of a certain com- Formic acid and water show a greater sensi- References pound that has come off the catalyst surface tivity to changes in partial pressures of the “CO2 and CH4 chemistry over Pd: Re- (first differential slice) in a week of reactor components in the feed gas than do sults of Kinetic Simulations Relevant to run-time. formaldehyde, methanol, and acetic acid. Environmental Issues”, H. Sellers, R. Spi- Figure 2 is a graph of the total desorp- A small number of experiments exist teri and M. Perrone, J. Phys. Chem., in tion amounts at a total pressure of one bar that are suitable for comparison purposes press (accepted for publication); and an 80% / 20% feed gas mixture of CO2 with our simulation results. Acetic acid, Methanol Institute; Wikipedia. and methane. methanol, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide Figure 3 shows the total desorption and other compounds have been observed The authors amounts with a 20% / 80% feed gas compo- evolving from palladium surfaces. sition. Certainly there will be a point at Those experiments that employed CO2 which the compounds desorbing will be as a component of the feed gas did not find drastically different, for example with a a decrease in catalyst efficacy due to the 100% / 0% mixture, but, when compared to buildup of atomic carbon on the catalyst sur- the data in Figure 1, the data in Figures 2 and face. Our simulations identify the underly- 3 show the sensitivity of the desorption ing reason for this as mentioned above. amounts to the relative feed gas composi- tion. Conclusions There are changes in the desorption Carbon dioxide is a valuable precursor to a amounts with perhaps the most striking be- number of commercially valuable com- Michael Perrone Harrel Sellers ing the attenuation of the molecular hydro- pounds. Commercially valuable chemical

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