Crunch time for the planet

There was a lot of explaining going on at the recent Copenhagen climate summit conference. After the speeches and ceremonies, delegates got down to the hardcore negotiating.

Almost all of this hard graft was dealing with how countries and corporates tackle CO2 targets for the next 20-30 years and, crucially, how carbon capture storage (CCS) technology will get used.

“McKinsey Consultants recently did an in-depth study on CCS,” says Stan Dessens, “and it quickly became obvious that unless countries started to use CCS, then we can’t reduce our CO2 emissions effectively. In the long run, renewables will be able to help here, but until they arrive we need a bridge. CCS is the right bridge and the right technology. It’s a genuine alternative that works now.”

CCS in brief:
• CCS is a relatively new technology designed to let major producers of CO2 emissions like fossil fue∞burning power stations prevent the CO2 they create being released into the atmosphere.
• CCS is usually stored underground or under the sea.
• Its use is not widespread but it is increasingly
seen as a bridge-builder until more renewable technology arrives.
• A major part of CCS strategy is to reduce the cost and increase scale in order to get CCS commercially available by 2020.

Barriers remain though. More than 150 developing countries have no incentive mechanisms for developing CCS. Its technology needs to be more widespread and it needs to be cheaper. CCS also needs a great deal more public acceptance if it’s to make serious headway.

“In the Netherlands,” says Stan Dessens, “we continue to break down barriers in terms of public acceptance. It’s the usual ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ concerns and people do have a right to be concerned. But it’s also a communication issue, and a matter of convincing the public that CCS technology is safe and effective.”

Communicating the need
Is CCS promoted enough by the right agencies? It’s a good question when the need for it is so pressing, argues Stan Dessens. Part of the fight to get CCS more accepted is to broaden the net of groups and organisations that can talk about it with authority – it’s simply too big an issue to be left just to the politicians.

“We need to talk more and invest more with scientists and NGOs and other responsible authorities,” says Dessens. “Once NGOs and scientists start talking about the issue then you have a platform where they can be judged and trusted more by the public. When a scientist or an NGO says ‘we need to invest or accept CCS more’, then public acceptance does begin to change. So we need to talk to universities and NGOs. Some, of course, will be never convinced, but we need to start.”

There are several CCS steps to communicate successfully: capture, transport and storage.

Power plants, for example, are often part of the “capture” part of the chain but the public still largely remains unclear about the “transport” and “storage” elements, partly because the costs and how the technology functions remains unclear – quite a tangled mass of communication challenges. Although very sophisticated CCS technology exists, progress will be slow until there is broader public acceptance.

Practical, profitable partnerships
Dessens believes the role of private enterprise and private public partnerships (PPP) are essential in order to augment CCS progress, as well as aid consumer perception about the technology. “I’m really very optimistic about more PPP relationships in the future. It’s about looking for common outcomes and so far there have been several projects that have succeeded. Of course, there can be confrontations sometimes on this journey, but that’s expected.”

CCS technology also needs some flagship projects up and running on a commercial scale to prove the viability of the technology. That’s not easy. For example, current research by the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum suggests there are 273 CCS projects under way worldwide, but only 64 of which are of commercial scale. Seven are operational but none as yet generate electricity.

Dessens says the data can look discouraging from certain viewpoints. “But we have always stated we need a decade from 2010 to 2020 for development and while we have pilot projects running in the Netherlands, the decision to invest in a post∞combustion project of 250 megawatts under an ERP scheme with Eon/Electrabel is great progress.” This scheme has been nominated for a subsidy of EUR 180m under the EERP scheme (European Economic Recovery Plan) with an operation start date slated for 2015.

Meanwhile several pilot plants and demonstrations are on-going in the Netherlands. So progress is being made.

Current Dutch CCS storage projects
• An already up-and-running offshore project with Gaz de France (location block K12b) where CO2 is injected to stimulate gas production. Already more than 60,000 tons of CO2 have been injected here.
• Barendrecht: this is a 10-year injection project of 0.2 million tons a year in a depleted gasfield. CO2 is coming from a Shell refinery; there is a EUR 30m subsidy granted to Shell to help realise this project. Scheduled start of injection is 2012.
• Geleen in the province of Limburg; same size as Barendrecht; CO2 is coming from an ammonia plant with a subsidy of EUR 30 mln granted; injection in sandstone under coal layers. Start of operation is 2011/12.

Support from China and India
China and India are both investing seriously in CCS technology. But Western Europe and the US also have their part to play in exporting CCS technology to places like India and China – it’s all about a joint effort. “When a country like China takes the problem seriously,” says Dessens, “we all gain, because that speeds up the process for everyone. We have to develop and share technology together.”

CCS technology is very important for a country like China because it’s an enormous coal producer. Coal emits more than double the CO2 compared to gas per kilowatt of energy produced when burned. But CCS – sometimes labelled “clean coal” – promises to remove a large proportion of emissions from burning coal.

Also, says Dessens, CCS is vital in the fight against climate change because emerging economies like India and China are almost wholly dependent on coal for electricity generation.

In fact, carbon capture has been used in petrochemical and chemical processes for many years. But developing it on a truly massive commercial scale is a different thing.

Change is tough, tough work
Stan Dessens knows that the road to CCS acceptance will be hard∞going into the near future. He also acknowledges that there are well-known drawbacks to CCS, like its expense. But he’s confident broader acceptance will come. “Really you have to look around and ask yourself, ‘what is the alternative to CCS? What other technology works here, right now?’

“Some people will argue that we have to invest more in renewables, and I agree with that. But it’s impossible to solve the problem only with renewables. We have to be open to lots of ideas and pathways. We need them all.”

Further information: www.ez.nl