Use of the clean development mechanism for CO2 capture and storage

Rapid industrialization and urbanization in the 20th century have led to increasing volumes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere[...]

Co-benefits of including CCS projects in the CDM in India's power sector

Progress on including CCS projects in the CDM: Insights on increased awareness, market potential and baseline methodologies

T energy penalty associated with carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies is a key barrier to largescale deployment in China, because consuming extra fossil fuels to capture CO2 could be considered as conflicting with domestic priorities favoring energy conservation, diversity, and self-sufficiency. Flexible CO2 capture designs could, however, allow CCS power plants to temporarily reduce the level of CO2 capture, thus, in the short term, the energy penalty could potentially act as a “strategic virtual reserve” that could reduce the risk of fossil fuel supply interruptions and provide extra reserve capacity margin. Furthermore, an upgradable futureproof design for CO2 capture could help avoid “energy penalty lock-in” during a plant’s lifetime as technology learning takes place. In 2011, global emissions of carbon dioxide increased by 1 Gt, of which 720 Mt of the increase was attributable to China. China’s share of global emissions increased to 24%, now far ahead of the United States, the next largest emitter, at 15%. Overall, 45% of global CO2 emissions are produced from coal and fully half of those emissions are from China, the vast majority of which is used in the power sector. Therefore, CCS, as the only technology that can decarbonize fossil fuels, should logically be central to any plausible strategy for significant cuts in emissions. On the other hand, China is the second largest importer of crude oil in the world in 2012. Even more dramatically, China shifted from being a net exporter to a net importer of coal in 2009 and by 2011 became the largest net importer of coal in the world, though there is still debate on whether China will need to increase coal imports in the future. Energy conservation is a top Chinese national development target, but energy demand will inevitably grow substantially in the next two decades given that Chinese per capita energy consumption remains much lower than the OECD average level even though its per capita CO2 emissions are reaching European levels. Despite these pressures, security of primary energy supply has become a major national priority. In 2011, the Chinese government (National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance) launched the emergency coal reserve program that encourages large coal-mining companies, large power generation companies, and major coal transportation terminals to develop a strategic coal reserve. Deploying state-of-the-art CCS technologies in the power generation sector would avoid roughly 85% of CO2 emissions with an energy penalty of 20−30%. An aggressive strategy to capture CO2 at, say, 40% of Chinese coal-fired power plants would then lead to a rise of approximately 10% in national coal consumption, equivalent to 1.5 times net coal imports in 2010. In other words, significant extra fossil fuel consumption and power plant infrastructure would be required if CCS technologies were widely deployed. This explains why even though CCS is widely recognized as a key technology to decarbonize the Chinese fossil fuel dominated energy system, there is very limited financial support for demonstrating and deploying CCS projects at large-scale. CCS is therefore not currently a high priority on the list of possible climate technology options also compatible with energy supply security and energy efficiency priorities. The extra energy infrastructure requirement for CCS to meet peak electricity demand could be minimized through flexibility in operating CCS systems (e.g., by shutting down CO2 capture during supply shocks) while the experience curve could reduce the energy penalty in the long term. To do so will require investing in flexible, future-proof designs for CO2 capture power plants. With a flexible CO2 capture design, CCS power plants could temporarily reduce the level of CO2 capture in order to generate more power to complement intermittent and inflexible technologies in the energy system. Notably, the

Atmospheric and geological CO2 damage costs in energy scenarios

To mitigate the dangerous impacts of climate change, anthropogenic CO2 emissions must be reduced drastically. In this context, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has been increasingly considered as an option. As a part of the energy and climate change package, the EU has for the first time provided a comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of CCS at the national level. CCS can also be implemented under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, which allows industrial countries to fulfil part of their emission reduction targets in developing countries. This paper explores this option, illustrating how elements of the legal framework proposed for CDM projects in the EU could be utilised, assuming CCS is approved for the CDM. Demonstration of large-scale feasibility and long-term security of storage is still lacking, however. The German Advisory Council on Environment therefore calls for a new law addressing research instead of comprehensive regulation of commercial use under the CCS directive of the EU. To nonetheless provide developing countries with access to CCS technology, promotion as part of technology transfer agreements is a possible alternative.

Progress on including CCS projects in the CDM: Insights on increased awareness, market potential and baseline methodologies

This paper is mainly focused on the eligibility of trans-boundary Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project activity and it aims to explore a broad range of CCS transboundary issues whereby the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and national governments could take into consideration. Much work is still to be done by the CCS community (including the Institute) to ensure that the implementation of CCS under the CDM is both environmentally effective and commercially attractive. The recommendations focus on technical issues, with the aim of helping Parties evaluate a robust strategy for CCS as part of international negotiations and establish CCS best practice criteria for governments and the international process, thereby enhancing transparency and ensuring that CCS deployment is safe and effective. When considering CDM projects activities with a transboundary component, it is recommend that the rules of the main international treaties related to CCS be considered by the UNFCCC, especially the London Protocol guidelines for risk assessment and management and the 2006 IPCC Guidelines. Additionally, national governments should apply the rules and guidelines as delineated under the relevant existing international treaties and CCS national regulations.

Financing carbon capture and storage projects the results of two expert meetings

Research to date has identified cost and lack of support from stakeholders as two key barriers to the development of a carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) industry that is capable of effectively mitigating climate change. This paper responds to these challenges through systematic evaluation of the research and development process for the Acorn CCS project, a project designed to develop a scalable, full-chain CCS project on the north-east coast of the UK. Through assessment of Acorn's publicly-available outputs, we identify strategies which may help to enhance the viability of early-stage CCS projects. Initial capital costs can be minimised by infrastructure re-use, particularly pipelines, and by re-use of data describing the subsurface acquired during oil and gas exploration activity. Also, development of the project in separate stages of activity (e.g. different phases of infrastructure re-use and investment into new infrastructure) enables cost reduction for future build-out phases. Additionally, engagement of regional-level policy makers may help to build stakeholder support by situating CCS within regional decarbonisation narratives. We argue that these insights may be translated to general objectives for any CCS project sharing similar characteristics such as legacy infrastructure, industrial clusters and an involved stakeholder-base that is engaged with the fossil fuel industry.

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) has played more roles in greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction while the Kyoto Protocol sets targets for each nation to reduce its emission of CO2 and reduce investment cost of reduction between developed country and developing country by using Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In this study, CCS systems are specifically designed to remove CO2 from the natural gas production and safely store the CO2 in deplete gas reservoir. Inclusion of CCS in the CDM could be a way to provide an incentive to those CCS project types that are ready to be deployed commercially. A case study on natural gas field produces natural gas approximately 350 MMSCF per day which contains 28-32 percent of CO2. In order to meet sale specification, company has to reduce CO2 to 23 percent before delivery. The process leads to emit great amount of CO2 annually so the technical and economic feasibility of CCS is being studied. An efficient model was developed to predict the economics involved in the CCS projects. The model mainly consists of Discounted Cash Flow Analysis and Monte Carlo Simulation to determine uncertainties of the project which is composed of capital cost of construction, operating cost and carbon credits. From the study, the CCS project able to achieve significant reduction in GHG emissions approximately 850,000 tons per year. Inclusion of CCS project in the CDM can provide an important incentive for potential investment in the project. This incentive could offset the incremental cost of the technology however the project itself cannot achieve in CCS technology without carbon credit support. Nevertheless, the current price of carbon credit cannot induce the company to invest in CCS as well

The CO2 injected into deep formations during implementation of carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) technology may leak and migrate into shallow aquifers or ground surfaces through a variety of pathways over a long period. The leaked CO2 can threaten shallow environments as well as human health. Therefore, almost all monitoring programs for CCS projects around the world contain near-surface monitoring. This paper presents a U-tube based near-surface monitoring technology focusing on its first application in the Shenhua CCS demonstration project, located in the Ordos Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. First, background information on the site monitoring program of the Shenhua CCS demonstration project was provided. Then, the principle of fluid sampling and the monitoring methods were summarized for the U-tube sampler system, and the monitoring data were analyzed in detail. The U-tube based monitoring results showed that the U-tube sampler system is accurate, flexible, and representative of the subsurface fluid sampling process. The monitoring indicators for the subsurface water and soil gas at the Shenhua CCS site indicate good stratification characteristics. The concentration level of each monitoring indicator decreases with increasing depth. Finally, the significance of this near-surface environmental monitoring technology for CO2 leakage assessments was preliminarily confirmed at the Shenhua CCS site. The application potential of the U-tube based monitoring technology was also demonstrated during the subsurface environmental monitoring of other CCS projects.

Life cycle assessment performed on a CCS model case in Japan and evaluation of improvement facilitated by heat integration

Although extensive research has been devoted to public perceptions and acceptance of controversial energy innovations, the perspectives of people developing and implementing such technologies are relatively under-examined. Other industries, such as mining, and social researchers have adopted the term “social licence to operate” (SLO) to conceptualise community–industry relationships. Despite its potential applicability to carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology, SLO has received very little attention in this context, specifically from an engineering and managerial perspective. The internationally contested nature of CCS highlights the importance of examining how engineers and managers discuss and understand the term SLO. Given the central role of engineers and managers in developing CCS technology and contributing to the creation of the contexts in which people relate to it, knowledge of how they understand their connection to communities impacted by the technology is a key area requiring development. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with engineers and managers from Australian CCS projects, this research considers their opinions of the relationship between CCS projects and the local or national community, and their understandings of the SLO concept. Results suggest that the emerging energy technology of CCS exposes some of SLO’s limitations for conceptualising and analysing the community–industry relationship.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is believed to have a strong potential for reducing impacts from fossil fuel consumption on climate change. The inclusion of CCS into Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in COP 16 is expected to mobilize global adoption of CCS, especially in developing countries where fossil fuel remains a cheaper alternative to meet fast growing energy demands. While fossil fuel demand may be supported with global deployment of CCS, concerns on energy security is likely to intensify competition between coal, oil, and gas as reliable sources of energy. For GCC countries, there is a strong need to understand the implication of large scale CCS deployment on demands for coal, natural gas, crude oil, and renewable energy. To address the complex issues at hand, we are working on the following research subjects; identifying socially optimal CCS regulation scheme taking into account CCS for CDM and the use of CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), identifying optimal regulatory scope of CCS ...