Carbon capture needed in climate change fight, IEA says

Yanchang Petroleum International

19/06/2017 08:08

By Sonali Paul 
    MELBOURNE, June 19 (Reuters) - Carbon capture and storage is 
gradually gaining government attention after being overtaken by 
investment in wind and solar energy, with the International 
Energy Agency (IEA) saying the technology will be crucial to 
limiting global warming. 
    The IEA estimates carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be 
needed to cut 14 percent of the emissions that have to be abated 
by 2060 to limit the global rise in temperature to less than 2 
degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). 
    "The size of the challenge really requires all technologies 
to be deployed," IEA energy analyst Samantha McCulloch told 
Reuters on the sidelines of a Global CCS Institute forum in 
Melbourne. 
    By one estimate, $80 billion has been invested in renewable 
energy compared with $20 billion in CCS, Australia's ambassador 
for the environment, Patrick Suckling, told the forum. 
    Efforts to expand carbon capture and storage include a 
Japanese project to bury carbon dioxide below the seabed off 
Hokkaido island and construction of China's first large-scale 
carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project at a 
coal-to-chemicals plant run by Yanchang Petroleum  0346.HK  in 
Xian. 
    In Australia, the government has proposed allowing its A$10 
billion ($7.6 billion) Clean Energy Finance Corp to provide 
loans to carbon capture projects as part of a 
"technology-neutral" approach to cutting carbon emissions. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1IW0LX 
    "We're seeing renewed interest from governments," McCulloch 
said. 
    Two projects in Australia are driving hope for the 
technology. 
    Chevron Corp  CVX.AX  is in the final stages of starting up 
the world's largest CCS operation, estimated at A$2 billion at 
its huge Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow 
Island off Western Australia, where carbon dioxide will be 
stripped from natural gas, compressed, piped and injected 2 kms 
(1.2 miles) below the island. 
    The other project, CarbonNet, is a A$150 million government 
study in the state of Victoria. 
    CarbonNet has identified a site 1.5 kms below the seabed off 
the state's coast where it estimates it could store 125 million 
tonnes of carbon dioxide, project director Ian Filby told the 
forum. 
    It aims to have the Pelican site approved for storage and 
secure an injection license by 2020. 
    Filby said the lowest cost applications for CCS would be for 
industrial operations, like gas processing, fertiliser 
manufacturing and hydrogen production, at an estimated A$30 a 
ton for compressing, transporting and burying carbon dioxide. 
    That could suit a project that Japan's Kawasaki Heavy 
Industries (KHI)  7012.T  is pursuing to use Victoria's brown 
coal to produce ultra clean hydrogen fuel, a project it has said 
will need CCS.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1I01NT 
     
  ($1 = 1.3137 Australian dollars) 
 
 (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin) 
 ((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 3 9286 1419; Reuters 
Messaging: sonali.paul.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: AUSTRALIA CARBONCAPTURE/