UKCCSC News 24 Jan 2008

Hi Folks,

It’s an easy choice for the number 1 story again this time, with the European Commission legislation for CCS easily grabbing the headlines.

The CCS section is here:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/ccs/eccp1_en.htm

“Commission proposal for a Directive on the geological storage of carbon dioxide”

For more general info try here:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/climate_actions/index_en.htm

Or a more easily read digest from Guardian Unlimited:

“EU sets 20% target for carbon cuts”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/23/climatechange.eu1

Hannah Chalmers has contributed some thoughts on the subject:

“I did an interview with the BBC World Service last week that is likely to be included in this show on Friday since Jon and other more experienced people are not quite back from India yet. Actual broadcasts at 12.30, 4.30 and 8.30 (I think). But can also listen on-line any time you like for a week and (probably) downloadable as a pod-cast too. I hope I didn’t say anything that offends anyone too much!”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/science_in_action.shtml

2) Speaking of Hannah, she sent the following which confirms the date and location for the proposal development workshop for university-based R&D on CCS in the UK, as mentioned last issue:

Royal Academy of Engineering in Central London on 28th February, 9.30 for a 10am start.

To attend this workshop, please could you e-mail hannah.chalmers@imperial.ac.uk with:

• Name and basic contact details, including institution
  
• Area(s) of interest and expertise (where possible/appropriate, please match with industry priorities included in the attachment)
  
• Dietary requirements and any other particular needs
  

Registration is required (for catering purposes and to make sure that the venue is big enough) but attendance is free. The closing date for registrations is 15th February.

Next, are 2 CCS schemes that both seem to think that they are the World’s largest:

3) “UAE carbon storage to cost $2-$3 bln -SNC Lavalin” Guardian Unlimited “We have identified between 6 to 8 million tonnes of CO2 that could be put away at very competitive costs,… If you can't do it here, then you can't do it anywhere. The project would be the largest single integrated CCS project in the world”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7245443

For more info on MADSAR, the company that is overseeing this project, go to:

http://www.ameinfo.com/144481.html

4) “Aker to invest $159 mln in carbon capture unit” Reuters

“Norwegian industrial group Aker ASA said it will invest 875 million crowns ($159.3 million) in a facility to capture carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant, saying it will be the first and biggest of its kind. Aker ASA said it aims to build the unit at Kaarstoe in western Norway to capture CO2 emissions from a gas-fired power plant and a gas-processing plant.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL2428315920080124

5) We don’t get many stories from Finland, so this make a change:

“CO2 capture system to be developed for Meri-Pori power plant in Finland” Press Release, Fortum Corporation, Kauppalehti (I think that means ‘Business Newspaper’ in Finnish – anyone want to disagree?)

I’m curious about the economics of the following statement:

“Due to lack of suitable storage locations in Finland, the CO2 from Meri-Pori will be shipped abroad for storage.”

The following stories herald from earlier in the year, and due to a slight administrative error (i.e. I forgot about them) they didn’t get sent out.

6) “Council approves plans for Kent coal power station” Guardian Unlimited

“Energy firm E.On's application to build the station at Kingsnorth, near Rochester, was given the green light when the Tory-controlled Medway council voted in favour of replacing an existing power station. E.on UK said the £1bn investment to build two new cleaner coal units would produce power from coal more efficiently and cleanly than ever before in the UK, leading to a cut in carbon emissions of almost 2m tonnes a year.”

There are mutterings about CCS in this story, but nothing more than that.Greenpeace comes out as very negative on ‘clean coal’.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/03/energy.fossilfuels

The official Greenpeace line isn’t happy reading either:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/the-problem-with-carbon-capture-and-storage-ccs-20080103

There is a Guardian Unlimited comment on the same topic which includes:

“…"clean coal" technology. This myth needs to be addressed. Clean coal, carbon storage, sequestration - all these terms are jargon, mythologising an untested, expensive and potentially unviable future process. No clean coal plants are operational anywhere in the world today, all the technologies have serious question marks hanging over them, and even the chancellor admits the techniques "may never work".”

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/joss_garman/2008/01/eon_should_be_turned_off.html

7) The Mongstad gas plant saga rolls on:

“Norway sticks with CCS gas power plant plan –PM” Reuters

“Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that costs of building a gas-fired power plant with carbon capture would easily exceed 10 billion crowns ($1.79 billion), but vowed to carry out the plan. The government said on Wednesday that a test unit for capture and carbon storage (CCS) at the Mongstad plant would be delayed by about a year, to 2011 from 2010, due to high costs, resulting in protests from environmental groups.”

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL2173041020071221

8) As UKCCSC draws to a close, some of us might be looking for jobs. The University of Texas at Austin are recruiting in the general field of ‘energy’, and hope to make 6 appointments:

http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/hiring/energy.html

9) Thanks to Hannah (again) for this one, a Technology Strategy Board call on low carbon energy, including CATs (opened 19th December, optional first review deadline of 11th January and compulsory registration of intent deadline on 22nd February). It includes:

“Further developing CO2 capture technologies including pre- and post-combustion and oxy-fuel firing, and associated technologies to improve their efficiency and reduce capital and running cost.

Developing CO2 compression and handling technologies for subsequent transport and storage. Developing further technologies for the monitoring and verification of geologically stored CO2.

Developing further technologies associated with the safe transport and storage of CO2”

https://www.technologyprogramme.org.uk/extranet/competitions/Autumn07/Documents/PriorityDescriptions/TSB_LowCarbon.pdf

That’s all Folks, a double serving should be enough for anyone.

Mark

Dr Mark Wilkinson
UKCCSC Web Administrator
GeoSciences
University of Edinburgh