Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technology that can capture carbon dioxide emissions produced from fossil fuels in electricity, industrial processes which prevents from entering the atmosphere.
Carbon capture and storage
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture and sequestration is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) before it enters the atmosphere, transporting it, and storing it (carbon sequestration) for centuries or millennia. Usually th ...
is also used to sequester filtered out of natural gas from certain natural gas fields. While typically the has no value after being stored,
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR), also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. EOR can extract 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil, compared to 20% to 40% using ...
uses to increase yield from declining oil fields.
There are no currently-operating large-scale CCS projects in Australia, although the
Gorgon gas project
The Gorgon gas project is a multi-decade natural gas project in Western Australia, involving the development of the Greater Gorgon gas fields, subsea gas-gathering infrastructure, and a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Barrow Island. The pr ...
will qualify when it is fully operational. Despite multiple CCS demonstration projects at Australian
coal-fired power station
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts Nameplate capacity, capacity. They ...
s, none of Australia's coal plants are currently capturing or have a time frame for doing so.
Australian Treasury modelling finds that CCS is not expected to be commercially viable until the 2030s. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...
(IPCC) estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10% and 55% of the total carbon mitigation effort until 2100.
[ PCC, 2005''IPCC special report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage''. Prepared by working group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Metz, B., O.Davidson, H. C. de Coninck, M. Loos, and L.A. Meyer (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 442 pp. Available in full a]
www.ipcc.ch
(PDF - 22.8MB)
In the
2017 budget, the
Turnbull Government announced the cessation of the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund in the 2017 financial year and the cessation of business case funding for the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program in financial year 2019. This is on top of the
2015 budget, where the
Abbott Government cut $460m from CCS research projects leaving $191.7m to continue existing projects for the next seven years. The program had already been cut by the previous Labor government and much of the funding remained unallocated.
Challenges
# Cost of CCS will make coal-fired electricity more expensive than wind power
# Potential leakage from underground or undersea reservoirs
# Scarcity of potential sites and capacity compared to volumes of
greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorbs and Emission (electromagnetic radiation), emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse ...
needed to be sequestered on an ongoing basis
# CCS currently requires up to 30% more coal than conventional plants to cover the energy needs of CCS (although R&D is rapidly improving efficiencies), and that extra coal must first be mined (which has environmental effects) and transported to the plant (which takes energy)
# Infrastructure required would take years to build
# emissions of
acid rain
Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...
-causing gases like nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides of a plant that captures will be up to 40 percent greater than the total cradle-to-grave emissions of a modern plant that doesn't capture its because of the extra coal burnt
Transport of
In Australia, the major emissions sites are in the
Latrobe and
Hunter Valleys. The Latrobe Valley has considerable potential storage within a few hundred kilometres in Bass Strait which the CarbonNet Project was investigating (see below). There are no particularly promising large storage prospects near the Hunter Valley. Geologically prospective areas include the North West Shelf (see the Gorgon Project below) and Bass Strait. Australia has very extensive basins with deep saline formations, both onshore and particularly offshore, in which large quantities of carbon dioxide can dissolve. In such formations Australia has a potential carbon dioxide storage resource equivalent to many hundreds of years of emissions at the current rate. Work is now underway to fully assess storage potential.
Government involvement
In November 2008, the Australian Commonwealth Government passed the Offshore Petroleum Amendment (Greenhouse Gas Storage) Act 2008, which provides a regulatory framework for carbon dioxide storage in federal offshore waters.
The Victorian Greenhouse Gas Geological Sequestration Act 2008 (No. 61 of 2008) received Royal Assent on 5 November 2008. It provides a dedicated legal framework enabling the onshore injection and permanent storage of greenhouse gas substances. The state government has also developed a regulatory framework for offshore storage sites (i.e. those sites falling within the 3 nautical mile extent of state jurisdiction; the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2010.
Both Australia's state and federal governments have been major contributors to CCS research and development. Federal government CCS initiatives include the
CO2CRC (founded 2003), the
Low Emission Technology Demonstration Fund
Low or LOW or lows, may refer to:
People
* Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low
Places
* Low, Quebec, Canada
* Low, Utah, United States
* Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station
* Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...
(2004-2017), funding for the
Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate
The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, also known as APP, was an international, voluntary, public-private partnership among Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the United St ...
(2006-2011, renewables, CCS and other),
National Low Emissions Coal Initiative
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
(founded 2008),
Global CCS Institute (founded 2009),
Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships (2009-2019), the
(2015-2016) and the
National CO2 Infrastructure Plan operated by Geoscience Australia (2012-2016).
Federal funding commitments to these initiatives total $3.5-3.6 billion, of which $1.3-$1.6 billion has been committed or is expected to be committed.
In February 2017, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said:
In April 2018, a parliamentary inquiry heard from energy researchers that carbon capture and storage requires a
price on carbon to be viable.
Commercial projects in operation
There are no large-scale commercial CCS projects within Australia. The
Global CCS Institute defines "large-scale" as 400,000 tonnes of per annum, or 800,000 tonnes per annum for a coal plant. It previously used a one million tonnes per annum threshold.
Demonstration and proposed projects and projects under construction are listed below with brief descriptions.
Demonstration projects
CO2CRC Otway Project
The CO2CRC Otway Project in Western Victoria is a demonstration project which has injected and stored over 65,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in a depleted natural gas reservoir 2 km below the Earth's surface. The project was first proposed to the Board of the then Australian Petroleum Cooperative Research Centre (APCRC) in March 1998. There has been no sign of leakage according to a comprehensive monitoring and verification program. A mixture of Carbon dioxide and methane gas is extracted from a well in the Bathurst field, then compressed and transported via dedicated pipeline to the Naylor field two kilometres away. The gases are then injected into the depleted gas reservoir through a dedicated injection well. A nearby well (previously used to produce natural gas) is used to monitor the injected carbon dioxide. A second stage of the project, involving evaluation of carbon dioxide storage in deep saline formations, has been highly successful and provided data on estimating storage capacity using an innovative single well test. The project is Australia's first demonstration of geosequestration and one of the world's largest geosequestration research projects. This area has active exploration for geothermal and petroleum resources and has been supported by geotechnical work completed by the public sector and the private sector.
Post combustion capture projects in the Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley Post Combustion Capture Project was a joint collaboration between Loy Yang Power, International Power Hazelwood, government and researchers from CSIRO's Energy Transformed Flagship and CO2CRC (including Monash and Melbourne Universities), involving research at both Loy Yang and Hazelwood power stations. The 10.5-metre-high pilot plant at Loy Yang was designed to capture up to 1,000 tonnes of per annum from the power station's exhaust-gas flues. Future trials were expected to involve the use of a range of different -capture liquids. On 9 July 2008, CSIRO Energy Technology Chief Dr David Brockway announced that carbon dioxide () had been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. The purpose of the pilot plant is to conduct research, not to capture all the emissions from the power station.
Further government projects in this area led to many geo-technical studies that review gas and liquid migration, trapping and leakage. While the Gippsland area has been described as a basin margin, this is somewhat vague. The area defines a major fold belt onshore and offshore. The key risk to injection of in the area is the ability to keep gas in the ground. Multiple regional and local studies over the area have been completed by government and private companies.
In 2016, the PICA Post-Combustion Project was announced. This is a joint collaboration between
CSIRO
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...
,
IHI Corporation
, formerly known as , is a Japanese engineering corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that produces and offers ships, space launch vehicles, aircraft engines, marine diesel engines, gas turbines, gas engines, railway systems, turbochargers ...
(Japanese technology provider) and
AGL. It will use a pilot plant to test -capture liquids over a two-year period.
The CO2CRC/HRL Mulgrave Capture Project
CO2CRC commissioned three carbon dioxide capture research rigs at HRL's gasifier research facility at Mulgrave in Melbourne, Victoria. The CO2CRC rigs captured carbon dioxide from
syngas
Syngas, or synthesis gas, is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, in various ratios. The gas often contains some carbon dioxide and methane. It is principly used for producing ammonia or methanol. Syngas is combustible and can be used as ...
, the product of the brown coal gasifier, using solvent, membrane and adsorbent technologies. The capture technologies are equally applicable to syngas from brown and black coal, gas or biomass fuels. During the project, researchers evaluated each technology for efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Advanced gasifier technologies are highly suitable for carbon dioxide capture for CCS as they produce a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide.
Liquid Fuel Carrier Research and Development Project
The to liquid fuel project proposes a game changing technology for conversion of solar energy to liquid fuels. Both solar heat and solar PV electricity will be used to drive a solid oxide electrolyser device for a production of hydrogen and syngas which then can be converted onsite into transportable liquid fuels enabling large-scale energy export and storage.
Proposed projects
Gorgon gas field, Barrow Island
This project led by
Chevron
Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to:
Science and technology
* Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines
* Chevron (anatomy), a bone
* '' Eulithis testata'', a moth
* Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...
will be designed to capture 3.5 Mt of carbon dioxide per annum from
Greater Gorgon gas fields and store it in the Dupuy formation beneath the
Barrow Island. The project will be the largest
carbon dioxide sequestration operation in the world.
Chevron is liable for leaks and other damage during the project's lifetime and for 15 years afterwards,
but in 2009 the state and federal governments agreed to indemnify Chevron against liability for the project after that time, with the Commonwealth in 2015 confirming it would adopt 80% of the liability and WA the remaining 20%.
When construction on the project began in 2009, it was expected to be completed by 2014 - including carbon capture and storage.
The project ultimately started extracting gas in February 2017 but carbon capture and storage was delayed multiple times. A delay until March 2019 resulted in a further five million tonnes of to be released, because:
In May 2018, the WA Environmental Protection Authority announced an investigation into whether Gorgon could meet its storage commitments given the delays. In March 2019, Chevron announced that carbon capture and storage was delayed by another nine months, which would result in the release of a further 7.9 to 11.1 million tonnes of .
WWF claims that the Gorgon geosequestration project is potentially unsafe as the area has over 700 wells drilled in the area, 50 of which reach the area proposed for geosequestration of . Fault lines compound the problems. Barrow Island is also an A class nature reserve of global importance.
Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project
In April 2018, the federal and Victorian governments announced a brown coal-to-hydrogen project that would operate out of
AGL Energy
AGL Energy Ltd () is an Australian listed public company involved in both the generation and retailing of electricity and gas for residential and commercial use. AGL is Australia's largest electricity generator, and the nation's largest carbo ...
's
Loy Yang A power station. Construction is expected to begin in 2019, and hydrogen production by 2020 or 2021.
The pilot program will not include carbon capture and storage, but it is expected if the project is expanded, with proponent
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
(or simply Kawasaki) is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headq ...
says that coal-to-hydrogen technology is not commercial without it.
The CarbonNet Project
CarbonNet was established by the Victorian Government in 2009 to investigate the potential for establishing a world class, large-scale, multi-user carbon capture and storage network in Victoria. In 2012 the Australian Government selected CarbonNet as one of only two CCS flagship projects under its Clean Energy Initiative and, with the State of Victoria, awarded the project a further $100 million in joint funding to undertake feasibility. The Global CCS Institute provided $2.3 million in support.
In 2016 it was reported that "When Australia repealed the
carbon price
Carbon pricing (or pricing), also known as cap and trade (CAT) or emissions trading scheme (ETS), is a method for nations to reduce global warming. The cost is applied to greenhouse gas emissions in order to encourage polluters to reduce the co ...
the project did not advance", but as of January 2018 the project was conducting a 17-day seismic survey of former oil wells in the
Gippsland Basin.
Completed projects
Callide Oxyfuel Project, Queensland
![Callide Oxyfuel Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Callide_Oxyfuel_Project.jpg)
The Callide Oxyfuel Project was the largest oxyfuel demonstration in the world when it completed its demonstration phase in March 2015. It demonstrated carbon capture using
oxyfuel combustion, but did not attempt carbon storage. Oxyfuel technology enables coal to burn efficiently in oxygen (rather than air as in a conventional power station), reducing emissions and producing carbon dioxide in a more concentrated form, allowing it to be stored and extracted.
The Oxyfuel boiler operated for two years and nine months, beyond the project's expected duration, and achieved a capture of 75 tonnes of per day (27,300 tonnes per annum). The project team assessed eight potential carbon storage sites but these were unsuitable because of location, availability and geological profile.
By capturing the CO
2 produced from the combustion of the feed coal, which would otherwise be released to the atmosphere, the project demonstrated that using carbon capture technology, deep cuts could be made to power station emissions to help slow the process of climate change whilst maintaining the use of fossil fuels as major energy sources.
The project was a joint venture partnership comprising
CS Energy
CS Energy is an Australia-based electricity generating company fully owned by the Government of Queensland with its head office located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The company was established in 1997 and employs more than 500 staff. Jim Soor ...
, ACA Low Emissions Technologies (ACALET) (now calle
COAL21,
Glencore
Glencore plc is a Swiss multinational commodity trading and mining company with headquarters in Baar, Switzerland. Glencore's oil and gas head office is in London and its registered office is in Saint Helier, Jersey. The current company was c ...
, Schlumberger Carbon Services, and Japanese participants
J-Power,
Mitsui & Co., Ltd and
IHI Corporation
, formerly known as , is a Japanese engineering corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan that produces and offers ships, space launch vehicles, aircraft engines, marine diesel engines, gas turbines, gas engines, railway systems, turbochargers ...
. The project was awarded $63 million from the Commonwealth Government under the Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund and received additional financial support from ACALET and the Japanese and Queensland governments, and technical support from JCOAL. Total investment in the project, covering capital works and operations and maintenance was $250 million. It was a project for the
Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate
The Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, also known as APP, was an international, voluntary, public-private partnership among Australia, Canada, India, Japan, the People's Republic of China, South Korea, and the United St ...
.
The Callide Oxyfuel Project demonstrated the production of electricity from coal with almost no power station emissions to the atmosphere by capturing a major portion of the flue gas CO
2 as liquefied gas, and other waste gases such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulphur (SOx), and heavy metals in condensate form. The project involved the following key technologies and activities:
# oxyfuel combustion of coal to achieve a 60 percent to 70 percent reduction in the actual volume of flue gas and a proportionate increase in the CO
2 concentration, from around 20% to around 80%. For a new build power station, it is believed that his value would be further increased to around 95%.
# cryogenic separation and recovery of industrial grade CO
2 from the power station flue gas stream, which could either be partially utilised in industry or potentially in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which assists in maximising oil production from an oil well.
# assessment of CO
2 storage capacity in Queensland, and injection testing of Callide Oxyfuel CO
2.
The project demonstrated more than 10,000 hours of oxy-combustion and more than 5,000 hours of carbon capture.
The Callide Oxyfuel Project demonstrated that new technology could be applied to an old power station to produce cleaner electricity. Built in the 1960s, the Callide A Power Station near Biloela in Central Queensland was chosen as the project’s demonstration site. Retrofitting the Callide A Power Station with oxyfuel technology represented a low-risk and cost- and time-effective way to demonstrate clean coal technology on an industrial scale, and represented a new stage in the station’s history.
In 2017, Martin Moore,
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
of project proponent
CS Energy
CS Energy is an Australia-based electricity generating company fully owned by the Government of Queensland with its head office located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. The company was established in 1997 and employs more than 500 staff. Jim Soor ...
said of the Callide project:
International Power Carbon Capture Plant, Victoria (Hazelwood 2030)
A post-combustion capture plant operated at the International Power GDF Suez Hazelwood Power Station
Hazelwood.
When announced in 2007, the project was originally planned as a retro-fit of one of Hazelwood's eight generating units, which would have reduced its emissions intensity by 20% (500,000 tonnes per annum). It was offered a $50 million federal government grant from the Low Emissions Technology Development Fund and a $30 million Victorian government grant from the Energy Technology Innovation Strategy.
A pilot program with a more modest capture objective was completed. The solvent capture plant cost $10 million (including grants from state and federal governments) and began operation in 2009, capturing and chemically sequestered at a nominal rate of 10,000 tonnes per annum.
Hazelwood Power Station closed in March 2017.
Delayed projects
Monash coal-to-liquids
On 2 December 2008 Shell and Anglo American announced that this possible
brown coal
Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...
project in the
Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical district and urban area of the Gippsland region in the state of Victoria, Australia. The traditional owners are the Brayakaulung of the Gunai nation. The district lies east of Melbourne and nestle ...
will not proceed at present. They have described it as a "long term" opportunity.
The planned project was planned to have some CCS, storing the gas captured in depleted off-shore oil fields in the
Gippsland Basin in east
Bass Strait
Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct waterwa ...
.
Cancelled projects
BP Kwinana (WA) coal to gas plant
A proposed $2 billion "hydrogen energy" coal-to-gas plant will not proceed because the geological formations off Perth, which were intended to sequester the , contain gas "chimneys" that "mean it is next to impossible to establish a seal in the strata that could contain the CO
2".
Zerogen power station
The Zerogen powerstation project near Stanwell power station in Queensland is proposed to be a 100 MW "Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle" power station with CCS. In late 2010, the
Government of Queensland
The Queensland Government is the democratic administrative authority of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. The Government of Queensland, a parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy was form ...
announced it would not fund the Zerogen project because it was not economically viable and that it would be sold off.
Fairview project
The Fairview Project, near Roma in
South West Queensland
South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers . The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Countr ...
, was intended to capture 1/3 of the emissions from a 100 MW coal seam methane gas-fired power station. In 2006 it was selected to receive federal government funding, but as of September 2017 it does not appear on the
Global CCS Institute's list of projects.
See also
*
Coal mining in Australia
Coal is mined in every state of Australia. The largest black coal resources occur in Queensland and New South Wales. About 70% of coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia, and of the balance most is used in electricity gener ...
*
Emissions trading
Emissions trading is a market-based approach to controlling pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing the emissions of pollutants. The concept is also known as cap and trade (CAT) or emissions trading scheme (ETS). Carbon emission t ...
*
Mandatory renewable energy targets
*
Mitigation of global warming in Australia
Greenhouse gas emissions by Australia totalled 533 million tonnes -equivalent based on greenhouse gas national inventory report data for 2019; representing per capita e emissions of 21 tons, three times the global average. Coal was responsi ...
*
Renewable energy commercialization in Australia
Renewable energy in Australia includes wind power, hydroelectricity, solar PV, heat pumps, geothermal, wave and solar thermal energy.
In 2021, Australia produced 74,679 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy, which accounted for 32.5% of electri ...
References
{{Energy in Australia
Energy in Australia
Climate change in Australia
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...