Carbon Capture & Sequestration: In The News

Article describes a CO2 capture pilot project underway at RWE's Niederaussem brown coal plant and mentions the need for Germany's CCS legislation (which was postponed in June) to be finalized.

Proposed Michigan state bill would establish a trust fund for CCS liability (a one time fee of $1 per ton of CO2, then 15 cents per ton each year afterwards). Bill also includes language clarifying property rights.

Article describes need for a carbon market to spur CCS development in South Africa and provides an update on the development of the South African Carbon Storage Atlas.

The Australian federal government is expected to give final approval to the Gorgon LNG project--a project that includes a CCS Component. "The project's joint venture partners are yet to give it the final go-ahead but that is virtually assured after PetroChina agreed to buy $50 billion worth of liquefied natural gas from the vast proposed development in Western Australia."

article discusses FutureGen and GreenGen

Editorial raises questions about peak coal.

The Commonwealth and Western Australia will share the long-term liability for a carbon sequestration scheme attached to the massive Gorgon LNG project. The Gorgon project - which is yet to get the final go-ahead - is expected to create up to 6,000 jobs while in construction, and could boost the national income by more than $60 billion over the next three decades.

Article describes China's progress towards reducing emissions as well as a 2008 Greenpeace report challenging China's largest power-generation plants

"They agreed to share climate friendly and low-carbon technologies and take a regional approach to carbon capture and storage."

Article provides an update on the AEP CCS project in New Haven, W.Va., which could be operational by September

The agreement is a one-year memorandum of understanding between Charlotte-based Duke, the third-largest U.S. utility, and China Huaneng Group, which produces 10 percent of that nation's coal-dependent electricity. Under the agreement, Duke and Huaneng will begin a series of meetings to exchange information and explore long-term initiatives to reduce coal-plant emissions that contribute to climate change. They will also work on wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy.

"...about 25 landowners in the area have now united under the banner ‘No to CO2 Storage Association’ to fight the project.... Vattenfall has offered Jammerbugten landowners 3,700 kroner each plus 1,000 kroner per hectare in compensation to get them ‘on side’ with the project. So far, 306 area residents have agreed to the project. But according to the association of landowners opposed to the project, Vattenfall has also threatened to use the expropriation law to get around those who refused."

Potential project in Iran would combine underground coal gasification and fuel cells at Firth of Forth field. "Rather than having the coal dug out, oxygen and water would be pumped down the mine to create a white-hot chemical reaction that turned the coal into gas. This process would not only generate electricity more efficiently than wind, nuclear or conventional gas and coal power plants, but would enable the capture and storage of more than 99 per cent of the CO2 contained in the fuel before it escaped into the atmosphere."

Article outlines UK progress towards CCS deployment.

A recent breakthrough at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is bringing together two sectors that people love to fixate on: nanotechnology and carbon sequestration. Although the combo may sound unusual, nanotechnology could actually be the only...

Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc. (B&W PGG) has completed construction and has begun pilot-scale testing of carbon dioxide (CO2) control technology at its state-of-the-art Regenerable Solvent Absorption Technology (RSAT(TM)) facility near B&W PGG headquarters in Barberton, Ohio.