WRI Publications Feed: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)

CCS Demonstration in Developing Countries: Priorities for a Financing Mechanism for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage

Maggie Barron — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:54:35 -0400

Executive Summary

Climate Change and CCS

In facing the challenge of mitigating global climate change, world leaders have acknowledged that no single solution exists, and therefore, a portfolio of carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction technologies and methods will be needed to successfully confront rising emissions. Due to their dependency on fossil fuels, the energy supply and industrial sectors are the greatest contributors to CO2 emissions, accounting for 25.9 percent and 19.4 percent of the total respectively.

In addition to efficiency improvements and enhancing clean energy use, one key option for limiting future CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy use is carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). CCS is a suite of technologies integrated to capture and transport CO2 from major point sources to a storage site where the CO2 is injected down wells and then permanently trapped in porous geological formations deep below the surface. Candidates for CCS technology include fossil fuel power plants; steel, cement, and fertilizer factories; and other industrial facilities.

CCS in Developing Countries

Despite often-aggressive programs to promote energy efficiency and deploy nuclear, renewable, and other low-carbon energy sources, many developing countries will still rely heavily on fossil fuel energy to power their development for decades to come. There is therefore a need for developing countries to create strategies that address fossil fuel emissions in a way that minimizes the costs of doing so, and consequently minimizes impacts to their national development goals.

CCS is currently the only near-commercial technology proven to directly disassociate CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use at scale. Its deployment could potentially allow developing countries to gradually shift away from fossil fuels for energy and industrial needs with relatively little disruption to their long-term development strategies. If deployed as an interim measure, it could allow time for other alternative low-carbon technologies to be developed and deployed, permitting fossil fuels to be gradually phased out. This strategy could assist developing countries to transition to a low-carbon economy in the next 15–50 years.

While CCS is potentially attractive to some developing countries, there has been limited development of demonstration projects in Africa, Asia, or Latin America due mainly to their high cost in the absence of expected profits or significant carbon financing. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the total cost for a new average-sized coal-fired power plant that captures up to 90 percent of its CO2 emissions to be US$1 billion over 10 years.

Existing financing for CCS is grossly insufficient to enable demonstration projects in developing countries. The few available funds are either spread over the full array of low-carbon technologies, or fall short of the magnitude or the mandate needed to propel commercial-scale CCS demonstrations forward. Current carbon offset mechanisms are not sufficient to spur CCS deployment in developing countries in today’s context either. Overall, existing CCS financing mechanisms help grow capacity, but their support is insufficient to leverage enough funding from capital markets to implement projects in a non-OECD context.

The IEA CCS Roadmap proposes 50 CCS projects in developing countries in the next 10 to 20 years. As well as reducing the developing world’s greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating CCS demonstration efforts in non-OECD countries can likely also improve technologies, increase efficiency, reduce uncertainty and risk, and initiate learning-by-doing at a lower cost than would be possible in OECD countries. The captured benefits from doing so will be more significant the sooner acceleration in CCS development in developing countries begins.

About this Paper: Topics of Discussion for Financing CCS in Developing Countries

This paper seeks to promote the effective deployment of CCS demonstration projects in developing countries. Aimed at international policymakers and agencies engaged in CCS funding and deployment negotiations and discussions, the paper explores some of the key issues emerging around this critically important topic, and it presents a series of options and recommendations to international policymakers. WRI’s aim is to assist the initial design of an effective approach for financing CCS demonstration projects in developing countries over the next 10 years. Below is a summary of the key topics and options explored in the paper.

Topic 1: Aims of Financing CCS Demonstrations in Developing Countries

The main goal for developed countries to provide financing for early-stage CCS demonstrations in developing countries should be to support non-OECD countries in fulfilling their share in global climate change mitigation efforts.
A financing mechanism for CCS in developing countries should aim to foster tangible CO2 emission reductions through a clear focus on storage goals. The level of ambition for CO2 storage should support current CCS deployment requirements in developing countries. While it is impossible to objectively ascertain what proportion of this total a dedicated OECD country–funded CCS financing mechanism should support, it is evident that developing countries will need support for a significant share of these projects.
Implementing CCS demonstrations that lead to the storage of 45–60 million tons carbon dioxide (MtCO2) over 10 years could significantly spur the research and deployment rates needed for CCS development to take off in developing countries.

Topic 2: Eligible Costs for Financing

Most CCS demonstration projects will operate in conjunction with new or existing power plants or industrial facilities that may also function without the technology. Funding for CCS demonstrations can therefore be structured around whole projects—including the non-CCS components of the facility under consideration—or just the specific CCS components that would enable the facility to effectively capture and store its carbon dioxide emissions.
Funding should only be eligible to finance incremental costs incurred as a result of CO2 capture, transport, and storage efforts—not the full cost of the project.

Topic 3: Project Eligibility Criteria

Project objectives: Finance should be primarily directed toward projects that either actively store CO2 or directly provide the basis for near-future CO2 storage locally, avoiding duplication with other existing funding mechanisms.
Project scales and types: To maximize both near-term and future storage, eligible project types should cover geological site characterization and integrated CCS projects, both at the pilot and commercial demonstration scales.
Project sectors: CCS projects in fossil fuel power plants are likely to be the largest recipients of funding. However, some industrial CO2 sources may present advantages that could facilitate timely and cost-effective development of CCS projects in developing countries. “Low-hanging fruit” projects in industrial facilities with high-purity CO2 streams can advance infrastructure and technologic know-how in developing countries at a fraction of the cost of implementing CCS at a power plant. Funding criteria should therefore not discriminate against industrial sources of CO2.
EOR and other CCUS projects: Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and other carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) projects have multiple advantages for early CCS development and can result in the net storage of CO2, warranting their inclusion in financing opportunities. However, awarding of CCS financing to CCUS projects should occur only where projects are managed and monitored with the aim of permanent CO2 storage.
Additional project requirements: Funding criteria should stipulate that awarded projects employ sound procedures for CCS site selection, operation, and stewardship. Site selection must be based on specific geologic characteristics. Awarded projects must also have monitoring plans in place for both the operational and the post-closure stewardship phase and ideally demonstrate local government support and local community buy-in.

Topic 4: Project Selection Process

In order to make the selection process as equitable and objective as possible while maximizing CCS deployment goals, projects that meet funding demonstration objectives should be awarded on a competitive basis under a points-based system to judge applications. Such system should reward, among other factors, storage efficiency, geographic diversity, and contribution to wider CCS advancement in developing countries.
The selection system should also favor improving knowledge of storage opportunities through projects implemented in deep saline formations, since they represent the largest knowledge gap and the largest storage potential in the future.

Topic 5: Financing Mechanism Characteristics

Significant attention has been focused on creating an international public fund solely dedicated to CCS, or a CCS window within a larger fund that may also finance other pre-commercial, low-carbon technologies in developing countries. Additional research is needed to ascertain the pros and cons of different structures in a developing country environment. However, there are several advantages of adopting a CCS-only mechanism for the early demonstration phase, instead of having CCS in direct competition with other technologies for the same pool of funds.
In order to meet the IEA-recommended storage goal of 45–60 million tons of CO2 in 10 years, a CCS fund needs to be able to invest or leverage total investments of US$5– 8 billion and have the capacity to disburse its resources effectively over the same period.
A CCS fund should employ strong early-mover and CO2 storage incentive provisions to leverage its goals. A 10-year storage incentive on a rising scale could be applied to ensure project operators act to permanently reduce emissions.

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage and the UNFCCC: Recommendations for Addressing Technical Issues

Maggie Barron — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:07:04 -0500

Summary

Achieving cuts in energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is critical to avoiding more than a 1.5 degree Celsius (°C) (2.7 degree Fahrenheit [°F]) rise in global temperatures by 2050 and the irreversible and damaging impacts such a temperature rise would have on people and ecosystems. Meeting this challenge will require the international community to implement a portfolio of clean energy technologies and energy efficiency efforts. Most credible analyses project that among these technologies, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) may need to play a substantial role in achieving the necessary emissions reductions. CCS encompasses a suite of existing and emerging technologies for capture, transport, and storage of CO2 that together can be used to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel power generation and other industrial sources.

CCS and the UNFCCC

A number of countries - including the United States, China, and 27 members of the European Union (EU) - are putting significant resources into the development of CCS technologies, and four commercial-scale projects are in operation in Norway, Canada, and Algeria. At the international level, the role of CCS in new technology mechanisms under discussion at the ongoing United Nations-led negotiations is not yet clear. In an effort to inform the negotiations, this policy brief provides context, concise analysis, and recommendations to Parties for addressing CCS issues raised to date in the twin track United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol (KP) processes. These issues include:

Non-permanence, including long-term permanence;
Measuring, reporting and verification (MRV);
Environmental impacts;
Project activity boundaries;
International law;
Liability;
Safety; and
Insurance coverage and compensation for damages caused due to seepage or leakage.

In addition, the authors explore a broad range of current and future mechanisms and regulatory frameworks whereby the UNFCCC and national governments can consider CCS technologies. The report does not presuppose the successful implementation of CCS around the world. Nor does it make recommendations on whether CCS should be included in specific existing or future UNFCCC mechanisms (such as the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM] or technology mechanisms) or in countries’ climate change mitigation commitments and actions (e.g., Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions [NAMAs], etc.). Instead, the report focuses 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.

The analysis draws heavily from the World Resources Institute (WRI) report the Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage and draws to a lesser extent from WRI’s Guidelines for Community Engagement in Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage Projects. The report also benefits from the 2005 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage, the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories’ methodology for carbon dioxide transport, injection and geological storage, and the UNFCCC Experts’Report on CCS, Implications of the Inclusion of Geological Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage as CDM Project Activities (UNFCCC/CCNUCC EB 50).

Guidelines for Community Engagement in Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage Projects

Maggie Barron — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:41:48 -0500

Executive Summary

CCS and Climate Change Mitigation

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) encompasses a suite of existing and emerging technologies for capture, transport, and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) that together can be used to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power generation and other industrial sources. Achieving cuts in energy-related CO2 emissions is critical to avoiding more than a 1.5 degree Celsius (°C) (2.7 degree Fahrenheit [° F]) rise in global temperatures by 2050 and the irreversible and damaging impacts such a temperature rise would have on people and ecosystems. The scale of the climate change challenge requires a portfolio of clean energy technologies and energy efficiency efforts, and most credible analyses project that CCS will have to play a substantial role in achieving the necessary emissions reductions (see Appendix 3).

CCS has been tested at a small scale, and there are a few industrial operations around the world, including in North America and Europe, which already capture and store small quantities of CO2 emissions underground. However, the technology has not yet been demonstrated at the scale required for application to commercial power and industrial plants. To address this gap, governments of many major economies have announced plans to support commercial-scale CCS demonstration projects that store more than 1 million metric tons of CO2 annually. Several are currently being built in Europe, China, Australia, and Canada, and many more are in the planning stages, including in the United States. Leading industrial nations, through the G8, have called for 20 such demonstration plants to be launched by 2010, with a view toward broad deployment by 2020.

Actions taken to demonstrate transformational clean energy technology over the next decade will define the solutions available to help solve the climate problem. Commercial-scale CCS demonstration projects are required to demonstrate whether or not the technology should play a major role in bridging today’s fossil fuel–driven world and tomorrow’s low- or zero-carbon economy. Yet, as with the introduction of many new technologies, proposed CCS projects have been met with mixed reactions from the public, and in particular from the local communities asked to host them.

Community Engagement in the CCS Context

Project developers and technical experts in CCS often cite the public as a “barrier” to CCS deployment, because decisions on whether individual projects move forward often significantly depend on the local community’s acceptance or opposition. The case studies from the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia featured in this report suggest that communities often have more concerns and questions about CCS than about more established industries and technologies. The guidelines for community engagement, however, were written with the belief that decisions on individual demonstration projects ultimately hinge on site-specific factors, including the needs of the local community. While much social science research around CCS to date has focused on gauging public attitudes toward the technology or on education and outreach best-practices for project developers (see Appendix 2), we focus instead on providing recommendations for creating a culture of effective, two-way community engagement around CCS projects.

In addition to project developers and host communities, there is a third partner essential to effective community engagement around CCS: regulators. In some countries, regulatory frameworks governing CCS development and deployment, including rules for community engagement, are already in place (see Appendix 1). In others, an environmental regulatory framework for CCS does not yet exist, and the advent of demonstration plants is forcing regulatory policymakers to make real-time decisions about how to ensure projects move forward safely, and what level of public participation should be required in the decisionmaking processes. The engagement around any one project, therefore, is contingent on the interactions of three primary groups: local decisionmakers (typically on behalf of those in the community), regulators, and project developers. All three groups are addressed in this report. It is important to underscore upfront, however, that effective community engagement is measured by the success of the engagement process, and is not contingent upon agreement between the project developer, regulator, and community on the outcome or the design of the CCS project. Nevertheless, effectively engaging communities can help move CCS projects forward and foster continuing constructive relationships between project developers and communities. Such relationships can help ensure that commercial-scale CCS demonstrations and any subsequent commercial projects progress in such a way that local economies, values, ecosystems, and people are respected, and the potential of the technology in helping to mitigate climate change is fully realized.

About the Guidelines

The Guidelines was drafted by authors at WRI in close consultation with an international group of stakeholders (see inside front cover) with specific expertise and experience in engaging local communities regarding deployment of CCS technology. This effort builds on WRI’s previous 2-year consensus-building stakeholder effort that resulted in the Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage, a set of technical guidelines for how to responsibly proceed with safe CCS projects. The community engagement guidelines for CCS are intended to serve as international guidelines for regulators (including those in both regulatory policy design and implementation capacities); local decisionmakers (including community leaders, citizens, local advocacy groups, and landowners); and project developers to consider as they plan and seek to implement CCS projects.

The Guidelines begins with an introduction that describes their intent, a working definition of community engagement, and why effective engagement is an essential element of CCS deployment. It then provides an overview of relevant CCS technology issues, including the status of CCS technology, regulatory and permitting processes, and the timeline and various stages of a representative CCS project. The report then reviews existing relevant experience in community engagement, presented in six case studies from CCS projects. These studies were drafted by stakeholders engaged in the development of the Guidelines who had a hands-on role either in engaging the local community or in decisionmaking around the featured project. Chapter 4 of the report presents the guidelines for community engagement on CCS.

This effort was initiated with a hope of providing a set of best practices to guide the engagement of future commercial CCS projects, if the demonstration projects prove successful. The guidelines for regulators are designed to guide regulatory authorities responsible for overseeing CCS projects but also offer recommendations for improving the public participation rules as new regulations are drafted. The guidelines for local decisionmakers highlight how, in some cases, communities can take a proactive role in shaping the engagement around a potential CCS project, rather than a passive role as purely receiver of information. Finally, the guidelines for project developers highlight principles and activities that can be employed to promote effective community engagement and involve the local community in the CCS project.

The guidelines are separated into five categories as summarized in the table above. The full text of the guidelines follows, presented by audience. In Chapter 4, the guidelines are presented by engagement principle, with an introductory overview of each issue.

For more information, contact Sarah Forbes, Francisco Almendra, or Micah Ziegler

CCS in China: Toward an Environmental, Health, and Safety Regulatory Framework

Maggie Barron — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 11:18:58 -0400

Executive Summary

Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is one of several technologies that many countries are looking to in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and keep rising temperatures from reaching dangerous levels. Many experts and policy makers believe CCS may be a critical option in the portfolio of solutions available to combat climate change, because it has the potential to achieve significant reductions in CO2 emissions from fossil fuel–based systems. There remain, however, many questions regarding the commercialization of the technology and issues surrounding the regulatory frameworks needed if CCS is to be deployed. These questions must be answered quickly to identify whether CCS can play the role that many hope, and if so, how best to deploy it. Renewable energy sources are also projected to play a major role in the future and are rapidly expanding. Renewables, however, are not predicted to overtake fossil fuel generation for several decades; hence CCS, if safely deployed, could help provide a bridge to a more sustainable energy future.

As CCS technology moves from an R&D effort to demonstration- scale projects and ultimately commercial developments, governments in many major economies, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Italy, Norway, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States have announced plans to construct commercial-scale CCS demonstrations. The International Energy Agency’s CCS Roadmap, designed to determine the role for CCS in achieving a 50 percent reduction in 2005 energy-related global CO2 emissions by 2050, states that 100 CCS projects should be online by 2020 (IEA 2009b; IEA 2009c).

The first tranche of announced demonstration projects—let alone the 100 projects suggested by the IEA—will require not only significant financial investments by industry and the private sector, but also a robust regulatory framework for ensuring that projects proceed safely. The development of rigorous regulations for ensuring environmental protection and managing the risks associated with CCS efforts is paramount, and pilot regulatory frameworks for protecting environmental health and safety have been developed—and in some cases adopted—for the European Union, Australia, and the United States.

CCS and China

China now emits more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country, due in large part to its reliance on coal to fuel its expanding economy. In 2009, China derived 70 percent of its primary energy from coal, and this heavy dependence is projected to continue into the future. Since CCS offers the prospect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while coal use continues, the emerging technology is a key element in prevailing energy use models in China. These models estimate emissions rising to a peak by 2030, but declining after 2030 if CCS is widely deployed in China (IEA 2009).

Key elements to successful deployment of CCS include not only development of technology, geologic knowledge, financing instruments, and long-term stewardship rules,1 but also a regulatory framework for ensuring environmental health, safety, and efficacy. While CCS technology development and research are already underway in China, a comprehensive domestic regulatory framework to provide oversight of future CCS projects has not yet been developed. While China’s CCS framework should be informed by emerging regulatory frameworks in other countries, it must also be crafted to fit China’s specific legal and regulatory systems.

About this Brief

This brief frames how CCS might be regulated within the Chinese environmental policy context, with an emphasis on ensuring protection of people and the environment. After summarizing China’s existing CCS research and demonstration projects, it outlines the country’s existing CCS-related legal structure and the government agencies with a role in oversight of CCS development in China. The paper then lays out CCS-related environmental, health, and safety challenges and gaps in China’s existing regulatory and legal structures that need to be addressed for China to establish an effective and safe regulatory framework. Next it provides key criteria for geologic storage—universally applicable and based on WRI’s stakeholder-led Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport and Storage—which China could apply in order to ensure environmental protection and human health and safety. This list of criteria focuses exclusively on regulations for geologic storage, the area where there is the most technical uncertainty and where existing regulations are less applicable compared with capture and transport.

Appendix I gives a comprehensive overview of the laws and policies in China that pertain to CCS development and deployment. Additional supporting materials, including a comparison of proposed CCS frameworks in the European Union, United States, and Australia, are available online. The information in this policy brief can be utilized by Chinese officials, other governments, and industry representatives to better understand the evolving regulatory environment for CCS in China. As governments and businesses begin bilateral and multilateral CCS demonstration projects, a shared basis for communication and a common understanding of regulatory approaches will be increasingly critical.

Findings and Next Steps

This brief demonstrates that political institutions exist to support a CCS regulatory framework in China, along with some potentially adaptable laws and regulations. However, elements of CCS regulation not closely related to current industrial activities, primarily those related to geological storage, are not yet established. These will need to be in place before large-scale commercial CCS initiatives can move forward. One approach is to develop and implement a pilot regulatory framework for the first demonstrations that can be revisited prior to wide-scale deployment of the technology. With regard to environmental, health, and safety issues related to storage, China can and should look to key criteria used by other countries, that are also outlined in this paper, in designing its own CCS regulations and legislation.

FutureGen And The Department of Energy's Advanced Coal Programs

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400

TESTIMONY OF SARAH M. FORBES
SENIOR ASSOCIATE, WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE

HEARING BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SCEINCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT: “FUTUREGEN AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY’S ADVANCED COAL PROGRAMS”

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to testify today. I am Sarah Forbes and I lead the CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) work at the World Resources Institute. The World Resources Institute is a non-profit, non-partisan environmental think tank that goes beyond research to provide practical solutions to the world’s most urgent environment and development challenges. We work in partnership with scientists, businesses, governments, and non-governmental organizations in more than seventy countries to provide information, tools and analysis to address problems like climate change, and the degradation of ecosystems and their capacity to provide for human well-being.

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has taken a lead in exploring the challenges, opportunities and state of technical knowledge in the field of carbon capture and storage. We convened a two year stakeholder process which resulted in the Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage published in November 2008 which can serve as a benchmark for decision-makers to use in evaluating potential projects. In developing the Guidelines, WRI brought together a diverse group of more than 80 technical experts including government officials, NGOs, academics and businesses.

Coal use is responsible for over 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Without significant, deliberate action to reduce these emissions we cannot address climate change. Carbon capture and storage is one of a number of critical technologies coal-burning nations will need to consider and deploy in the coming decades. International collaboration will be essential to moving CCS technology to scale – reducing costs and securing a global response to the climate challenge. In the next five years, we must move from demonstration to deployment.

In this testimony, I will provide an update on some of the key international collaborations on CCS already underway, and offer some ideas for future direction. I would like to make three key points, each of which I will expand on below.

First, I will describe the urgent need for a global network of CCS demonstrations that includes joint technology development along with collaboration on resolving investment, regulatory, legal and social barriers to CCS deployment.

Second, I will talk specifically about collaboration on CCS with one country—China. I will describe the efforts many countries and businesses are taking to ensure that at least one of the global CCS demonstrations is in China.

Third, I will describe a few of the major international CCS collaborations that are underway and offer suggestions for how these efforts may best complement each other as the technology is demonstrated worldwide.

I will conclude by providing some concrete suggestions for near-term actions that can be taken to enhance collaborations with China and facilitate global deployment of CCS technology.

Develop a Global Network of CCS Demonstrations

In technology development there is a period known as the “valley of death” where a technology has been proven in the laboratory and at a small scale but has yet to move from a research effort to commercialization. CCS technology has progressed quickly from an idea to a key part in proposed climate change mitigation plans. This progression is partly thanks to the early successes seen in the pilot capture demonstrations and research and commercial projects where CO2 has been injected at rates up to a million tons per year. Moving the technology forward into commercialization will require integrated capture and storage demonstration at power-plant scale. A key finding of the Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage was that even though additional research is needed in some areas, there is adequate technical understanding to safely conduct large-scale demonstrations. In fact, many of the remaining questions about CCS technology can only be answered by additional experience with the technology or policy interventions.

Most experts agree that we need between 15 and 20 demonstrations of differing capture and storage configurations globally. Last July, the G8 set a goal of 20 demonstrations announced by 2010. The U.S Climate Action Partnership (US-CAP), of which WRI is a member, further recommends building at least five projects of CCS enabled coal fueled facilities in the United States by 2015.

Achieving these goals in the right time frame is critical to deal with the looming climate challenge but at the same time will require significant investment. There is a need for establishing a clear and robust international financing mechanism to fund these projects globally. It will also require substantial (but not insurmountable) progress on addressing lingering regulatory, investment, legal, and social issues. The global development of environmental regulatory frameworks for CCS, is testament to our readiness to demonstrate the technology. In 2008, regulatory frameworks for CCS were released at the state and federal level in the U.S., and Australia and a Directive for CCS, which included environmental regulations, was passed at the European Union level. Global progression towards a common understanding of how to safely implement the technology seems within reach.

This effort of building a global network of CCS demonstrations will require a significant investment and commitment of resources, along with coordination and support from senior government representatives. However, through strong international collaboration each country need not demonstrate the full suite of capture and storage options. For example, when the UK first announced their plans to move forward with a post-combustion CCS demonstration, it was described as being complimentary to the U.S. FutureGen project which was at that time planning to demonstrate at-scale capture with an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant. The collective group of global demonstrations should include the full suite of different capture configurations and test storage in a variety of geologic settings.

To address this need, Congress can commit funding for public-private partnership demonstration projects in the U.S. and formally participate in international demonstration efforts. CCS demonstrations will require billions in research funding with estimates at about $1-1.5 billion per project. Funding allocated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is important, but still falls short of what will be needed to commercialize CCS technology. A robust funding mechanism and clear plan for collaboration among demonstration projects is critical. One example of such a plan was recently approved by the European Union with funding for demonstrations coming from the proceeds the European Trading Scheme (ETS) and coordination among projects required. The global CCS demonstration network should include collaborative work on not only technology development, but also information-sharing on legal, social and regulatory issues.

Enhance Capacity for CCS Demonstration in China

According to the Energy Information Administration, China’s coal-related carbon dioxide emissions may grow to 51 percent of the world’s total by 2030. With 20 percent of the world’s population, China has 14 percent of the world’s coal reserves, but less than one percent of the world’s oil and gas reserves. While China is actively developing its non-carbon power sources─hydropower, nuclear, and newer alternative energies─rapid growth will still not be enough to replace coal as a core part of its expanding electricity infrastructure. Deployment of CCS in China may be the only way to globally make the needed reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

China is conducting research and quickly moving towards developing and demonstrating CCS technologies. In fact, the Chinese government was among the foreign governments who had pledged to commit funding for the original FutureGen project. Chinese companies and government institutions are undertaking a CCS research themselves and with a number of international partners. For example:

The Chinese power industry has several projects focusing on coal gasification. The largest, GreenGen, sponsored by China’s five largest power companies, will build a 200 MW integrated gasification combined cycle power plant in the city of Tianjin. Phases two and three of this project plan for CCS in nearby depleted oil fields, with injection planned before 2020. U.S. Peabody Energy is the one international equity partner in this effort.
China has two major efforts with European collaborators, the UK-China Near Zero Emissions Coal Project (NZEC) and the COoperation Action within CCS CHina-EU (COACH) Project. Both have done a great deal of preparatory and conceptual work on CCS.
China’s Huaneng group built a small carbon capture demonstration plant at Gaobeidian in Beijing with assistance from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO.) Discussions about a second phase are in process.
Both PetroChina, China’s largest oil company, and Shenhua, its largest coal company, have pilot CCS programs.

There is also a realization in China that robust policies and regulations will be needed to ensure that CCS projects are done responsibly. Tsinghua University has partnered with WRI to draft a set of Guidelines for Safe and Effective CCS in China. The effort is modeled after the stakeholder process led by WRI in the U.S. where a diverse set of stakeholders together developed a comprehensive set of guidelines for CCS projects. Development of a Guidelines document that is available in Chinese for potential project operators, financers, insurers, and legal experts to as a tool in understanding how to conduct CCS projects responsibly will facilitate demonstration of the technology in China. To enable this effort, Tsinghua University and WRI have assembled a steering committee that includes leading CCS experts from China and the United States. The Chinese members of the steering committee recently traveled to the United States and toured some of the leading CCS research institutions (including the injection well being drilled in Illinois). This effort is being funded with support from the U.S. Department of State under the Asia Pacific Partnership.

It would be to the benefit of both the U.S. and China if there were more direct collaboration on CCS demonstrations. Not only would working together solve technical problems faster, but given the rate at which Chinese companies are moving, the learning would hardly be one way. Jointly-funded and operated demonstrations, that include Government funding combined with private-sector investment is an essential next step. This will require a serious funding commitment as well as programs that facilitate information sharing on regulatory and policy issues and support for U.S. businesses working internationally.

Examples of programs that would help build increased capacity for CCS in China or other emerging economies include research exchange programs to bring students and faculty from China to see projects operating in the U.S. and study with leading researchers. An effective near-term approach would be to establish a research exchange program for visits to ongoing demonstrations in the U.S. including the Department of Energy’s Regional Sequestration Partnership Phase III projects. Exchange programs for environmental regulators and policy experts may also prove useful in resolving the legal, regulatory, and social challenges of deploying CCS technology. The Department of State in collaboration with the Department of Energy has implemented successful exchange programs in the past which could be replicated with a focus on CCS technology and policy. 3. Key International CCS Collaborations Underway

There are several high-level international CCS efforts underway, along with numerous individual projects like the WRI-Tsinghua University effort I just described. Each of these efforts can play an important role in the development of the technology. Key to successful integration of these efforts will be clarifying the niche each effort is designed to fill, eliminating redundancies, and designing a path for collaboration.

I would like to highlight three key CCS-specific initiatives already underway:

The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) is a Ministerial-level effort initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy. It has been in place since 2003 and has been influential in collaborations among governments.
Australia has recently initiated a Global CCS Institute, for which the Prime Minister has allocated $100M per year for the next 10 years. This institute is designed to focus specifically on collaboration surrounding demonstration projects.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) coordinates international research through the IEA GHG Program. IEA Secretariat is also developing an international roadmap for CCS at the request of the G-8. This roadmap is designed to answer the question of whether and how we can achieve the goal of 20 CCS demonstrations announced globally by 2010 and will provide recommendations for better coordination among international collaborations.

As the technology progresses from R&D towards demonstration, these international efforts can provide an avenue for information-sharing at various levels: the CSLF at the ministerial-level, the IEA among government energy departments, and the Global Institute among those running demonstration projects. It is time to evaluate the existing programs in the context of an emerging suite of global demonstration projects and to form formal partnerships with others perusing demonstrations (UK, EU, China, Canada, Australia). Congress might consider commissioning a formal report on international CCS efforts and use the results of it along with the IEA’s International CCS Roadmap (expected publication date October 2009) to clarify and formalize the role of the various international CCS organizations that have emerged. Additionally, although the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Partnership Program has been acknowledged as the “world’s most ambitious program” the work is largely unknown in the international community, in part because it is difficult for researchers to receive approval to travel internationally on their government grants. A scholarship program for U.S. researchers working on government-funded projects to attend international CCS meetings and present the results of their research may be useful in better communicating the results of leading U.S. research in this area. Such a merit-based program could be managed through the Department of Energy. Formal arrangements to partner with other countries on demonstrations must be established soon.

Conclusions

Unless we act now to aggressively begin to implement a global CCS demonstration program, we will lock in untold additional quantities of CO2 emissions from non-CCS, coal-fired power plants around the world. Globally, CCS R&D has progressed to the point of demonstration-readiness and there is a race underway to see who will build the world’s first large-scale integrated demonstration of capture, transport, and storage along with power production. The global nature of climate change and the urgent need to act now to avoid locking in a high emissions trajectory for the future necessitates increased and coordinated international collaborations. We need to specifically partner with emerging economies on demonstrating CCS technology, through joint public-private partnerships. In these international collaborations we must seek ways to build capacity and support efforts to develop global policies and environmental regulations that protect human health and ecosystems. This will include coordination and collaboration on demonstrations that begins in the planning stages along with projects that build capacity on regulatory and policy issues (like the WRI-Tsinghua APP project).

In my testimony, I have mentioned five specific actions to consider that will help facilitate international collaboration on CCS, which are summarized here:

Commit funding for demonstration projects in the U.S. and in China that are geared towards joint technology development; such projects should be public-private partnerships. The global network of demonstrations should include the full suite of capture technology approaches and test storage in a variety of geologic settings.
Develop a framework and funding for research exchange programs to bring researchers from other countries to see projects operating in the U.S. and study with leading researchers. The Department of State in collaboration with the Department of Energy has implemented successful exchange programs in the past which could be replicated with a focus on CCS technology and policy.
Increase bi-lateral efforts to facilitate capacity building and information sharing on regulatory and policy issues.
Establish formal partnerships with other countries developing CCS demonstration projects (UK, EU, China, and Australia) to facilitate information-sharing and avoid duplication among demonstration efforts. Also, commission a formal report on international CCS efforts and use the results of it and the IEA CCS Roadmap to clarify and formalize the role of the various international CCS organizations that have emerged.
Develop a scholarship program for U.S. researchers working on government-funded projects to attend international CCS meetings and present the results of their research. Such a merit-based program could be managed through the Department of Energy.

Guidelines for Carbon Dioxide Capture, Transport, and Storage

Stephanie Hanson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Guidelines Overview

CCS: The WRI Guidelines
Watch on Youtube

CCS is a broad term that encompasses a number of technologies that can be used to capture CO2 from point sources, such as power plants and other industrial facilities; compress it; transport it mainly by pipeline to suitable locations; and inject it into deep subsurface geological formations for indefinite isolation from the atmosphere. CCS is a critical option in the portfolio of solutions available to combat climate change, because it allows for significant reductions in CO2 emissions from fossil-based systems, enabling it to be used as a bridge to a sustainable energy future.

The starting point for the CCS Guidelines stakeholder discussions was that CCS will most likely be needed to achieve the magnitude of CO2 emissions reduction required to stabilize and reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs).

The goal of this effort was to develop a set of preliminary guidelines and recommendations for the deployment of CCS technologies in the United States. The CCS Guidelines are written for those who may be involved in decisions on a proposed project: the developers, regulators, financiers, insurers, project operators, and policymakers.

These Guidelines are intended to guide full-scale demonstration of and build public confidence in CCS technologies by informing how projects should be conducted.

The purpose of the Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) Guidelines is not to make a case for or against CCS, but rather to develop practical considerations for demonstrating and deploying CCS technologies.

Watch WRI Senior Associate Sarah Forbes discuss the CCS Guidelines in an interview with E&ETV.

Scenarios for stabilizing climate-forcing emissions suggest atmospheric CO2 stabilization can only be accomplished through the development and deployment of a robust portfolio of solutions, including significant increases in energy efficiency and conservation in the industrial, building, and transport sectors; increased reliance on renewable energy and potentially additional nuclear energy sources; and deployment of CCS.

These Guidelines represent current understanding of how to implement CCS technologies. Discussions of the Guidelines were predicated on the following principles:

Protect human health and safety.
Protect ecosystems.
Protect underground sources of drinking water and other natural resources.
Ensure market confidence in emission reductions through regulatory clarity and proper GHG accounting.
Facilitate cost-effective, timely deployment.

To develop the CCS Guidelines, the World Resources Institute (WRI) convened a diverse group of over 80 stakeholders, including representatives from academia, business, government, and environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

These Guidelines present recommendations and best practices for those involved in the development and implementation of CCS projects. The document also provides a comprehensive introductory reference for those new to CCS who seek to understand how to responsibly conduct projects.

A potential operator, financier, insurer, or regulator can use these Guidelines as a benchmark in evaluating potential project plans and as a reference on the current technical understanding of best practices for CCS, and a policymaker can use them to establish regulatory and investment frameworks that enable successful and responsible CCS deployments. It is important to note that these Guidelines are not intended to replace or provide the detailed technical knowledge that would be required to select the location for or to design and operate a CCS project. In fact, one of the findings derived from this process is that each CCS project will be unique, and a team of qualified experts will be needed to design and operate each project.

Homepage photo credit: Statoil.

Capturing King Coal: Deploying Carbon Capture and Storage Systems in the U.S. at Scale

Hiranya Fernando — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:44:32 -0400

Coal is a key fuel source for current and future electric power generation. Coal becomes even more critical when cost of electricity and security of supply issues are viewed in light of other fuel sources such as gas or uranium. Yet coal combustion produces about 1.9 billion tons of CO2 per year in the U.S., roughly equivalent to all CO2 emissions from U.S. transport per year. The burning of coal, with more CO2 emissions per unit of energy produced than any other fossil fuel, has signiﬁcant adverse climate change impacts.

One way to reduce carbon emissions from coal-ﬁred power is to capture and store it permanently underground, a process called carbon capture and storage (CCS), also called carbon sequestration. CCS has captured the attention of policymakers, power generators, and environmentalists because of its potential as a bridging technology that will permit the continued use of coal as a fuel source while not contributing to a further destabilization of the climate. A great deal of work is underway to develop and improve the technologies, legal frameworks, and policies required for wide-scale deployment of CCS systems.

The main reason for this interest is that several major world economies, including the U.S., China, and India depend heavily on coal as an energy source. Alternative means of moving to a zero-carbon power mix, including wind or solar (which are dispersed and have variable output) and nuclear power (which raises difficult questions of security and waste disposal) require wrenching changes to our energy systems. CCS apparently offers the prospect of staving off climate disaster while maintaining something near the status quo. Coal can remain central to the energy mix, and CCS makes this possible.

But does it? There is in fact considerable complexity involved in deploying a national CCS system at the scale necessary to achieve significant emissions reductions. Indeed, it amounts to no less fundamental a transformation of the country’s energy infrastructure than would a huge-scale adoption of wind energy, for instance. This report examines the challenges of this transformation under the four broad categories of technology, policy, legal and regulatory framework, and investment, and their implications for CCS as part of the solution to mitigate adverse climate change impacts.

Liability and Financial Responsibility Frameworks for Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:33:33 -0500

Building Public Acceptability for Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:53:27 -0500

Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) could prove an essential component of the effort to address the climate change challenge. While demonstration projects across the globe can show that CCS risks are low, public perception of such risks will be critical in infl uencing how policy and regulatory frameworks develop around the technology. This brief outlines the risks associated with CCS, describes how the public views the technology, and explains what can be done to develop long-term public support. We conclude that the best way to build public acceptance for CCS is by developing large, well-managed demonstration projects; promoting robust regulations and industry standards; and creating more interactive public outreach and education programs.

Opportunities and Challenges for Carbon Capture and Sequestration

admin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Carbon capture and Sequestration (CCS) could become an important option to limit carbon dioxide emissions that are now causing global climate change. Interest in CCS has grown in North America, Europe, and Asia over the past 5 years. Selected challenges facing the technology include: developing a policy driver to incentivize deployment; defi ning a fl exible and adaptable regulatory framework; and funding large-scale demonstration projects to resolve technical and integration uncertainties as well as reduce high costs. Addressing these three challenges will help solve a fourth: public acceptability. Debate over the timing of CCS deployment is likely to continue, but it is clear that this climate mitigation option is critical to eventual stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.