Carbon Capture and Storage in Australia

From Envirowiki

There is a huge push for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), or "clean coal" technologies in Australia, largely due to the political pressure from the coal lobby and mining union. There are a number of test plants currently running, and a larger number planned or in the works.

[edit] Currently existing operations

There are no currently existing commercial-scale CCS projects.

[edit] Otway Basin Storage Demonstration Project

The Otway Basin Project in western Victoria is an exercise in propaganda. The $30 million sequestration-only project is injecting carbon from an natural underground CO2 well into a 2km-deep depleted oil well^[1] Basically this means that even without any leaks, the project will actually create a net increase of atmospheric CO2 (through construction and maintenance). The project is being run by the CRC for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, who reckon it's "the world’s largest research and geosequestration demonstration project" and will sequester about 100,000 tonnes of CO2 over a period of about one year at a cost of $40 million^[2]. This is roughly equivalent to 0.08% of Victoria's greenhouse gas emissions^[3].

[edit] Planned projects

[edit] Gorgon CO2 Injection Project

The Gordon project, an add-on to an off-shore Western Australian Natural Gas extraction project, is the largest CO2 storage project in the world. It will attempt to capture and store 3 million tonnes of CO2 per year for 40 years in a saline aquifer, commencing in 2009^[1]. It will cost ~$840 million.

[edit] Callide Oxy-firing Demonstration and CCS project

The Callide project is a retro-fit on an existing coal-fired power-station near Blioela in Queensland. The Project will store 30,000 tonnes of C02 per year for 3 years from 2009^[1]. The Project will cost $188 million.

[edit] Fairview Project

The Fairview Project, near Roma in south-west Queensland, will use coal-bed methane to run a 100Mw gas-fired power station (about one tenth the size of an average gas-fired power station). For 10 years, one third of the resulting CO2 (100,000 tonnes a year) will be captured and stored in an coal seam considered too difficult or un-economic to mine^[1]. One might ask how long it will be considered too difficult to mine, considering increasing prices due to peak coal. The total cost of the project will be $445 million, and storage will commence in 2010.

[edit] Zerogen Powerstation

The Zerogen powerstation project near Stanwell power station in Queensland will be a 100MW "Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle" power station with CCS. The project will attempt to transport 420,000 tonnes of compressed CO2 over 220km and bury it at a storage site. The project is expected to cost over $1 billion^[1], or almost five times the cost of the Bald Hills Wind Farm, which has a similar capacity (104MW, $220 million^[4])

[edit] Hazelwood

Hazelwood powerstation, located in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, is infamous for being "the developed world’s most greenhouse-polluting power plant"^[5]. From 2008, it will be capturing 50 tonnes per day (~18,000 tonnes per year) from one of it's 200MW units. The project will cost a ridiculous $369 million^[1].

[edit] Kwinana Powerstation

Kwinana project, a joint venture between BP and Rio Tinto, was going to be a 500MW hydrogen-fired power station near Perth, WA. Hydrogen would be extracted from coal, and 4 million tonnes of CO2 produced in the extraction per year would be sequestered in a saline aquifer off the WA coast^[1]. Leaks from such aquifers could lead to intense ocean acidification in the surrounding areas. The project was expected to start operating in 2014, and the expected cost was over $2 billion.

The Kwinana project was scrapped in May 2008, due to the geological formations off Perth containing gas "chimneys", which made it impossible to establish a seal over the planned CO2 storage strata^[6][7].

[edit] Monash Coal-to-liquids

This project in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria, will convert coal to liquid fuels for transport (the only technology that could see liquid fuels sending us over the brink of catastrophic climate change: see peak oil), and will have some (unquantified) CCS, storing the waste in depleted off-shore oil fields. The project is not definite, but if it goes ahead, it will coast between $6 and $7 billion, and could be in operation by 2015. It would produce up to 62,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day.

[edit] Cooper Basin

Santos Ltd plans to generate a carbon capture and storage facility in South Australia's Cooper Basin. ^[8]

[edit] References

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6} Colley, Peter (2008 February/March). "Low Emision Coal: Our Future, Our Challenge.". Common Cause 74 (1): 23-24.
2. ↑ CO2CRC Otway Project overview on co2crc.com.au
3. ↑ Greenhouse gas emissions on climatechange.vic.gov.au
4. ↑ Bald Hills Project on wind-power.com.au
5. ↑ Victoria wins first prize for dirtiest power plant, Greenpeace Australia Pacific
6. ↑ Wilson, Nigel. "Chimneys Sweep BP Clean Coal Plan Away", The Australian, 2008-05-10. Retrieved on 2008-05-31. 
7. ↑ Roz, Simon. How many failed flagship CCS projects will it take?. Greenpeace Australia Pacific. Retrieved on 2008-05-31.
8. ↑ "Business Spectator: Santos boss spruiks carbon capture". Retrieved on 2008-05-25.