Masdar Carbon, one of the five business units of Masdar, the Abu Dhabi national clean energy conglomerate, announced yesterday in Abu Dhabi that it is moving ahead with a carbon capture and sequestration facility that will capture nearly 1 million tons of CO2 annually at the Emirates Steel complex at Mussafah.

The CO2 feed stream from the Emirates Steel plant will be compressed, dehydrated and then pumped through 50km of pipeline and injected in an onshore field, operated by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations.

Part of the collaboration between Masdar and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the carbon capture facility is part of a program to explore joint projects between the two firms to reduce the carbon footprint of the emirate. The UAE has the second-highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, mostly because of it’s energy-intensive industrial base and extreme climatic conditions.

“Climate change is not a mirage,” Masdar Carbon Director Bader Al Lamki told me at the World Future Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi as we sat down to talk on Thursday.

“The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has recognized CCS as a means to reduce carbon emissions,” and “the International Energy Agency clearly states that CCS is part of the answer for climate change mitigation.”

“The close collaboration between Masdar Carbon and ADNOC will ensure steady progress and the project will take us another step closer to implementing measures for the reduction of carbon emissions and contributing to Abu Dhabi’s clean energy initiatives,” said Al Lamki said.

Bader Al Lamki explained that successful carbon capture projects are anticipated to have a positive long-term economic impact on Abu Dhabi including economic growth, job creation and the development and export of CCS-related technology know-how.

“It will also decisively affirm our global status as a major developer of carbon abatement projects and technologies,” Al Lamki said.

Mandated by the Abu Dhabi government to drive cleaner fossil fuel energy and energy efficiency at an industrial level, monetizing emission reductions along the way, Masdar Carbon provides technical assistance, project management, carbon finance and emissions trading expertise to asset owners primarily in the oil and gas and power sectors in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

And as was announced earlier in the week by Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond in Abu Dhabi, Masdar will be partnering with Scotland, another small, oil-producing nation gunning to ramp up its renewable energy portfolio, to develop advancements in CCS technology, value chain applications, policy and deployment strategies for clean energy and CCS.

Article by Timothy Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

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A coal-powered plant in West Yorkshire has launched the UK’s largest carbon capture initiative, a pilot project expected to siphon off about 100 tons of carbon dioxide daily.

The equipment, which was added to the 200-megawatt Ferrybridge Power Station, will capture only 2.5 percent of the plant’s total emissions, but is a sign of some progress in a carbon capture and sequestration industry that has endured setbacks this year.

The project will not attempt to store the carbon, but instead test the CO2 scrubbing, or removal, phase of the process. Proponents hope it will represent a bridge between smaller-scale pilot projects and commercially viable CO2-capture technology.

UK officials this week postponed the investment of £1 billion into a full-scale pilot project, and earlier this year the most ambitious carbon-capture project at a U.S. coal-fired plant was shelved because of a lack of climate legislation and state support.

While carbon-capture technology is in its early stages — and remains cost-prohibitive on a commercial scale — advocates say it could become a critical option in reducing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a rule to advance the use of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, while protecting American health and the environment. CCS technologies allow carbon dioxide (CO2) to be captured at stationary sources – like coal-fired power plants and large industrial operations – and injected underground for long-term storage in a process called geologic sequestration.

The proposal is consistent with recommendations made by President Obama’s interagency task force on CO2 sequestration and helps create a consistent national framework to ensure the safe and effective deployment of technologies that will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race. Last week’s proposal will exclude from EPA’s hazardous waste regulations CO2 streams that are injected for geologic sequestration in wells designated for this purpose under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA is proposing this exclusion as part of the agency’s effort to reduce barriers to the use of CCS technologies.

Carbon capture and storage, alternatively referred to as carbon capture and sequestration, is a means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming. The process is based on capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, and storing it in such a way that it does not enter the atmosphere. It can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO2 from ambient air as a geoengineering technique. Although CO2 has been injected into geological formations for various purposes, the long term storage of CO2 is a relatively new concept. The first commercial example was Weyburn in 2000.

Various forms have been conceived for permanent storage of CO2. These forms include gaseous storage in various deep geological formations (including saline formations and exhausted gas fields), liquid storage in the ocean, and solid storage by reaction of CO2 with metal oxides to produce stable carbonates.

Based on review of existing regulatory programs, EPA’s proposal concludes that the management of CO2 streams under the proposed conditions does not present a substantial risk to people’s health or the environment, provides regulatory certainty to industries considering the use of CCS technologies, and encourages the deployment of CCS technologies in a safe and environmentally protective manner.

The proposed rule is complementary to previous EPA rulemakings, including final rules under the Clean Air Act that require reporting by facilities that capture or inject CO2 streams, and Safe Drinking Water Act regulations that ensure the wells used for geologic sequestration of CO2 are appropriately sited, constructed, tested, monitored, and closed.

Article by Andy Soos, appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

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The U.S.’s most ambitious project to capture and sequester carbon from a coal-fired power plant has been shelved by a large utility company, which says that the lack of climate legislation and support from state governments has rendered the $668 million project financially untenable.

American Electric Power (AEP), which serves 5 million customers in 11 states, will announce today that it is indefinitely suspending its carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project at its Mountaineer plant in West Virginia.

The utility has been running a smaller CCS pilot project at the site for two years, but executives at the utility said that the lack of federal climate legislation had diminished incentives for CCS projects.

In addition, AEP said that the refusal of state regulators to allow the utility to pass on the cost of carbon sequestration to its customers had made it impossible to continue the project.

“We are placing the project on hold until economic and policy conditions create a viable path forward,” said AEP’s chairman, Michael G. Morris.

AEP’s action is a major setback to efforts to slow global warming using CCS technology, which faces numerous logistical and technological challenges.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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One way fossil fuel industries are trying to stay relevant in a world moving toward better, cleaner ways of producing energy is to argue that carbon emissions which contribute to climate change can be captured and stored underground. This “carbon capture and sequestration,” is supposedly a technological fix that will allow energy companies to keep burning fossil fuels indefinitely, only with the addition carbon capture equipment that conveniently eliminates their contribution to climate change. The coal industry in particular has gone to great lengths to publicize the idea that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) can work; witness the deluge of “clean coal” ads aired on TV and the Internet over the past few years.

There are many problems with the concept of CCS. Perhaps most frequently cited is the concern that injecting a significant portion of US or global carbon emissions underground may not even be technologically feasible—at least not in the foreseeable future. Then there’s the immense cost of CCS: even if the technology works, it would probably be cheaper to invest in truly clean, renewable power sources. However on top of all that is perhaps the greatest worry of all. Even if injecting carbon dioxide underground proved feasible on a large scale, and even if we somehow figured out how to pay for it, the whole idea might not actually prevent climate change. There’s no guarantee carbon dioxide injected underground will stay put—and in fact a recent incident suggests it will eventually bubble back to the Earth’s surface.

CCS isn’t ready to be employed on a scale large enough to make a real dent in climate change, but a few pilot projects are already experimenting with storing carbon underground. In the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, the energy company Cenovus has been injecting carbon dioxide into oil wells with the aim of extracting oil while sequestering carbon at the same time. Now carbon dioxide is leaking out of the soil on land formerly used for farming by a Saskatchewan couple. Jane and Cameron Kerr, owners of the property, hired energy consultant Paul Lafleur to determine where the gas was coming from. According to Lafleur, the source is the Cenovus oilfield located about two kilometers away.

In certain areas on the Kerr’s property carbon dioxide is leaking up in concentrations high enough to kill animals like rabbits and goats, most likely by asphyxiation. It has also been causing strange and colorful algal blooms in bodies of water. The safety hazard forced the Kerrs to leave their property, but Cenovus has dismissed their concerns. Cenovus unsurprisingly argues the carbon could have come from elsewhere—despite the common sense conclusion that the huge carbon injection project a couple kilometers away might have something to do with the problem.

This is just a preview of the kind of thing we can expect to see as more companies experiment with carbon capture and sequestration. Instead of conveniently disappearing underground, sequestered carbon dioxide is going to make its way to the Earth’s surface sooner or later, as it has done on the Kerr’s property. Meanwhile affected communities will become in embroiled in drawn out and frustrating struggles to “prove” that a given eruption of carbon dioxide can be linked to a certain CCS project. Most importantly of all global warming will continue unabated, as carbon dioxide fails to stay put and seeps out to contribute to climate change.

The Cenovus incident in Saskatchewan simply drives home what clean energy advocates have been arguing for years: the only viable way to prevent climate change is to shift our economy decisively away from fossil fuels. Rather than wasting billions on expensive CCS projects that don’t work, governments and private investors should combat climate change with clean, renewable energy.

Article by Nick Engelfried, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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Global Warming is caused by several factors such as the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One solution to the problem is to capture the carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere, and instead, deposit the CO2 into the ground. However, up to this point, scientists have been unable to effectively track how it might move underground. The desire is to get the CO2 in place and not have it move elsewhere and potentially cause problems. Now, with the advent of Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT), developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), tested by the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), and funded by the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, sequestration of greenhouse gases may expand.

ERT technology is similar to computer tomography scan. It takes images of soil resistivity which allows scientists to determine the soil’s properties, such as temperature, saturation, and soil type. Tomography is imaging by sectioning through the use of energy waves. It can be applied to other fields such as radiology, archaeology, oceanography, and astrophysics.

SECARB conducted its ERT experiment at the Cranfield Oilfield near Natchez, Mississippi. The project will test over one million tons of CO2 in underground formations at a depth of 10,000 feet, the deepest application of ERT technology to date.

ERT uses vertical electrode arrays set up in a cross-well arrangement. Four-electrode measurements are taken to monitor changes in the distribution of electrical resistance within the underground formation. Since the CO2 at the Cranfield site has resistivity five times greater than its surroundings, the ERT system can determine where the CO2 is, and in what speed and trajectory it is moving.

“We can image the CO2 plume as the fluid is injected,” said geophysicist Charles Carrigan, the LLNL lead on the ERT project. “What we’ve seen is a movement of the plume outward from the injection well into the geologic formation used for storage.”

Scientists have constructed two monitoring wells of more than 10,000 feet in depth at the Cranfield site. The ERT system installed is capable of withstanding over 250 degrees Fahrenheit and 5,000 psi of pressure. It takes 10,000 measurements per day which Carrigan and his team can access remotely.

At this point, the ERT system seems to be performing its job well to capture images of the underground CO2 plume. However, human intelligence is still required to analyze the findings. This can be a difficult task, even with the proper equipment. Uncertainties in reservoir structure and unknown multiphase fluid processes are not easy factors to incorporate. The goal in the end is to ensure that the underground storage of CO2 is operating properly. What good is it to capture the carbon only to find it leaking out of the ground in two years?

According to Carrigan, the hope is to start applying ERT systems to commercial CO2 underground storage sites. This type of technology is vital for the future of carbon sequestration. Power companies will be employing these systems as they look to reduce their carbon footprint.

Article by David A Gabel appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

photo: A. Belani

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A new report from Pike Research of Colorado says the addition of carbon capture systems to power plants will add 50% to 70% to the cost of creating electricity for existing and future plants.

The report, titled “Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Drivers and Barriers, Technology Issues, Key Industry Players, Market Analysis and Forecasts,” adds that such increases in costs will be initially underwritten by governments but gradually passed on to ratepayers.

The report will be a wakeup call to many on the potential of such systems, which are targeted at large-scale projects and coal-fired power plants in particular, the latter accounting for half of the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions.

Pike estimates that the CCS industry will grow to revenue of $221.5 billion by 2030. The margins, however, will be low, hovering “close to zero,” and “even over the longer term, the CCS industry, heavily subsidized and equally heavily regulated, will produce relatively low profits. In addition, margins will vary widely along the vertical chain of CCS, from capture to transport to geological storage.”

However, as the report notes, predicting the future profitability is guesswork, since the price of carbon emissions (i.e, the penalties for emitting too much) “will likely be set initially by government fiat and, over the longer term, market forces that are impossible to predict with confidence.”

The full report is available for purchase by contacting: sales (at) pikeresearch (dot) com

[photo credit: Library of Congress]

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U.S. researchers have demonstrated a technology that uses the sun’s heat to convert carbon dioxide and water into the building blocks of traditional fuels, a reverse combustion process that may emerge as a practical alternative to sequestration of CO2 emissions from power plants.

The prototype “Sunshine to Petrol” system, developed by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, uses concentrated solar energy to trigger a thermo-chemical reaction in an iron-rich composite located inside a two-sided cylindrical chamber.

The iron oxide is designed to lose an oxygen molecule when exposed to 1,500 degree C heat, and then retrieve an oxygen molecule when it is cooled down, essentially converting an incoming supply of CO2 into an outgoing stream of carbon monoxide.

Additionally, when researchers pump water into the chamber rather than CO2, the machine produces hydrogen. Combining those retrieved gases — hydrogen and carbon monoxide — they are able to create syngas, which can be used as a fuel.

While researchers say the technology likely will not be ready for market for 15 to 20 years, it could one day become a practical way to recycle CO2.

“It’s a productive utilization of CO2 that you might capture from a coal plant, a brewery, and similar concentrated sources,” said James Miller, a Sandia chemical engineer.

Article appearing courtesy of Yale Environment 360

[photo credit: Sandia National Labs]

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