Cut Carbon Pollution - Bury It At Sea
Cycle of energy: returning fossil-fuel carbon to the ground through a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system could cut CO2 emissions from oil/gas power stations by up to 90 per cent. The UK is helping to develop CCS in China and India; this is an artist’s impression of a CCS demonstration plant.
ONE smart and scientific way of helping to solve the world’s problem of reducing carbon release through energy use is to put the carbon back from where it came - in the ground.
The system is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). It is a process by which the carbon in fossil fuels is captured either before or after combustion and sent to long-term storage in geological formations such as disused oil and gas fields at sea.
Now, the birthplace of the world’s first full-scale CCS demonstration plant may be in the United Kingdom, following the announcement of a competition to attract engineers and scientists to build it.
The UK and its relatively shallow seas surrounding it are ideal for developing this new technology for fossil-fuel power plants. Old, pumped-out oil and gas fields at sea are suitable for CCS and the plan has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power stations by up to 90 per cent and contribute to large global CO2 reduction by 40 years’ time.
Announcing the plan, Trade & Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said: “Carbon capture and storage has massive potential to allow us to meet our energy needs at the same time as cutting carbon emissions. It opens up huge possibility, not just for Britain but also but for the world.
“This is new technology for power plants, never done before on a commercial scale, but the UK is well placed. Depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea are suitable for storage and we have world-class expertise in geo-engineering.
“Gas and coal are important to the energy mix globally and in the UK. The Stern report was clear that, even with strong action on renewables and other low-carbon technologies, fossil fuels may still make up to half of the world’s energy supply by 2050,” he said.
“Rapid deployment of CCS technology in growth economies such as China and India will be vital. This competition gives innovative UK industries the opportunity to become the leading exporters of CCS technology for the low carbon age,” added Mr Darling.
The Stern Review estimates that CCS has the potential to contribute up to 20 per cent of global CO2 reduction by 2050. Furthermore, Stern estimates that to achieve stabilisation at 550 parts per million without CCS will increase costs by more than 60 per cent. More details about the CCS competition are to be announced later and the result will follow in 2008.
The UK government is already at the centre of efforts at home and internationally to build understanding of the p