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Carbon capture needs support
The Regina Leader-Post
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Byline: Bruce Johnstone
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology can play a major role in solving the problem of man-made climate change, but not without significant government support, according to scientists at an international workshop on CCS in Regina Tuesday.
CCS involves the capturing of CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil-fuel power stations or other large carbon emitters and storing the CO2 in deep geological formations.
John Topper, managing director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Clean Coal Centre and IEA Environmental Projects, which includes the Weyburn-Midale CO2 monitoring project in southern Saskatchewan, said CCS is probably the second-most important method of reducing GHG emissions.
"Energy efficiency in all its different forms is always going to be the first choice,'' Topper told reporters during a break in the three-day IEA-sponsored workshop. "But probably second choice on the ranking list is carbon capture and storage because we have such a high level around the word of emissions of CO2, particularly from power stations.''
But Topper said CCS technology needs demonstration projects to prove its technical and economical feasibility, projects that require government backing in the form of funding and regulation.
"So somebody somewhere has to show, by way of example, that carbon capture and storage is viable and the longer we leave it, the more expensive it's going to become,'' said Topper, who has organized IEA workshops on CCS around the world.
"That's why the leaders of the developed world came to the conclusion some time ago that we need a number of demonstrations of (CCS technology)."
Topper said the developed countries, like Canada and the U.S., have a moral obligation to show that CCS can significantly reduce CO2 emissions safely and permanently.
"Frankly, it doesn't matter a great deal whether Canada continues to use fossil fuels on a global basis. China will, India will and a number of other countries will use their coal and their indigenous (fossil fuel) resources.''
Despite their high cost, Topper said the sooner the investments are made in CCS demonstration projects the better for the global environment. "First-of-a-kind units are always very expensive. Almost any new technology is expensive,'' Topper said. "But it's clear we're going to need carbon capture and storage. You cannot do without it.''
Topper added that governments need to pass laws requiring large GHG emitters to capture and store carbon. "It would be very helpful in the developing of this technology... if the legislators could get on with deciding what the regulations are going to be. Because that's going to govern various aspects of carbon capture and storage.''
Malcolm Wilson, director of the Office of Energy and Environment at the University of Regina, said Saskatchewan has become a world leader in CCS technology, thanks to groundbreaking work at the International Test Centre of CO2 Capture, the Petroleum Technology Research Centre and other research facilities at the U of R.
Wilson said the research has shown the risk of storing billions of tonnes of CO2 in deep geological formations is relatively small, considering the huge volume of rock in the Earth's subsurface.
"Nature is very resilient and certainly the subsurface is extremely resilient. (Nature) has stored oil and gas, coal, you name it, for millions, tens of millions of years. We see examples in North America where we've stored carbon dioxide for millions of years. So we know it can be done safely.''
The workshop in Regina, which attracted about 150 scientists from 18 countries, is the 12th sponsored by the IEA and the third in Canada. |
