UKCCSC News 1 July 2008

Hi Folks,

Jon Gibbins circulated news of DBERR’s consultation document “Towards Carbon Capture and Storage”. The document itself is at:

https://www.berr.gov.uk/consultations/open-consultations/index.html

22nd September is the closing date for responses. The news release suggest that uncertainty concerning the definition of ‘capture ready’ has been taken seriously, which is good news.

The bidders in the UK CCS competition are named as BP Alternative Energy International Limited, EON UK Plc, Peel Power Limited and Scottish Power Generation Limited. No more details were forthcoming.

https://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=372398&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True

2) Both of the UK’s major political parties have issued greener-than-green visions of the future in the last week or 2. Labour seem keen on windmills, perhaps inspired by the hot air their spin-doctors produce?

“Brewing storm over Labour’s dream of wind power future” Telegraph.co.uk (1 Jun)

“Today’s long-awaited renewable energy strategy is already being blown away by industry experts”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/26/ccenergy126.xml

The actual documents (and there are lots!) are on the DBERR website, with a link and summary here:

https://www.labourhome.org/story/2008/6/26/10124/4178

3) “Tories pledge to support ‘greener’ coal”, InTheNews.co.uk (17 Jun)

“The Conservatives want coal stations to have carbon capture and storage”

“Mr Cameron announced that he would support an emissions performance standard that would mean the carbon emissions rate of all electricity generated in our country cannot be any higher than that generated in a modern gas plant.”

www.inthenews.co.uk/news/science/tories-pledge-support-greener-coal-$1227692.htm

The WWF apparently liked the idea, but not so the Association of Electricity Producers:

“Carbon capture proposal attacked” FT.com

“Electricity producers would be unable to comply with Conservative proposals set out on Monday to allow no new coal-fired power plants to be built without “some element of carbon capture and storage”, an electricity trade body warned.

The Tories had “the wrong approach”, said David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers, as their proposals would make carbon capture and storage “mandatory before it has been demonstrated successfully”.”

https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d55cdb8e-3bda-11dd-9cb2-0000779fd2ac.html

The actual proposals must be somewhere on the web, but the Tory web site apparently lacks things that might frighten voters, such as nasty long documents with big words. Strange it has photos of Cameron on it then… at least he’s not wearing his top hat.

4) Now for some geographical news, Norway has been kicked out of Europe:

“Germany is due to inaugurate Europe’s first underground carbon dioxide storage site on Monday” (i.e. 30.6.08) AFP

This is the Ketzin test site near Berlin where the CO₂ is stored at such shallow depths it will be a gas, and not supercritical. I couldn’t get the AFP site quoted above to work so try this one:

https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,562910,00.html

5) “Row over carbon credits” Guardian

“Developing countries are divided over whether carbon capture projects should be allowed in the UN’s carbon trading scheme Companies will be able to tap carbon markets to finance carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Europe. So should carbon credits also be awarded to CCS projects in developing countries? It’s an issue that will be fiercely debated at the next big UN climate meeting at Poznan in December.”

https://society.guardian.co.uk/thecarbonquestion/story/0,,2287201,00.html

6) The Guardian has made a pdf poster explaining CCS, jolly nice it is too:

https://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Society/documents/2008/06/24/poster.pdf

It’s part of a supplement on CCS that is available online, full of useful info and quoting the usual UKCCSC suspects. Thanks to those who informed me about this, does everybody in UKCCSC read the Guardian?

https://society.guardian.co.uk/thecarbonquestion

7) Not quite what I first thought but interesting, apparently they use wheat to make ethanol. Best possible use for the stuff, I’m allergic to it… “Ensus to add carbon capture facility”

Jun 24, 2008, The Journal, NEbusiness

“A £23M CARBON capture facility is to be added to one of the UK’s biggest bioethanol plants which is currently being built on Teesside for opening next year.

Ensus, which is investing £250m in the plant at Wilton, announced yesterday it had signed an agreement with Norwegian company Yara to construct the £23m facility, which will turn CO₂ gas from the bioethanol plant into liquid CO₂ for use in the UK food and drink industry.”

Remember, don’t burp or you may be contributing to climate change…

https://www.nebusiness.co.uk/business-news/latest-business-news/2008/06/24/ ensus-to-add-carbon-capture-facility-51140-21138827/

8) The EU CCS legislation rolls on:

“MEP drops permit sweetener plan for CO₂ storage” ENDS Europe DAILY 2568, 20/06/08, subscription only and not apparently reported elsewhere.

“The European parliament’s rapporteur on plans to create a legal framework for carbon capture and storage (CCS) has dropped a proposal that CCS plants should receive double credits under the EU’s emission trading system.

Mr Davies has tabled amendments to draft EU legislation put forward by the European commission in January (EED 23/01/08 https://www.endseuropedaily.com/24685). But the idea of incentivising CCS by awarding it extra carbon credits appears nowhere in the plans, despite the MEP’s public support for the idea last month”

9) I’m not sure if this is a joke or not…

“Understanding Mineralogy of Carbon Capture and Storage through Near Infrared Spectroscopy” newswiretoday.com

“Carbon capture and storage, or geosequestration, involves locking the carbon dioxide in the form of minerals such as smithsonite and magnesium carbonate minerals. Near infrared spectroscopy offers a means of identifying such minerals and may be employed remotely.

The carbonate rocks, such as smithsonites, include some of the most highly coloured and prized precious gem stones.”

Now I know that many of you aren’t geologists, but I am, and I’ve barely heard of ‘smithsonite’, and Mg carbonate minerals aren’t top of many peoples lists for sequestering minerals. (I’ve just checked, so courtesy of Wikipedia, Smithsonite is zinc carbonate).

https://www.newswiretoday.com/news/35973/

10) And finally, the world according to one Gordon Brown:

“The world is going to have to build 1,000 nuclear power stations”

You have to read a long way through the article about “New Deal”s (why not a few new names?) to get to that bit:

https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/21/oil.renewableenergy

We’ll leave the G8 meeting (July 7 to 9), in Toyako, Japan, for next time!