UKCCSC News 18 May 2007

Hi Folks,

 We have a superb selection of storage stories for your satisfaction. And a few other ‘clean’ energy titbits thrown in for good measure.

1) “Nuclear power and carbon capture and storage, where emissions from fossil fuel power stations are captured and buried underground, could play important roles; but with nuclear, “safety, weapons, proliferation and waste remain as constraints””

IPCC WG3 on mitigation say large role for CCS at up to $50/ton CO₂ value.

 The report itself is at:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/04_05_07_ipcc_report.pdf

Or for a more user-friendly summary:

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6620909.stm

2) “Scotland’s two coal-fired power stations could be converted to clean coal technology under £1.5bn plans unveiled by Scottish Power.”

This is apparently Europe’s Biggest Clean Coal Project.

https://www.scottishpower.com/PressReleases_1535.htm https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/6664559.stm

3) Rio Tinto and BP Join Forces to Develop Clean Energy Worldwide

BP and Rio Tinto today announced the formation of a new jointly-owned company, Hydrogen Energy, which will develop decarbonised energy projects around the world. The venture will initially focus on hydrogen-fuelled power generation, using fossil fuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to produce new large-scale supplies of clean electricity.

https://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7033188

4) The DTI have announced the short list for the Energy Technologies Institute, a UKERC-style centre to concentrate on low-C energy. The cash pot could be 1 billion pounds deep. That’s a lot of cash…

 https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-wlabel-dti.nsf/wfArticle?ReadForm&unid=BF1F2507051D4DDE802572DB00361B55

5) RWE npower propose 2.4GW cleaner coal at Blyth, to be capture ready.

 https://www.npowermediacentre.co.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=1236&NewsAreaID=2

6) “At the British Geological Survey and the University of Leicester we are researching a novel way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere – by storing it in a frozen form in a geological reservoir where it will remain safely trapped for many thousands of years in cold sediments under the deep ocean.“

Ameena Camps is a BGS PhD student, who claims that CO₂-clathrates (or hydrates) are stable below most of the European Continental Shelf (there is a map in the URL below).

www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/planetearth/2006/autumn/aut06-ice.pdf

Ameena and Mike Lovell (Uni of Leicester) suggest using CO₂ and CH4 hydrates as the primary seal for shallow CO₂ storage. But won’t the CO₂-clathrates also form in leaking drill holes, potentially self-sealing them if more conventional deep storage is used? Answers on a postcard to the usual address…

There is more detail at:

https://www.engineerlive.com/features/17649/carbon-dioxide-projects-advance.thtml

which, oddly, starts as an article about Total’s plan to bury 150,000 tonnes from an oxy-fuel plant in France and drifts into the subject of clathrates.

“A leading French company is piloting a novel technology for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide, while in the UK researchers have identified potential reservoirs for its storage all across Europe.”

7) From the Herald Sun in Australia:

“A GREENHOUSE crackdown by the State Government has left plans to develop the giant Kipper gas field in Victoria’s Bass Strait floundering. Planning Minister Justin Madden has told ExxonMobil that it must provide information on the viability of capturing and storing CO₂ from the project before the government will approve the development.”

Here’s a fishy quote from the article: “Gas from Kipper [gas field], which is located about 45km off Ninety Mile Beach, could supply one million Victorians for 15 years.”

How many Edwardians or Elizabethans (is that us?) would it supply??

https://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21689410-664,00.html