The Green Directory - Australia's Green Business Directory

He has warned Australia that the world cannot wait the two centuries it took the UK to achieve the transition from wood fuel in the 1600s to a coal-based energy system in order to move to one dependent on large scale CCS - a system which does not offer the same upsides as alternatives such as renewable sources of energy, better use of carbon dioxide waste and the manufacture of chemicals direct from coal and gas.

The claims were made by Professor Stefaan Simons, Professor of Chemical Engineering at University College London and Director of UCL’s Centre for CO₂ Technology. He was speaking in Adelaide today ahead of his delivery here this afternoon of the University College London-Santos International lecture.

“One has to question whether carbon capture and storage from fossil-fuel fired power stations is the best way forward to achieving a low carbon economy,” Professor Simons said.

“It is potentially a dangerous diversion, soaking up time, resources and funding that could be better and more readily applied to achieving a low carbon future,” he said.

“If we are to achieve the CO₂ emission reductions necessary to avert catastrophic climate change, we need to initiate the next industrial revolution, a transition from a low efficiency, high carbon energy system to one that is high efficiency, low carbon.

“This will require a complete replacement of the current fossil fuel energy system with electricity generated by renewable sources of energy - accompanied by massive reductions in energy demand.

“I challenge our energy policy makers and providers to reassess whether large-scale deployment of CCS makes sense and whether we should continue to use fossil fuels as our primary energy source, or use these fossil resources to produce higher value forms of energy and chemicals.

“We could then replace fossil-fuel electricity production with that from renewable sources, at the same time reducing the need for CCS. We also need to mature our thinking, our innovation and our chemical industry so that CO₂ becomes a valuable resource, rather than a waste product in need of disposal.”

Professor Simons said achieving the full transition to a reliance on electricity from renewable sources would require investment in research and development of ground breaking technologies and distribution systems and the support of industry and society, who will need to make behavioural changes.

He said the challenge facing CO₂ capture from fossil-fuel power stations is that it has never been done before at such a scale from dirty flue gas streams and, hence, the technology is still not fit for purpose for post-combustion capture.

“Pre-combustion capture holds more promise, but requires advanced power plant technologies.

“In addition, CCS is costly in relation to energy inputs and infrastructure, there is a question mark over required pipeline safety and it is not possible to quantify the exact risks of leakage from geological storage sites. For these reasons, there is limited public support for CCS,” Professor Simons said.

“Even leaks as low as 1% could negate the whole climate mitigation effort of CCS,” he said.

“More respected estimates suggest that for CCS to deliver meaningful CO₂ reduction levels by 2050, 6,000 projects worldwide, each sequestering on average one million tonnes per annum of CO₂, would be required.”

Professor Simons said part of the solution lay in greater process and product innovation in the (petro)chemicals sector, to increase the use of renewable electricity (thereby reducing the demand from fossil fuels) and to derive new and existing chemicals from CO₂  so that CO₂ becomes a valuable feedstock rather than a waste product.

“At the Centre for CO₂ Technology, we are developing breakthrough technologies in low carbon production of chemicals, such as cement, in, CO₂ conversion and in low energy flue gas treatment options,” Professor Simons said.

UCL’s Centre for Technology in London was established in 1998 as a focal point for industrial low carbon technology in response to the Kyoto Protocol and recognition that existing technologies would not be able to meet the emission targets agreed upon for carbon dioxide – the world’s major greenhouse gas.

(CCS involves capturing the carbon dioxide in fossil fuels either before or after combustion, and storing it for the long-term in formations such as depleted natural gas fields, deep saline aquifers and unmineable coal seams. It comprises three stages: Capture, transport and then storage. Each of the three accepted process routes for capturing CO₂ invol;ves the separation of CO₂ from a gas stream. )

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lisa Brie
UCL School of Energy and Resources Australia
(08) 8234 9555

Kevin Skinner
Field Public Relations
(08) 8110 9962
0414 822 631