Archive | December, 2012

Thoughts from the Greenman Award Recipient, Sally Benson

10 Dec

I am so appreciative of receiving the Greenman Award (even though I am the first Greenwoman).  There are so many people who are deserving of this honor. CCS has advanced so rapidly over the past ten years. It is truly remarkable, but entirely dependent on the hard work and dedication of so many people.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with outstanding scientists and engineers from around the world. The IPCC Special Report on CO2 Capture and Storage brought many of us together, not that we agreed on everything, but this accelerated  the pace of building a worldwide community of researchers interested in CCS.

We also owe a great deal to the pioneers who started the Sleipner Saline Aquifer CO2 Storage Project. Operating for nearly 16 years, this project has provided a wealth of data and insights. The seismic data and interpretations have taught us so much about the behavior of CO2 in the subsurface.

The IEA Greenhouse Gas Programme has also been crucial for the development of CCS. I attended my first IEAGHG conference in Interlaken, Switzerland in 1998, and have been to everyone since then. The IEAGHG has contributed so much, from the conferences, to the networks, and now a high impact journal that publishes leading research articles. So, thank you very much for this wonderful award. It made my year!

Now all we need to do it get CCS implemented in a couple hundred projects. Then, we will all know we have succeeded.

I will be really proud to be a small part of that.

Blogged by Sally Benson,

2012 Greenman Award Recipient

 

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Statoil Reflections on GHGT-11

10 Dec

Some comments from Statoil – one of the Conference Silver Sponsors                         

Overview:

  • GHGT is the world’s largest conference on greenhouse gas related technology and is held bi-annually. With 1250 delegates from 153 countries at Kyoto this year, the conference continues to provide world-leading guidance on the science and technology for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
  • The conference theme was “CCS: Ready to Move Forward” and at the opening the IEAGHG Executive Committee Chairman, Kelly Thambimuthu, argued that “The time is right for CCS and that CCS is the key to the climate challenge.”
  • Overall the conference mood was positive, despite set-backs related to the global financial crisis. It is clear that CCS is essential for the world’s future energy mix, and as a new technology concept it is moving slowly but steadily forward.

Some statements from selected Keynote Plenary Speakers:

  • Brad Page, CEO Global CCS Institute, stated that actual CCS projects (operational and planned) will only reach half the IEA 2020 target of 100 large-scale projects by 2020. Currently 8 large-scale CCS Project are in operation and another 8 are under construction. He also highlighted how CCUS (mainly with CO2EOR) has become the key factor in the USA and Canada, and showed that the cost of CO2 avoided using CCS is cheaper than most renewable energy options.
  • Jay Braitch, Senior Advisor, USDOE, argued that the USA is a leader in CCS technology, with in 8 full scale CCS demo projects in operation. The US Kemper project is world’s most advanced IGCC Coal CCS Project and the Summit Project in Texas is close behind with 2.4Mtpa CO2EOR and 0.5MTpt Urea production.
  • Mr. A. Nishida, Chairman of Toshiba, profiled the importance of energy efficiency measures. For example, Toshiba’s eco products already reduce emissions by 3.5Mtpa, and more generally low energy light bulbs could, for example, give 650Mt CO2 emissions reductions.

Some other general observations from the conference as a whole, included:

  • On storage capacity, Jim Dooley argued that no matter how you add up the widely ranging capacity estimates there is plenty of storage capacity for the 21st Century.
  • CO2EOR, as part of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), is growing fast in the USA and Canada, while Europe is still struggling to get full-scale CCS demonstration projects off the drawing board.
  • The Steel industry has big potential for energy savings and CO2 reductions, and is ready to move into CCS, but awaiting support to move forward.
  • There were plenty of new insights presented at the conference, but learnings from real demo projects were still somewhat thin on the ground.

Blogged by Philip Ringrose,

on behalf of the Statoil GHGT-11 participants

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US DOE Reflections on GHGT-11

4 Dec

The US has been a strong supporter of the GHGT series because it is THE event where one can get a reliable world view of the status of carbon capture and storage technology. The IEAGHG realized from the beginning that combining top notch venues with a thoughtful  program was key to ensuring the best and brightest in the CCS universe would be there. This, coupled with the extraordinary commitment of the host countries and increasing interest in CCS resulted in  attendance reaching almost 1600 in 2010 – three times the 1998 attendance.

It is especially interesting when an area starts to get significantly more attention in presentations and panel discussions than has been the case previously. For example, much of the past attention has been on CCS for coal-fueled power plants without consideration of the operating environment. At GHGT-11, however,  researchers began to explore how such a plant might be affected by other fuels in the mix. A number of talks focused on flexible operation of CCS, particularly in European countries anticipating a high penetration of  renewables. Presentations included temporary options such as bypassing the CO2 capture unit, turning off CO2 regeneration and storing the rich solvent for later CO2 recovery, and producing alternative products (e.g. liquid fuels) when electricity demand falls.

Another fuel getting renewed attention is natural gas. A plenary talk looked at the international implications of shale gas, and there were papers exploring alternative gas/CCS configurations and cost.

An overall impression of GHGT-11 is that while the march toward CCS commercialization appears to have slowed down in many countries, the R&D community continues to thrive and important progress is being made.

Blogged by Jay Braitsch,

Senior Advisor, Office of Fossil Energy, US DOE

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