CCS near widespread deployment
5 Nov 2014
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is now on the cusp of widespread global deployment, according to a report published today.
Following the start of operations at the world’s first commercial scale CCS plant in Canada last month, the Global CCS Institute’s annual Global Status of CCS: 2014 report finds there are now 22 projects in construction or operation worldwide, a 50% increase since 2011.
“CCS in the power sector is now a reality with the world’s first large-scale CCS project operating at Boundary Dam, Canada,” said Global CCS Institute chief executive Brad Page.
“With eight major CCS projects anticipated to go live in a range of industries worldwide by 2016, this low-carbon technology is reaching the critical mass necessary for widespread deployment.”
It is just as important to use CCS on industrial processes as in the electricity sector
Global CCS Institute CEO Brad Page
Today’s report details progress on CCS over the past year, providing a raft of recommendations for decision makers.
It found the industry is poised to move through its most active construction period to date, extending across a diverse range of sectors such as iron and steel, natural gas and power.
The report details nine CCS projects under construction with investments totalling billions of dollars. Eight of these are expected to become operational by 2016.
“These diverse and large-scale projects demonstrate that CCS is active, operational and viable,” said Page.
“An important point is that the projects currently under construction are the result of visionary policy decisions made around five years ago. We simply can’t have an effective response to tackling climate change without CCS. Decisions and actions are required now to lay policy, legal and infrastructure foundations for wide-scale deployment post 2020.”
The report found there are 14 CCS projects in advanced planning stage, including nine in the power sector, expected to be in a position to make a final investment decision in 2015.
Calling for financial and policy support structures to transition this portfolio of planned projects to actual projects by 2020, Page warned that CCS technology would not become widespread without policy parity with other clean technologies.
By 2016, CCS will be in operation in high carbon-emitting sectors such as chemicals and iron and steel. The world’s first commercial-scale chemical and bio-CCS plant at the Illinois Industrial CCS Project in the United States (US) plans to be operational in 2015.
The Abu Dhabi CCS Project in the UAE, planned for operation in 2016, is the world’s first large-scale project in the iron and steel sector.
“We need to be clear that CCS is the only technology that can achieve large reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from industries such as iron and steel, chemicals and cement which together emit 20% of the world’s CO2,” said Page.
“In fact, it is just as important to use CCS on industrial processes as in the electricity sector, which is currently the world’s largest CO2 emitter, accounting for up to 40% of emissions.”
