A CCS roadmap

I was recently at the Coal Research Forum biannual conference. It's a pleasent affair - three good meals a day, interesting presentations and a chance to sit in the bar and chat with other people from around the country.

The opening presentation was given by Dr. Mike Farley from Doosan Babcock - they're the people who build the power stations and are also looking to build capture plants.
Part of his presentation included a roadmap for CCS.
Unlike the road map for the middle east these are so close to completion that they are more of a historical document!
Two of his slides are below.



Amine capture roadmap



Oxycoal combustion roadmap


I like to see things like this. It cheers me up. It suggests that the UK can take a global lead on a technology that is seen by the IEA as providing a 19% drop in global CO2 emissions.

Another good bit of news from today is the press release from RWE, announcing that the capture demonstration unit on their combustion test facility is nearly ready. Not exactly power station sized, yet - but a vital link in the chain.

CCS - ready when?

Getting CCS ready for commercial use is a complex affair - it's never been tried before at the scale required on power stations.

This is something which requires money - and if this money is not available the whole project can be set back.

Theage has just published something suggesting that CCS won't be in a position to contribute to the countries energy mix before 2020.
That's possible.

We shouldn't forget though that this applies to economies as a whole, and that to get it this far we need to apply the technology to individual power stations - which means CCS will be used well before this date.
For example, if we could get two learning cycles in before this date we're likely to assist in strenghening this deadline.
http://www.co2storage.org.uk/Publications/UKCCS/Gibbins08.pdf

Largely this is happening - amine capture (which is regarded as the most promising type of CCS in the short term) is being demonstrated with RWEnpower at Didcott, and then Aberthaw by around 2010.
I would guess that the governments CCS competition winner would also use this technology.

So;

CCS by 2020? Yes, of course.

CCS capturing 90% of the emissions of a power station by 2020? Probably a policital rather than a technical challenge.

CCS in in all of the countrys power stations by 2020? Possibly not.

The environmental committee

The clue is in the title - it's an environmental committee, not an energy committee.

Their most striking remark is that "Coal should be seen as the last resort, even with the promise of CCS " - BBC News.

Their argument can be boiled down to this:
Coal emits twice as much CO2 as gas
Unless coal can be guarenteed to emit 1/5 the mass of CO2 of gas we shouldn't risk building it.

I sympathise with the argument.

They havn't considered the advantage of having diversified fossil connected to the grid - a system which can help us to maintain the grid at 50Hz (which renewables cannot), and the advantages of fuel security.

I've been told that if we mandate CCS (and this reports reccomends setting a date by which time CCS must be fitted - the royal society, a seperate body, mention 2020) companies will build gas rather than coal - afterall it's not the energy companies job to keep the lights from going out at the lowest possible cost.

CCS by 2020

I know that lots of people won't believe this. You probably should trust me though, I'm an engineer.

RWE yesterday began construction on a test scale carbon capture plant.
This is the post combustion plant, where the technology is most developed.

They say, in this article, that CCS will be ready for commercial oporation by 2020 - almost 10 years time.

This is interesting, not only to meet to EU 2020 targets, but also because Al Gore yesterday told America to stop burning fossil fuels over the next 10 years.
He wants the fuels not to be burnt so that they won't emit carbon. Clearly not heard of CCS then!