Scientists and governments across the world are eagerly awaiting the results of a test being run in a seemingly nondescript container at a power station on the bank of the river Forth in Scotland.
If the test results are positive they may prove a landmark in the quest for ‘clean’ energy from coal that will represent a leap forward in the struggle against climate change.
The container houses cutting-edge carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that is being tested for the first time in the UK. The technology, if successful, could result in the establishment of a full-scale CCS plant by 2014.
What is the project?
The test is taking place at the Longannet power station, Europe’s third largest and one of its dirtiest, producing around 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.
Carbon dioxide released through burning coal to power the electricity turbines will be removed using chemicals and turned into a liquid, ready for storage underground.
“It’s a major step forward in delivering the reality of carbon-free fossil fuel electricity generation,” says Nick Horler, the Chief Executive of Scottish Power, the company behind the Longannet project.
If the scheme is successful, the UK government has stated that in future it will require each new coal-fired power station that is built to have carbon-capture technology installed, making it the first country to insist on this.
Coal: dirtiest form of fuel
Coal is the dirtiest form of fuel, contributing the most CO2 emissions from its burning for energy use. The United States produces around 1.5 billion tons of CO2 each year from its coal-burning power stations.
But around a quarter of the world’s energy is produced from coal. Its cheap and abundant supplies, particularly in the economic powerhouses of the United States, China and India, means that its use is attractive despite the harm it causes the environment.
Finding a way to continue to burn coal to generate electricity while slashing the greenhouse gas emissions produced would, for many, represent a sort of Holy Grail.
The UK government says that locking carbon dioxide emissions underground would reduce Britain’s overall production of the greenhouse gas by up to 90%.
The Schwarze Pumpe power station in north Germany has become the first plant in the world to successfully capture, transport and bury CO2.
Each year, its operator Vattenfall will bury 100,000 tonnes of CO2 3,000 metres below the surface of the depleted Altmark gas field.
There are at least 20 other CCS projects in construction or being planned in the United States, China, Norway, Germany, France and Australia.
But environmental campaigners remain sceptical about CCS, arguing that there’s no such thing as ‘clean coal’ and that it diverts attention away from the development of greener, renewable energy sources.
Costs
The price of using CCS technology is also steep. Each power station equipped with CCS apparatus is estimated to cost between £1 billion and £2 billion to build.
According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), fitting carbon capture equipment is also energy-intensive.
Adding it to the most efficient kind of coal-burning power stations reduces their generating efficiency and requires them to burn 27% more coal to produce the same amount of electricity than those without CCS equipment.
That figure increases for less efficient power stations.
As a result, the cost of electricity is 57% more expensive from highly efficient power stations with CCS equipment than those without.
In the least efficient type of power stations that increases to nearly 70%, MIT says.
Risks
Insurers also are sceptical of the risks involved in CCS. In a recent speech to the Geneva Association in Tokyo, Richard Ward, the Chief Executive of Lloyd’s, said that the potential claims from an accident involving carbon capture could be so large they could bankrupt the industry.
“Carbon sequestration has been used to some extent already; but the long term effects are not known the most extreme outcomes fall outside of our industry’s risk appetite, I would suggest,” Ward said in his speech.
Trevor Maynard, Head of Emerging Risk at Lloyd’s says: “A number of insurers have concerns about the insurability of these technologies.”
A Catastrophe Modelling Forum hosted by Lloyd’s highlighted concerns over the health and liability implications of CCS.
These include stored CO2 potentially dissolving in underground watercourses, releasing poisonous heavy metals such as arsenic into the water; also, if the gas was stored near urban areas, sudden escapes could suffocate large numbers of people.
“We’d need to do some careful research around the risk before becoming involved in CCS” says Maynard. “Some aspects of the risk may be difficult to insure and it could require a partnership with government along similar lines to coverage for the nuclear industry in some countries".
