CCS Redux: “Greatest” Carbon Seize Facility In World Creates 25x Extra CO2 From Use Of Product

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Carbon seize and sequestration in all of its numerous ineffective, inefficient and costly types is having one other run up the hype cycle. Nothing has actually modified. The issues nonetheless exist. The options are nonetheless higher. The potential to be used continues to be minuscule. And so, the CCS Redux collection, republishing outdated CCS articles with minor edits.

CleanTechnica has been publishing a collection of my analyses on carbon seize and sequestration applied sciences over 2018 and 2019, in addition to some extra items. Two items on soil carbon seize and carbon farming have made the record, mentioning that these are useful, however extremely sluggish and so whereas value doing don’t imply we are able to preserve emitting greenhouse gases. I additionally revealed on the size downside of carbon seize, in that to get a ton of CO2 it’s a must to filter it out of a Houston Astrodome of air, and the Grand Canyon solely comprises about 1,270 tons of it.

Then there are the 9 articles (thus far) on the present darling of the air carbon seize or direct air seize crowd, Carbon Engineering. The primary 5 begin right here, the three particularly on air-to-fuel begin right here, and the final one on the anticipated use of pumping extra oil and creating extra greenhouse gases is right here. That collection confirmed that there’s no inexperienced in air carbon seize the way in which that Carbon Engineering is doing it, however that there are small niches the place a lot wiser options like International Thermostat’s make sense. That collection confirmed in gory element that mechanical air carbon seize goes to be a tiny wedge within the struggle towards world warming, so small as to be value ignoring, whatever the headlines that the fossil gasoline trade’s PR flaks and the International CCS institute (a subset of the PR flaks) are pumping into media websites. (As a notice, I spent 90 minutes this week speaking carbon seize and Carbon Engineering in particular with a CNBC crew that flew into BC to satisfy the CE staff in Squamish and me in Vancouver. Movie at 11.)

One of many articles appeared on the 50-year historical past of mechanical carbon seize efforts, all totally tied to the fossil gasoline trade, most simply used to pump extra oil out of performed out oil wells as enhanced oil restoration approaches. The evaluation confirmed that just about no CO2 by world requirements has been captured by CCS and {that a} single yr’s output of present wind and photo voltaic farms are avoiding 35 instances the CO2 that has been ‘captured’ over 50 years of CCS historical past. Mainly, all CCS is a rounding error on the precise resolution, simply cease emitting CO2.

However one of many world examples stood out, the Norwegian Equinor (nee Statoil) Sleipner facility within the North Sea.

It’s a tremendous outlier in a number of methods. First off, it was put into operation in 1996, making it a lot older than a lot of the services. Second, it wasn’t getting used for enhanced oil restoration, however was truly sequestering CO2 so far as may be instructed. Third, it has been in continuous operation for now 28 years and sequestering about one million tons of CO2 a yr, resulting in it being the most important precise sequestration facility on the planet. (The US Shute Creek facility is simply getting used to pump extra oil, and consequently is at easiest obtain 20% of its claimed sequestration.) Lastly, it was grime low-cost by CCS requirements, with a recorded capital value of lower than $30 million, in comparison with billions on some failed US efforts.

Sadly, issues don’t look as rosy underneath the covers as they do. This isn’t the magic bullet on find out how to efficiently and cheaply sequester CO2 that it seems like.

Sleipner’s CO2 doesn’t magically seem earlier than being sequestered. It’s a part of the pure fuel that they pump out of fields offshore from Norway within the North Sea. The fuel comprises 9% CO2, greater than is allowed within the pure fuel distribution community. They will’t promote it as is.

Carbon dioxide is stripped from pure fuel with amine solvents and is deposited in a saline formation. The carbon dioxide is a waste product of the sector’s pure fuel manufacturing. Storing it underground avoids this downside and saves Statoil a whole bunch of tens of millions of euros in carbon taxes. Sleipner shops about a million tons of CO2 a yr, so has saved about 23 million tons. Given the worth level, that appears near a greenback per ton, which is an astounding determine when Australia’s historical past is about $4,300 AUD per ton, and the USA’s historical past is worse.

Mainly they couldn’t promote the pure fuel with out eliminating the CO2 they usually needed to do one thing with it. Norway had a carbon tax even in 1996, so it made financial sense for Equinor to sequester it as an alternative of simply venting it to the ambiance. They needed to construct a lot of the functionality regardless, so I’m fairly positive the represented value is simply the additional value of injection on prime of what they needed to do anyway.

However that is the kicker. All of the pure fuel that they’re transport turns into an entire lot extra CO2. The mathematics is simple. For each 1000 kg of pure fuel, they seize 90 kg of CO2 and sequester it. Assuming zero leaks, the 910 kg of pure fuel is burned by clients, producing a bit over 2500 kg of CO2. Web CO2 emissions are roughly 2410 kg for each 1000 kg of pure fuel they pump out of the bottom.

What does that flip into by way of actual tons of CO2 sequestered vs emitted? Properly, they’re producing 36 million cubic meters of pure fuel per day. They’ve been producing that day by day since 1996, in order that’s about 300 billion cubic meters of fuel as of 2019. That turns into about 581 million tons of CO2 emitted by the pure fuel, in comparison with the 23 million tons of CO2 that’s been sequestered.

That’s over 25 instances extra CO2 within the ambiance than was sequestered. And Equinor is being paid for the pure fuel and the sequestered CO2. Good work if you may get it. Not so good for the planet.

Each different carbon seize facility on the planet is costlier, sequesters much less CO2, and has a a lot worse ratio than 25:1 for emitted vs captured. The fossil gasoline trade and customers of fossil fuels are producing vastly extra CO2 emissions than the easiest sequestration case examine can handle.