Cut Carbon Pollution - Bury It At Sea
Cycle of energy: returning fossil-fuel carbon to the ground through a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system could cut CO2 emissions from oil/gas power stations by up to 90 per cent. The UK is helping to develop CCS in China and India; this is an artist’s impression of a CCS demonstration plant.
ONE smart and scientific way of helping to solve the world’s problem of reducing carbon release through energy use is to put the carbon back from where it came - in the ground.
The system is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). It is a process by which the carbon in fossil fuels is captured either before or after combustion and sent to long-term storage in geological formations such as disused oil and gas fields at sea.
Now, the birthplace of the world’s first full-scale CCS demonstration plant may be in the United Kingdom, following the announcement of a competition to attract engineers and scientists to build it.
The UK and its relatively shallow seas surrounding it are ideal for developing this new technology for fossil-fuel power plants. Old, pumped-out oil and gas fields at sea are suitable for CCS and the plan has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from power stations by up to 90 per cent and contribute to large global CO2 reduction by 40 years’ time.
Announcing the plan, Trade & Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said: “Carbon capture and storage has massive potential to allow us to meet our energy needs at the same time as cutting carbon emissions. It opens up huge possibility, not just for Britain but also but for the world.
“This is new technology for power plants, never done before on a commercial scale, but the UK is well placed. Depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea are suitable for storage and we have world-class expertise in geo-engineering.
“Gas and coal are important to the energy mix globally and in the UK. The Stern report was clear that, even with strong action on renewables and other low-carbon technologies, fossil fuels may still make up to half of the world’s energy supply by 2050,” he said.
“Rapid deployment of CCS technology in growth economies such as China and India will be vital. This competition gives innovative UK industries the opportunity to become the leading exporters of CCS technology for the low carbon age,” added Mr Darling.
The Stern Review estimates that CCS has the potential to contribute up to 20 per cent of global CO2 reduction by 2050. Furthermore, Stern estimates that to achieve stabilisation at 550 parts per million without CCS will increase costs by more than 60 per cent. More details about the CCS competition are to be announced later and the result will follow in 2008.
The UK government is already at the centre of efforts at home and internationally to build understanding of the potential of CCS and to remove barriers to its development. This includes a cross-government taskforce working to develop a regulatory regime to enable CO2 to be stored safely and legally on and off shore and to encourage capture-ready generation.
Also, later this year will be the announcement of the first recipients of the Department of Trade & Industry’s Carbon Abatement Technology demonstration fund, including CCS, valued at 35 million pounds sterling. Technology Strategy programme funding of 20m pounds is also going into clean energy technologies such as CCS.
The UK was instrumental in changing the London Protocol in November 2006 to allow CO2 to be legally stored in the marine environment. It is working towards a similar agreement this year to amend the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (Ospar) that similarly governs north-east Atlantic waters.
The UK is actively pressing for CCS to be recognised in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and supports its inclusion in the Clean Development Mechanism of the wider UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The UK is leading the EU Near-Zero Emissions Coal initiative helping to develop CCS demonstration in China. The government has contributed 3.5m pounds to this project and is actively pursuing similar progress in India.
Norway and the UK, because of their geographic nature, are collaborating on a future regulatory regime for storage under the North Sea and are looking at the possibility of joint infrastructure on the sea-bed.
Norway has for 10 years been injecting about one million tonnes of CO2 a year from its Sleipner gas field into the Utsira formation, and companies - including Shell, Statoil and Norsk Hydro - are examining further opportunities for CCS, mainly in relation to enhanced oil recovery.
The UK and Norway are already collaborating on the development of a set of regulatory principles for the geological storage of CO2 beneath the North Sea.
把二氧化碳埋藏在海底，降低污染
能源循环：通过碳捕获和埋存（CCS）系统，可以将化石燃料产生的碳再埋藏到地下。这样可以使以石油/煤气发电的发电站所产生的二氧化碳最多减少90％。英国正在帮助中国和印度开发CCS技术，图中所示是一所CCS示范工厂的透视图。
帮助世界解决由于能源使用而产生的碳排放问题，一个快捷而又科学的方法就是把碳“送回”到原来的地方——地下。
这个系统就被叫做碳捕获和埋存（CCS）。过程就是在化石燃料燃烧之前或是之后，将其中的碳捕获后，长期地埋存在地质层中，如海中废弃的石油或天燃气田。
在宣布了一个旨在挑选工程师和科学家的竞赛之后，世界上第一个全规模的CCS示范工厂大概就要在英国诞生了，而这些工程师和科学家就是来建造它的。
英国及其周边的浅海环境，非常适合使用化石燃料的发电站开发这一新技术。海中旧的、已被抽空的油、气田都适合发展CCS，而且在这个计划还具有最多降低发电站90％二氧化碳排放量的潜力，可以为全球二氧化碳减少做出至少40年的贡献。
英国贸工部大臣阿利斯泰尔•达林在宣布该计划时说：“碳捕获和埋存技术具有巨大的潜力，可以让我们在满足自身能源需求的同时，降低碳排放。这不仅让英国，更让世界看到了巨大的希望。”
“对于发电站来说，这是一项全新的技术，以前从来没有进行过大规模的使用。不过，英国已经做好了准备。英国的北海区域有已开采空的油、气田，很适合用来埋存，而且我们还拥有领先世界的地质工程技术。”
他说：“无论是对英国来说，还是就全球来说，天然气和煤在能源组成中都占有重要的地位。《斯特恩评估报告》已经清楚地告诉我们，尽管我们竭力发展可再生能源以及低碳技术，到2050年之前，化石燃料仍然会占世界能源供应的一半。”
“经济发展大国，如中国、印度，迅速部署CCS技术是非常必要的。这种竞争为创新的英国工业提供了机会，让他们发展成为低碳时代CCS技术的主要出口商。”达林先生补充说。
《斯特恩评估报告》预测，到2050年时，CCS可为降低全球二氧化碳排放做出20％的贡献。而且，斯特恩预计：不使用CCS，要保持空气比例稳定在550等份/百万，那么将增加60％的成本。更多有关CCS竞争的资料将在稍晚时候发布，结果则于2008年公布。
无论是在国内还是国际上，英国政府都已经集中力量，建立起人们对CCS潜力的理解，并消除阻碍它发展的障碍。这包括政府间派出特别小组开发一套规范体系，来保证二氧化碳在岸上和离岸后都能被安全合法地埋存，并鼓励发展碳捕获发电站。
同时，今年晚些时候会公布英国贸工部的二氧化碳排放减量技术（包括CCS）示范基金的第一批获得者，金额为3,500万。
2006年11月，英国通过对《伦敦议定书》的修改，使二氧化碳可以合法地被埋存在海洋环境中。目前，英国正在致力于在今年达成一个相似的协议，即修改《保护东北大西洋海洋环境公约》——一个类似于管理东北大西洋海水的条约。
英国正在积极推动欧盟碳排放交易体系对CCS的认可，支持《联合国气候变化框架公约》的“清洁发展机制”内包含的内容。
英国正在带动着欧盟近零排放煤炭计划，帮助中国发展CCS示范工厂。英国政府已投资350万在这个工程上，并积极在印度推动类似的进程。
由于地理特性，挪威和英国正在合作，就未来在北海区域进行的埋存事宜建立一套规范体系，并探讨合作进行海床基础设置建设的可能性。
10年来，挪威每年从它的Sleipner天燃气田将100万顿的二氧化碳注入到Utsira的地层。还有像壳牌、Statoil Norsk Hydro这样的公司也在调查进一步发展CCS的机会，主要是和加强石油回收有关的机会。
英国和挪威已经开始合作，开发一套体系，来规范北海区域的二氧化碳地下埋存。
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