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U.K. study casts cloud over carbon capture
News Articles | By Dina O'Meara | Calgary Herald | October 27, 2009
Read the full article on the originating site
CALGARY – A “damning” new British report by environmental activists on carbon capture and storage and the oilsands has found unlikely agreement with energy industry insiders and scientists working on the technology.
Carbon dioxide emissions reduced through the technology won’t be enough to mitigate the overall impact of producing synthetic oil from the oilsands, according to the study by U.K.-based Co-operative Financial Services and the World Wildlife Federation.
“Even the most optimistic estimates from industry experts claim reductions from oilsands upstream operations will be 10 to 30 per cent in the medium term and 30 to 50 per cent in the long term,” said the study, Carbon Capture and Storage in the Alberta Oil Sands—a Dangerous Myth.
The groups called on Canada to direct financial support for low-carbon technologies to other industries and to stop development of Alberta’s vast oilsands resources.
The Alberta government has promised$2 billion toward carbon capture technologies, with the federal government earmarking $1 billion toward a clean-energy fund. Ottawa wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020.
Industry didn’t argue carbon capture reducesemissionsfrom oilsands operations at a lower rate than if applied to larger direct emitters such as coal-fired power plants. But they emphasized the importance of CCS as part of a suite of technologies already being used to curb carbon emissions.
“Carbon capture and storage is certainly an important part of the overall suite of technologies the oilsands industry is looking at,” said Greg Stringham, with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. “It is applicable in some very targeted cases, but it goes in parallel with efforts not to create the emissions in the first place.”
Oilsands operations have already started using technologies to reduce the amount of energy and water being used to extract bitumen, resulting in lower costs and less environmental impact, Stringham said. Carbon capture also plays a bigger role in the coal industry, he noted.
Carbon capture and integrated gasification and combined cycle technologies play important roles in the emission reduction strategies of fossil fuel-burning power plants, said David Liewan, chair of the Canadian Clean Power Coalition and senior executive with Edmonton-based Capital Power Corp.
“We’re not saying it’s a panacea for every location and type of coal, but for Alberta, IGCC and CCS as part of an overall emissions reduction strategy is very applicable,” Liewan said.
Opponents to funding the technology point out the lowest cost estimates of CCS range between $40 to $150 per tonne of carbon captured. Currently, large emitters in Alberta pay a $15 penalty tax for every tonne of emissions over provincial standards, leading some to challenge CCS as a political fix to placate the public’s concerns rather than a substantial solution.
Consumers will have to pay for carbon-reducing technologies, either through higher taxes or more expensive goods, but would pay more without CCS, said Dr. Stefan Bachu, with the Alberta Research Council.
“It’s not that CCS is a silver bullet, and that by itself will solve the issue of carbon emissions,” Bachu said. “But it has to be part of a portfolio that includes efficiencies, renewables, all the other options available. Without CCS, it will be more expensive to reduce emissions.”
Bachu, an internationally renown expert in carbon storage and Nobel laureate, noted that the International Energy Agency said without CCS, costs to reduce emissions will triple.
“The (study) results revealed that if CCS technologies are not available, the overall cost to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 will increase by 70 per cent,” the Paris-based agency said in an Oct. 13 report. “CCS is therefore an essential part of the portfolio of technologies that is needed to achieve substantial global emissions reductions.”
Tagged with: alberta, wwf-uk, carbon capture and storage, co-operative financial services
