2010 — a busy year for CCS

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be running a series of blogs around CCS projects activities that took place during 2010. We’ll hear from Institute staff and external colleagues — from projects, governments, and other organisations — about what drove particular developments. So in this blog I just want to run through the numbers.

At the end of 2010, a total of 234 active or planned CCS projects were identified across a range of technologies, project types and sectors. This is a net increase of 21 projects identified since 2009. Of these, 77 are large-scale integrated projects (LSIPs) around the world at various stages of development. This is a net increase of 13 projects.

Significantly, two large-scale projects begun construction: the Southern Company IGCC project in the US, which will be the world’s first large-scale CCS project in the power sector, and the Gorgon CO₂ Injection Project in Australia, which when fully operational will be the largest CO₂storage project in the world.

There was significant churn among projects last year, with 22 LSIPs cancelled or delayed. That number was offset by the identification of 35 new projects in that category. This churn was the result of a number of factors, including uncertain economic conditions in parts of the world, or the technical and financial challenges specific to each project being more challenging than first thought. Regardless of the reason, this churn is not unexpected; rather it’s a natural part of the process of a technology application about to enter the demonstration phase at commercial scale.

In terms of geography, North America accounts for 39 of the 77 full chain projects. The US is home to 31 of the projects and Canada to 8.

More so than in other parts of the world, capture projects in North America are seeking additional revenue from the sale of CO₂ for EOR to improve project commerciality. The prospect of additional revenues from the sale of CO₂ for commercial use can act as an ‘enabler’ to the deployment of carbon capture technology in new applications. CO₂-EOR systems also have the potential to provide a knowledge base to build upon for the broader demonstration of CO₂ storage projects.

Europe is home to 21 key projects, though they are moving at a slightly slower pace than on the other side of the Atlantic. This in part reflects the longer timeframes associated with Europe’s key CCS funding mechanism, the NER300 program, as well as uncertain economic conditions.

The most advanced CCS activity in Europe is in Norway (which has two operational LSIPs) and in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, with 11 LSIPs under development between them.

Other regions also saw activity among CCS projects, namely:

• Australia has six LSIPs split between the petroleum sector (CO₂ injection projects associated mainly with offshore gas field developments) and projects associated with the capture of CO₂ from power stations and industrial facilities.
• Five LSIPs were identified in China, spanning a range of industries from power generation through coal to chemical to oil and gas.
• The Middle East and North African region is a promising area for CCS deployment, with emerging project opportunities. The In-Salah gas facility in Algeria is one of the world’s earliest commercial-scale CCS plants, operational since 2004. The United Arab Emirates is also involved in developments in industrial CCS projects, with the Masdar projects spanning power generation, hydrogen generation and aluminium, and steel industries.
• No projects were identified in key emitter countries such as Japan, India and Russia.