Experiment On Clean Coal To Bury Waste
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday April 2, 2008
A "CLEAN COAL" experiment will begin in Australia today when the Energy Minister, Martin Ferguson, opens a demonstration plant that will inject up to 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into a deep underground storage site in Victoria.
The storage site, two kilometres under dairy country in the Otway basin, is part of the world's largest demonstration plant burying carbon dioxide.The launch will be attended by energy officials from major greenhouse emitting countries including the US, Japan, South Korea and India, along with coal, gas and oil company executives who are here for the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate.But the event has been marred by the failure of China to send any officials to the meeting or the launch. Mr Ferguson discovered the Chinese absence only yesterday. China has not indicated why it has not sent representatives, given it is a key player in the quest for clean-coal technology and one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases.His spokeswoman said there had been "travel and logistics" problems for the Chinese. It is not know whether the dispute over coal prices between China and the resource companies BHP Billiton and Rio influenced the decision.Addressing the delegates at the Asia-Pacific Partnership last night, Mr Ferguson said the world would be reliant on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future despite the threat of global warming. "Therefore clean-coal and cleaner-fossil-fuel technology has to be a major part of our policy response to climate change", he said.The Otway project is run by a consortium called CO2CRC, which includes the Federal Government, CSIRO, six universities and energy companies including BHP-Billiton, Rio, Xsrata and BP.It is designed to show on a small scale that capturing carbon dioxide, shipping it by pipe and storing it underground is possible without it leaking. If it works, the consortium hopes a large commercial plant will be established to transport carbon dioxide from coal-fired electricity plants to underground storage sites more than 120 kilometres away, possibly offshore.The head of the project, Peter Cook, said he was confident the demonstration plant would pose no safety risk, but part of its aim was to monitor the air and ground water over the next one to two years."We are in an area that has held carbon dioxide naturally for a long long time," he told the Herald. "We are doubly confident it won't be a problem."The Otway project is just one of several clean-coal projects the Federal Government is supporting. The Greens have raised concerns that the technology will receive the bulk of federal funding for research into alternative energy. The Government has promised $500 million for its clean-coal initiative, and energy companies are lobbying for more funds from the emissions trading scheme.Australia's main coal-fired power stations emit about 176 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and any plan to capture and bury the bulk of these emissions would push up the price of electricity.The National Generators Forum also estimates that the infrastructure needed to build clean-coal plants and pipe the carbon dioxide to burial sites would cost billions of dollars. Its members are calling on the Federal Government to fund part of the effort.Dr Cook said clean coal would be expensive. "If the Government thinks we've got to reduce CO2 emissions, if we are going to continue to use fossil fuels, this is the only way of doing it. We are not going to cease using fossil fuels in the next 50 years. It is just inconceivable."
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald