VARIOUS: Rotterdam says it wants to become the main European hub for carbon capture and storage - the storing of CO2 emissions

Record ID: 1519033

  • Title: VARIOUS: Rotterdam says it wants to become the main European hub for carbon capture and storage - the storing of CO2 emissions
  • Date: 6th September 2008
  • Summary: (EU) ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (RECENT) (REUTERS) NEW CAPTURE CO2-READY COAL PLANT BUILDING SITE WITH WORKERS WORKERS AT THE SITE WORKERS IN VEHICLE AT THE SITE
  • Embargoed: 21st September 2008 09:39
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVACTFRDUDOPRWML6PMSNPBJDEN7
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: Capturing CO2 emissions from heavy industry and storing them out from harms way is increasingly seen as an essential tool in reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere without damaging lucrative power stations or endangering supply to the consumers.
    Recent events in Russia and Georgia which led to rumours that Russia could cut off energy supplies to the EU if it chose to impose sanctions against Russia to punish it from using excessive force against Georgia have strengthened arguments in favour of carbon capture and storage or CCS.
    Europe needs to reduce its dependency on countries which are politically sensitive, if not volatile, and CCS is one way of enabling the EU to continue producing its own energy whilst honouring its commitment to cut CO2 emissions by 20 percent in the next 10 years.
    But it is also perceived as a brilliant business opportunity. Germany officially opened a pilot CCS plant in Vattenfal on Thursday (September 4) using an oxyfuel boiler. Germany is heavily dependent on polluting coal plants for its own energy needs.
    Rotterdam wants to go one step further. The port is Europe's biggest and a major hub for oil, coal and biofuels. It plans to capture and store CO2 in old gas fields all over Europe as well as the Netherlands so it can pursue industrial development.
    Rotterdam wants to become the European hub for carbon capture.
    The initiative, a platform for local authorities, groups and companies to work together to fight climate change, also wants to develop a Dutch system for CO2 transport and storage which could eventually serve the wider north west European region.
    The Dutch government has invested 30 million euros (47.42 million US dollars) in pilot projects and has plans to commit a further 60 million euros by the end of the year, though the initiative says it will need a lot more to achieve its goals.
    Much larger sums have been dedicated to the technology elsewhere in the world, for example, by the Canadian province of Alberta, which said this week it would put almost 4 billion US dollars into funds to pay for CCS programmes.
    But members of the initiative say the Netherlands, owner of Europe's biggest natural gas field in Groningen, also has the potential to use its experience with gas to become a leader in CCS technology and infrastructure.
    An initial project Rotterdam is mulling would be to extend a pipeline from Royal Dutch Shell's Pernis refinery to transport the CO2 to an almost exhausted natural gas field close to the town of Barendrecht.
    This would help towards a target of 5 million tonnes of CO2 storage per year by 2015, which the initiative hopes to increase to 20 million tonnes a year by 2025.
    That compares with total EU carbon dioxide emissions from power production in 2007 of about 1.5 billion tonnes, and Netherlands power production emissions of 59 million tonnes CO2.
    Overall, the initiative aims to halve CO2 emissions in the Rotterdam area by 2025 compared to 1990.

    "But then we are talking a billion a year business. Companies know that, of course, so they are starting now to see - can we make the capture more cheap ? That's a learning curve, technology in principle is there, we are not inventing it," says Ruud Lubbers, chairman of the initiative and and former Dutch prime minister. "The next phase could be is the CO2 hub, when the guy in Antwerp and Ruhr say 'hey, wait a minute, if we have to do it ourselves, we better plug in the Dutch system.' Then the Netherlands become a CO2 hub country," he continues.
    The Executive Director of the International Energy Agency Nobuo Tanaka says that CCS is a vital technology in the fight against climate change and has recommended it be included in the diverse measures the EU and the world need to invest in to realistically reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050.
    The challenge is staggering he says.

    "We assess the future needs with this climate change issue also.
    By reducing 50 percent of the CO2 by 2050 we have to additionally invest, we need to additionally invest 45 trillion dollars on top of this 22 trillion so this again is a huge challenge and the major part of this investment should go to the electric sector, renewables, nuclear of CCS or new transportation sector like electric vehicle fuel cell so yes its not just European but as a global requirement it is a huge investment in the future," Tanaka said.
    He also says it makes no economic sense to shut down coal plants and other polluting sources of energy when the world's resources are declining and that CCS is an effective way of maintaining some independence from politically volatile energy sources.

    "The internal production of energy is certainly declining and it will continue in the future so it means that Europe should more and more depending on the foreign supply or imports so the issue of security is how you can diversify the sources or diversify. First: energy efficiency and conserve and use less, that is the first I would say measures. Second: diversify the sources of energy by renewable or nuclear or carbon capturing and also third yes, diversify the sources or supply countries or supply," Tanaka says.
    The European Commission in Brussels has repeated the need to reduce its dependency on Russian gas on Thursday (September 4) in an effort to stabilise supply in a political unstable world even though Russia is more dependent on European exports of its gas supply than the EU is on Russia. Although individual EU countries have a higher supply need than others.
    It has already said it wants to see more CCS pilot plants so as to properly assess its effectiveness as quickly as possible and would like to see at least 10 full scale power plants with CCS capabilities over the next few years.
    Several other companies are also working on CCS projects in the Netherlands E-ON Benelux has a test facility at a Rotterdam plant and is investing a further 10 million euros in another project. Dutch state pipeline operator Gasunie and Germany's RWE also have a project in the port of Eemshaven.
    Statoil has been storing large amounts of CO2 for underground storage at its Sleipner off shore gas field since 2000.
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