Carbon Capture & Storage

Decarbonisation of the energy supply is top of the EU’s agenda for greenhouse gas reduction. Many of the technologies that can deliver the emissions reductions needed by 2020 are already well-developed and on the brink of being widely deployed, one being Carbon Capture & Storage.

 

The Scottish CCS capacity study was launched by Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, in May 2009 as the most comprehensive and detailed assessment so far of CO2 storage capacity in the EU.  The conclusions of this study underline just how vast Scotland's potential in CCS is. The capacity exists to capture safely and store emissions from industrial coal-fired plants for the next 200 years.  The potential Scottish capacity is of European significance, comparable with that of offshore Norway, and greater than Netherlands, Denmark and Germany combined.

SEGEC is working closely with one of its industrial sponsors, ScottishPower, to make the case for rapid demonstration of CCS in Europe.  At Longannet Power Station, ScottishPower and its partner, Aker Clean Carbon, tested a prototype carbon capture unit during 2009. To read more on this project, click here.

For CCS to truly work, the technology has to be retrofitted to the 20,000 existing power stations worldwide, not just to new ones. In addition to this, Storage must also be demonstrated.

The Scottish Centre for Carbon Storage is the UK's leading CCS research centre.  SEGEC has helped SCCS promote the Scottish CCS capacity study in Europe, and to build collaborative partnerships to make the North Sea the EU's CCS hub.

SEGEC is working with partners across the EU to influence the European Commission to help fund CO2 injection testing alongside the planned demonstrator programme, ideally through an offshore EU CO2 storage test lab.  This could test and monitor long-term storage performance in different geological structures.  Scotland has the expertise in subsurface engineering, and the infrastructure of oil and gas platforms and pipelines to make this happen.

For further information on SEGEC's activities in this area, please contact Chris Bronsdon, CEO on 01224 489980.