Carbon Capture Storage & Transport Summit 2009

Having a George Media branch office in London has its advantages. One of them is the proximity IRJ editorial staff have to exceptional conferences and congresses of the highest calibre. Last month the IRJ team had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Carbon Capture Storage & Transport Summit at the Picadilly Meridien, put together by IQPC. The Summit was “a senior level forum to tackle the most time-critical, commercial, technical, legislative and scientific challenges in carbon capture storage and transport implementation”.

The Summit drew the attention of industry representatives from around the world, who spoke about the possibilities for realistic carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the future.

Although CCS is just in its infancy, the reasons for the push behind CCS development are clear.  CCS is presently gaining momentum, in Europe and globally. The EU recently committed significant capital for CCS projects this year, which represents a major step towards making CCS a commercial reality. According to the Summit’s organizers: “2009 brings new funding mechanisms, legislative updates, pilot projects, and developments in legal structures”.

Of course, when any new full scale commercial venture is launched, there can be significant industry hurdles to overcome – especially when you’re dealing with the revamping of entire business processes. The speakers at CCS 2009 Summit had a lot to say about how challenges on the global scale can be met head-on, with the end goal of realizing monumental CCS ventures. Climate change has been on global governments’ radars for years now, but the key is to bring the issue to the forefront so that CCS can be part of the CO2 emissions solution.

In attendance - ZEP
Gardiner Hill, Vice Chairman, ZEP, Chairman, CCSA, and Alternative Energy Director CCS Technology for BP, explained the necessity for climate change solutions, representing ZEP at the Summit. “We know the consequences of unchecked climate change will be disastrous and dramatically impact weather, health, food and water ecosystems, and indeed our whole global economy” he said. “Reducing our emissions so dramatically demands industry to develop and implement technologies to achieve these formidable targets. And of course we recognize that in the foreseeable future fossil fuels continue to play an important in meeting our energy needs. But clearly that’s alongside the development and application of renewables and improving energy efficiency. So it’s clear that this is ‘and’ and rather than an ‘or’ energy scenario.”

ZEP, founded in 2005, is the European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants. Its mission is to make CCS commercially viable by 2020 and head up its wide-scale development. The organization is a broad coalition of stakeholders who support for CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) as a key technology for combating climate change. ZEP’s members include European utilities, equipment suppliers, geologists, scientists, NGOs and petroleum companies.  According to ZEP: “if implemented without delay, CCS could reduce CO2 emissions in the European Union (EU) by 400 million tonnes a year by 2030, even before its full potential is realised”. For more information on ZEP visit www.zero-emissionplatform.eu.

In attendance – the Norwegian Government
Known for being pioneers in alternative energy development, Norway was represented at the Summit by Tone Skogen, Deputy Director General and Head of Climate Section for the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE). Skogen brought news and ideas from Norway about the possibilities of CCS implementation. She spoke about realistic challenges many industries will face once presented with garnering public and corporate acceptance for CCS. “We firmly believe that we do need to establish incentives in order to enhance success, and that public funding will not only be desired but necessary in the early stages of CCS” Skogen explained. “Then of course, you have legal and regulatory issues – and the issue of public acceptance” she added. Luckily, Skogen said that in Norway CCS promoter have been fortunate because the country stores CO2 far out in the North Sea. “We have been fortunate in having some vocal NGOs in Norway. Instead of being negative or sceptical working against us, they have been very constructive in contributing to CCS promotion” Skogen said.

The future of CCS
One thing is certain – CCS might be new, but it’s certainly gaining support from major bodies in Europe and beyond. Christopher Mansfield, Shell UK Regulatory Affairs Manager, spoke of the keys to success for CCS implementation. The first, he said, is the necessity to “fix the technical issues”. Mansfield followed this comment by explaining that in order for CCS to be a success, industry needs to “join up all the pieces and create an end-to-end CCS value chain – all of this is within industry capability”.

“The second factor is to create an enabling legal framework where particular barriers to CO2 storage have been removed. The third factor is to develop a mature enabling regulatory framework providing stable and predictable terms and conditions, and incentives for the demonstration and deployment of CCS” Mansfield says.

Echoing his colleagues and other Summit delegates, Mansfield outlines public acceptance as the fifth and final success factor for new CCS projects, insisting that the public should understand the benefits and safety of new CCS technology. He concluded that “the general public have a legitimate interest in the benefits that this will deliver versus the resources required to achieve it”.

With public acceptance, and the backing of government and industry bodies alike, CCS will be a major contributor to slowing the destructive force of global climate change.

2009 CCS Summit Speakers:
•    Christopher Mansfield, UK Regulatory Affairs Manage, Shell
•    Gardiner Hill, Vice Chairman, ZEP, Chairman, CCSA, and Alternative Energy Director CCS Technology for BP
•    Luc De Marliave, Climate Change Coordinator, Total (Lacq project)
•    Jan Panek, Head of Unit, Coal and Power, European Commission
•    Massimo Malavasi, Director of R&D, and Process Technology, ITEA S.p.A.
•    Mr. Piotr Tulej, Head of Energy and Environment Unit, European Commission
•    Tom Kerr, Senior Policy Analyst, IEA
•    Staffan Gortz, CCS Head of Communication, Vattenfall
•    Tone Skogen, Deputy Director General and Head of MPE Climate Section, Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Norway
•    Ian Havercroft, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Environment, University College London (UCL)
•    Jeff Chapman, CEO, CCSA
•    Roy Kelly, Technical Director, RPS Energy
•    Jonathan Walton, Associate, Planning, RPS Energy
•    John Topper, Managing Director, IEA Clean Coal Centre
•    Stuart Haszeldine, Professor of Sedimentary Geology, University of Edinburgh
•    Matthew Webb, Foreign Office
•    Dr. Michael Kühn, Head of the Centre for CO2 Storage, GFZ-Potsdam (Ketzin project)
•    John Best, CEO, EEEGR (East of England Energy Group)


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