Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/17/2014
AUSTIN, Texas – While the use of carbon capture and storage technology has widely been considered a means to reduce carbon emissions in the coal industry, its eventual transition into natural gas energy production is essential, Juho Lipponen, head of the CCS Unit at the International Energy Agency, said during a presentation at the International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Technologies, held here last week. Lipponen explained that to stay within a two degree limit in global temperature rise, CCS must be used on gas-fired power plants. “Natural gas has a few main roles in our transition to low carbon electricity generation. Short to mid-term, it does provide a carbon reduction in itself,” Lipponen said. Under the IEA two degree scenario (2DS), prior to 2030, fuel switching from coal to gas can account for a 4.5 Gt reduction in emissions, Lipponen said. However, after 2030 “under the 2DS, further reduction will need to come from CCS also on gas,” he said.
Gas CCS Faces Unique Challenges
The eventual deployment of CCS on gas-fired power plants faces several challenges, Lipponen said. “Coming back from the scenario world into reality, are we actually able to get on a similar learning curve? First, there’s still a really long way to go before gas-fired CCS options are an off-the-shelf competitive option compared to other technologies for a potential use of CCS. In the specific case of gas, we don’t even have proper demonstrations which is lacking,” Lipponen said.
While CCS on gas must overcome several of the same obstacles as CCS on coal, there are various unique challenges that must be addressed before the full-scale deployment of CCS on gas-fired power plants can be realized, Lipponen said. Such challenges include the perception that because gas emits less carbon, there is less pressure to develop CCS for gas-fired power plants. Further, installing CCS on gas-fired power plants can have unwanted effects on the currently favorable attributes of the plants, according to Lipponen. For example, currently gas-fired plants are much less expensive to build, but the addition of CCS on those plants would raise the cost. Gas plants also use less water than coal and nuclear plants, but current capture options would require the amount of water used at the plant to increase, Lipponen said.
