WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
5/10/13

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has committed $82 million in new federal funding to support 55 clean energy projects, including nearly $10 million for carbon capture and storage-related work. Following a May 3 tour of CO2 Solutions’ facility in Quebec City, Harper said the enzyme-enabled carbon capture technology developer would be receiving a $4.7 million grant from the initiative to further develop an enzyme to more effectively capture CO2 from Alberta’s oil sands operations. “Our Government is positioning Canada as a global leader in the clean energy sector by supporting innovative projects across the country aimed at producing and using energy in a cleaner and more efficient way,” Harper said. The initiative also sets aside $4.5 million in funding for the Carbon Capture and Storage Research Consortium of Nova Scotia to characterize and assess potential geologic sequestration formations in the province. It also allocates $756,000 to Nova Scotia’s St. Francis Xavier University to make recommendations for ideal surface monitoring, verification and accounting tools for CCS.

The Norwegian government, Statoil and other benefactors marked the first year of operations of their $1 billion CO2 capture technology test facility, Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), this week. TCM has operated for more than 5,000 hours testing post-combustion capture technologies from Aker Clean Carbon and Alstom, the project partners said, on what is billed as the world’s only industrial-scale test center for gas-fired emissions. “At a time when so many full-scale projects are being delayed, the importance of R&D, testing and demonstration is even greater. TCM is unique in a global context. We are optimistic and believe that TCM will play an important role going forward,” TCM Chairman and Gassnova CEO Tore Amundsen said in a statement. TCM held its ribbon cutting last May to much international fanfare. TCM operators said they are still searching for new vendors to test capture technologies at the center in the near future.