GEOSEQUESTRATION

Keeping the fossil fuel industry alive while avoiding clean energy options.

'In the past humans have believed that this world was infinitely capable of absorbing our impact, however time and again we have been proved wrong.'

What is Geosequestration.

Geosequestration is a carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) system that seeks put CO2 under ground in old oil and gas fields, non commercial coal fields and saline aquifers.

In particular it relates to the technologies being developed for storing the CO2 released from the winning and burning of fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas.

CO2 is captured, pressurised and transported by pipe to where it is pumped underground for storage. The CO2 is trapped by either pumping it below a non porous rock layer, being dissolving it in an existing fluid or combining chemically to a solid material.

Governments and Geosequestration.

The Howard government has committed itself to a fossil fuel future with the release of its energy white paper. A key element in meeting this agenda is the adopting and funding of geosequestration, as a means to justify continued coal and natural gas use.

The Western Australian Government is in the process of approving a large-scale geosequestration project at Barrow Island, off Australia's North-West coast. It will be one of the largest geosequestration projects in the world, if it goes ahead. The gas from the Gorgon field is very high in CO2 at 14%. The CO2 levels in the gas must be reduced so that the gas is commercially saleable. If geosequestration was not an option then the gas would be dumped into the atmosphere.

Geosequestration Issues of Application?

The are only two large-scale geosequestration pilot projects in the world; one in Norway and one in Canada. The Norway field has only been going for eight years, the Canadian one for four years.

Any CO2 sequestered will have to remain underground for thousands of years if it is to be an effective method of preventing CO2 entering the atmosphere. There is no guarantee that geosequestration technology will be able to achieve this.

Given the different nature of the geological formations used, each formation will need to independently assessed for its ability to sequester CO2 for the long term.

Geosequestration will only be able to capture around 80% of the emissions from a power plant, letting 20% out into the atmosphere and given we unsure of how long the gas will remain in the ground, geosequestration should not be considerred a "zero emission" technology.

Storage opportunities in Australia are limited near some key CO2 producing areas such as the Hunter Valley, the largest storage areas are in Western Australia.

Geosequestration Impacts?

The application of geosequestration technology to our energy production is reminiscent of when we built taller chimneys on power plants to remove the localise impacts of pollution, only to find the emissions where causing acid rain 100's of miles away and the Greenhouse effect globally.

Geosequestration is likely to be affected subterranean fauna negatively, what other impacts there are, are unforeseen and unknown.

Liability for the potential impacts is also an issue. How will industry be made accountable if projects fail in the long term? Will government be end up shouldering the burden?

Will Geosequestration be competitive?

The International Energy Agency estimates that producing electricity using geosequestration would cost between 10-11 cents per kilowatt hour for new coal power stations, higher in old ones.

By comparison prices for electricity generated by wind power our now down to 7-9 cents per kilowatt hour and are expected to reduce further.

Geosequestration, if applied will make energy produced from coal power stations more expensive than energy from existing renewable sources, making geosequestration of CO2 from fossil fuels redundant of on a least cost comparison.

To undertake geosequestration similar to that undertaken at the Sleiper gas fields in Norway, a coal- or gas-fired power station would see its costs rise by 50-80 per cent. According to Statoil website the managers of the project.

The Norway Sleipner field project has only gone ahead due to the Norwegian carbon dioxide tax they would have had to pay had they released the greenhouse gas to the air which was comparable to the cost of using geosequestration.

Geosequestration, counting the costs.

The existing coal burning power stations will either need to be retrofitted or rebuilt at great expense, this money could be spent on clean energy production technologies, energy efficiency or demand management programs and produce better Greenhouse outcomes.

The government is currently spending 100's of millions of dollars on subsidising the development of geosequestration technology, while spending very little on renewable alternatives. This included establishing a Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for investigating CO2 capture and storage, while closing down the Renewable Energy CRC.

Do we need Geosequestration?

Climate change is already a global disaster, costing billions of dollars and 10,000 of thousands of lives annually and threatening the survival of many of earth's species with extinction within 50 years.

To combat global warming and climate change we need to seek to eliminate the production of greenhouse gasses.

Geosequestration applied to fossil fuels at best will reduce the CO2 emission by 80% and energy produced using fossil fuels and geosequestration will still be adding CO2 to the atmosphere.

A simple solution to fossil fuel use is to stop using it all together. Clean energy options exist for the production of energy such as solar, wind, or wave power. When combined with energy efficiency technology our energy needs can be met. We believe we should be investing research and development dollars in energy efficiency, demand reduction and renewable energy production technologies.

However at some stage geosequestration may play a role in reducing atmospheric CO2 by sequestering CO2 released from energy produced using biomass as a fuel, assuming the biomass can be grown sustainably. Currently agricultural problems of salinity, erosion, and soil loss have yet to be tackled successfully and continue be huge problems.

Geosequestration Links

IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme

CO2 Underground: The Answer to Climate Change or Part of the Problem? ABC Earth Beat

Vic Government supporting Geosquestration for our brown coal

A concise but detailed summary of zero emmision tecnology.

Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC)

Geosequestration Documents

Backing a loser - a look at Geosequestration and the coal industry by DR Mark Diesendorf


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