EU and China launch first phase of carbon capture & storage research project
China’s CO2 emissions from using coal are set to double by 2030, the scale of which is significant in the context of mitigating global climate change. In view of the essential role of coal in China’s energy system, it is vital to minimise emissions where this most polluting fossil fuel is used. One of the most immediate interventions is the introduction of CO2 capture and storage (CCS), fitted to coal fired power plants. With the launch of the EU financed Near Zero Emissions Coal (NZEC) Phase 1 study in Beijing, today, Europe hopes to contribute to developing the science needed to achieve this.
The NZEC initiative was announced as part of the EU-China Partnership on Climate Change at the EU-China Summit in September 2005. The Joint Declaration on climate change stated that the EU and China will aim "to develop and demonstrate in China and the EU advanced, near-zero emissions coal technology through carbon capture and storage" by 2020.
Biopact tracks initiatives that deal with carbon capture and storage, because the technology can be coupled to bioenergy and biofuel production, thus potentially opening an era of negative emissions energy. Contrary to nuclear power or renewables like wind, solar or hydropower, which are all 'carbon-neutral' at best, bioenergy with carbon storage (BECS) is 'carbon-negative': it takes CO2 out of the atmosphere. All the groundwork and research presently going into CCS for coal, is extremely useful for the development of a negative emissions energy industry that would emerge once a global carbon market is established.
In China, carbon-negative bioenergy systems could emerge sooner than expected. Another EU-project there looks at how coal fired power plants can be adapted to co-fire biomass; likewise, Chinese companies are doing similar retrofitting work in a commercial way (e.g. Enersave). If these biomass-powered plants were to be coupled to CCS, they would supply negative emissions.
The aim of the EU-China NZEC agreement is to bring forward the time when coal plants will be built with CCS in China and in the EU. It will build on planned European research and demonstration activity and will facilitate technology transfer between European industry and researchers, and their counterparts in China. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the UK and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on December 19th 2006 to detail specific UK funded action.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) leads the British contribution to the cooperation effort, and attended the launch of the project today.
energy :: sustainability :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: carbon capture and storage :: coal :: biomass :: negative emissions :: BECS :: China :: EU ::
BGS and the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) co-ordinate the CO2 geological storage part of the study, which also includes working in close partnership with Heriot Watt University, BP & Shell (UK) and the China University of Petroleum (HuaDong), Institute of Geology and Geophysics Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Tsinghua University, PetroChina, Jilin Oilfield and China United Coalbed Methane Corp (CUCBM). NZEC is funded by the UK Government through Defra and DBERR and is co-ordinated by AEA Energy & Environment (UK) and ACCA21 (China).
The British Geological Survey (BGS), a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), is the UK's principal supplier of objective, impartial and up-to-date geological expertise and information for decision making for governmental, commercial and individual users. The BGS maintains and develops the nation's understanding of its geology to improve policy making, enhance national wealth and reduce risk. It also collaborates with the national and international scientific community in carrying out research in strategic areas, including energy and natural resources, our vulnerability to environmental change and hazards, and our general knowledge of the Earth system.
The BGS co-ordinates the CO2GeoNet European Research Network of Excellence on the geological storage of CO2 and is the UK's foremost public sector organisation conducting research into the feasibility of underground CO2 storage as a means of decarbonising fossil fuel emissions. The European Network of Excellence on geological storage of CO2 is sponsored by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme and promotes research integration within the scientific community to help enable the implementation of CO2 geological storage.
It is an integrated European scientific community comprising more than 150 established researchers and postgraduate students, durably engaged in enabling the efficient and safe geological storage of CO2 as a solution for clean and climate-friendly energy production and consumption. The partnership unites 13 research institutes, spanning 7 European countries, with a high international profile and critical mass in CO2 geological storage research. The initiative is the largest group of researchers in Europe working together on CO2 geological storage; together, CO2GeoNet's partners have the most direct and longest research experience on geological CO2 storage in the world. The Network provides independent scientific research and expertise integrating a wide range of knowledge.
Recently, Australia and China announced a similar research cooperation effort to study CCS opportunities in the People's Republic. This partnership agreement is smaller and more concrete, though: it paves the way for the installation of a post combustion capture pilot plant in Beijing next year (previous post).
References:
British Geological Survey: UK scientists lead China closer to carbon capture and storage - November 20, 2007.
UNFCCC: Near Zero Emissions Coal Initiative [*.pdf].
Biopact: EU project to help China use biomass in coal plants - November 23, 2006
Biopact: China EnerSave retrofits coal plants to burn biomass - June 18, 2007
Biopact: Australia and China partner to develop carbon capture and storage technologies - September 07, 2007
Article continues
The NZEC initiative was announced as part of the EU-China Partnership on Climate Change at the EU-China Summit in September 2005. The Joint Declaration on climate change stated that the EU and China will aim "to develop and demonstrate in China and the EU advanced, near-zero emissions coal technology through carbon capture and storage" by 2020.
Biopact tracks initiatives that deal with carbon capture and storage, because the technology can be coupled to bioenergy and biofuel production, thus potentially opening an era of negative emissions energy. Contrary to nuclear power or renewables like wind, solar or hydropower, which are all 'carbon-neutral' at best, bioenergy with carbon storage (BECS) is 'carbon-negative': it takes CO2 out of the atmosphere. All the groundwork and research presently going into CCS for coal, is extremely useful for the development of a negative emissions energy industry that would emerge once a global carbon market is established.
In China, carbon-negative bioenergy systems could emerge sooner than expected. Another EU-project there looks at how coal fired power plants can be adapted to co-fire biomass; likewise, Chinese companies are doing similar retrofitting work in a commercial way (e.g. Enersave). If these biomass-powered plants were to be coupled to CCS, they would supply negative emissions.
The aim of the EU-China NZEC agreement is to bring forward the time when coal plants will be built with CCS in China and in the EU. It will build on planned European research and demonstration activity and will facilitate technology transfer between European industry and researchers, and their counterparts in China. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the UK and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) on December 19th 2006 to detail specific UK funded action.
The British Geological Survey (BGS) leads the British contribution to the cooperation effort, and attended the launch of the project today.
CCS offers the opportunity to reduce emissions per unit of electricity by 85 - 90%. Large-scale deployment of CCS in China has potential to significantly reduce future greenhouse gas emissions. - Dr. Nick Riley MBE, Head of Science for Energy at BGSPhase 1 of the project involves the following aspects:
- The assessment of the potential for carbon capture and geological storage in China;
- The identification of opportunities for demonstration and deployment of carbon capture and storage in China;
- The review of costs and economics of near-zero emissions coaltechnology through carbon capture and storage in China;
- The identification of options for financing the research and demonstration of carbon capture and storage in China;
energy :: sustainability :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: carbon capture and storage :: coal :: biomass :: negative emissions :: BECS :: China :: EU ::
BGS and the China University of Petroleum (Beijing) co-ordinate the CO2 geological storage part of the study, which also includes working in close partnership with Heriot Watt University, BP & Shell (UK) and the China University of Petroleum (HuaDong), Institute of Geology and Geophysics Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Tsinghua University, PetroChina, Jilin Oilfield and China United Coalbed Methane Corp (CUCBM). NZEC is funded by the UK Government through Defra and DBERR and is co-ordinated by AEA Energy & Environment (UK) and ACCA21 (China).
The British Geological Survey (BGS), a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), is the UK's principal supplier of objective, impartial and up-to-date geological expertise and information for decision making for governmental, commercial and individual users. The BGS maintains and develops the nation's understanding of its geology to improve policy making, enhance national wealth and reduce risk. It also collaborates with the national and international scientific community in carrying out research in strategic areas, including energy and natural resources, our vulnerability to environmental change and hazards, and our general knowledge of the Earth system.
The BGS co-ordinates the CO2GeoNet European Research Network of Excellence on the geological storage of CO2 and is the UK's foremost public sector organisation conducting research into the feasibility of underground CO2 storage as a means of decarbonising fossil fuel emissions. The European Network of Excellence on geological storage of CO2 is sponsored by the European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme and promotes research integration within the scientific community to help enable the implementation of CO2 geological storage.
It is an integrated European scientific community comprising more than 150 established researchers and postgraduate students, durably engaged in enabling the efficient and safe geological storage of CO2 as a solution for clean and climate-friendly energy production and consumption. The partnership unites 13 research institutes, spanning 7 European countries, with a high international profile and critical mass in CO2 geological storage research. The initiative is the largest group of researchers in Europe working together on CO2 geological storage; together, CO2GeoNet's partners have the most direct and longest research experience on geological CO2 storage in the world. The Network provides independent scientific research and expertise integrating a wide range of knowledge.
Recently, Australia and China announced a similar research cooperation effort to study CCS opportunities in the People's Republic. This partnership agreement is smaller and more concrete, though: it paves the way for the installation of a post combustion capture pilot plant in Beijing next year (previous post).
References:
British Geological Survey: UK scientists lead China closer to carbon capture and storage - November 20, 2007.
UNFCCC: Near Zero Emissions Coal Initiative [*.pdf].
Biopact: EU project to help China use biomass in coal plants - November 23, 2006
Biopact: China EnerSave retrofits coal plants to burn biomass - June 18, 2007
Biopact: Australia and China partner to develop carbon capture and storage technologies - September 07, 2007
Article continues
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
European Commission initiates 'health check' of Common Agricultural Policy - implications for bioenergy
CAP reform is one of the major causes for political dispute amongst EU member states that are large recipients of farm aid (France, Spain, Germany), and those that aren't. Likewise, given that support has mainly benefited large farmers, their smaller collegues have been advocating a review of the policy.
The previous reforms have modernised the CAP, but the Health Check represents the opportunity to take the policy review further. It will ask three main questions:
- how to make the direct aid system more effective and simpler
- how to make market support instruments, originally conceived for a Community of Six, relevant in the world we live in now
- and how to confront new challenges, from climate change, to biofuels, water management and the protection of biodiversity
Today's communication is designed to kick off a wide-ranging six-month consultation. Next spring, the Commission will return with legislative proposals, which it hopes will be adopted by agriculture ministers by the end of 2008 and could come into effect immediately. During 2007 and 2008 the Commission will develop its approach to the budgetary review 2008/2009. The Health Check constitutes a preparatory action within this framework, without prejudging the outcome of this review. It fine-tunes the 2003 reforms and contributes to the discussion on future priorities in the field of agriculture.A key reform measure is to simplify the Single Payment Scheme which was introduced in 2003, with the aim to replace the subsidies linked to the amount of food a farmer produced, a change described as "decoupling". The Commission now suggests further measures for simplication of the payment system:
- moving away from payments based on historical receipts towards a "flatter rate" system
- increasing the rate of "decoupling" in those countries which opted in a number of farm sectors to maintain the link between subsidy and production, although coupled support may still play a role in regions where production is small-scale but of particular economic or environmental importance.
- gradually reducing the support level as overall payments to big farmers increase, starting from a level of, for example, €100,000 per year. This would have to differentiate between multiple-owner farms with many workers and single-owner farms with just a few.
- increasing the amount of land a farmer has to own before he qualifies for EU support from the current level of 0.3 hectares.
- reviewing the Cross Compliance standards which farmers are obliged to respect to receive their support from Brussels. This could mean stripping out unnecessary obligations, but also adding new ones to deal with new challenges like improving water management and mitigating climate change.
Concretely, the direct payment received by farmers would be capped according to the amount of aid they receive, in the following way:- up to 100,000 euros - unaffected
- 100-200,000 euros -10% cap
- 200-300,000 euros - 25% cap
- above 300,000 euros - 45% cap
Such a system would naturally target the larger landowners and the commissioner says it would have to differentiate between multiple-owner farms with many workers and single-owner farms with just a few. At the other end of the scale, a minimum level of payments could be set before aid kicks in, although the commissioner says it would not affect "real farmers" (as opposed to mere landowners):energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy crops :: biodiversity :: subsidies :: Common Agricultural Policy :: EU ::
Another major goal of the reform effort is to adjust market support instruments to make them relevant for an EU of 27 in our modern day and age. The Communication asks critical questions:
- should intervention revert to its original purpose as a real safety net – particularly as market prices today are in such good shape?
- could intervention for most cereals be set at zero while maintaining intervention for a single cereal (bread-making wheat)?
- should set-aside not be abolished, while finding new ways of preserving the environmental benefits it has brought?
- milk quotas are already programmed to disappear in 2015, but should there not be a gradual increase in quotas between now and then to allow a 'soft landing' for the sector? This must look at possible measures to help dairy farmers in those regions of the EU – like mountain areas – which depend heavily on dairy production.
Agriculture Commissioner Fischer-Boel recently announced her intention to submit to the Commission a proposal to set at 0% the obligatory set-aside rate for autumn 2007 and spring 2008 sowings, in response to the increasingly tight situation on the cereals market, which is a development related to biofuels production (previous post).New challenges
Finally, the Commission wants reform so that European agriculture can responding to new challenges. These include: managing risk, fighting climate change, managing water more effectively, making the most of the opportunities offered by bioenergy and preserving biodiversity.
Climate change and water management objectives could be met through Cross Compliance, There should be incentives to improve action in these areas but this will cost money, the communication says. The best way to finance the necessary new measures is through Rural Development policy.
The communication therefor proposes increasing the rate of 'modulation', i.e. the reduction of direct payments to all farms receiving more than €5,000 per year and the transfer of the money into the Rural Development budget. This would be increased gradually from 5 percent now to 13 percent in 2013.
Finally, the Commission states that it must also be examined whether the energy crop premium is still necessary given new incentives for biofuel production such as the compulsory bioenergy targets and high prices.
Fischer Boel recently announced that she will proppose a scale back of the special aid scheme aimed at developing Europe's energy crop sector, after it emerged that farmers have already massively shifted production towards biofuels, overshooting a two million hectare target. The amount of land for which farmers up to now received a subsidy of €45 per hectare (US$26/acre) in exchange for planting energy crops (such as rapeseed or sugar beet that can be processed into biofuels for cars or biomass for heating or electricity) will thus be reduced after the scheme proved too popular (previous post).
More information:
European Commission: Agriculture: Health Check to streamline Common Agricultural Policy and address new challenges - November 20, 2007.
European Commission, Agriculture and Rural Development: CAP Health Check.
Biopact: EU to free up set-aside land to ease cereal prices - July 30, 2007
Biopact: EU cuts back on energy crop subsidies - October 18, 2007
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