Alliance brings CO₂ emission reductions

WA-based Cool Energy Limited and national geoscience company Greenhouse Gas Storage Solutions (GGSS) signed a memorandum of understanding that will see them collaborate on more sustainable and economically sound methods for CO₂ management.

Cool Energy CEO Jessie Inman said high CO₂ levels existed in more than half the nation’s oil and gas reserves, as well as being a by-product of using vast deposits of brown and black coal to generate electricity.

“We can’t rely on current methods of simply emitting large volumes of CO₂ forever, at least not without seriously harming our global environment. If industry wants to keep delivering energy to the Australian people at such a massive rate, and exporting it around the world, it must look more critically at carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies,” Inman said.

Inman said the natural gas and coal industries in particular needed a way to capture and store CO₂ on a scale that matched the exhausting production levels they were trying to cope with.

GGSS CEO Dr John Bradshaw believes the geological storage of greenhouse gas has the potential to bring sweeping emission reductions for both the energy and industry sectors including oil and gas, coal, power and even cement.

Cool Energy has already developed a way to capture CO₂ from natural gas at the wellhead. Its point of difference is to use a cryogenic gas 'sweetening' process that extracts CO₂ contaminants in a form suitable for geological storage and industrial applications.

Inman said a key benefit of CryoCell for producers is that natural gas feedstocks with higher concentrations of CO₂ can eliminate dedicated solvent processes and their supporting utilities, making it possible to function with substantially lower capital and operating costs.

Other advantages over alternate ways of processing high CO₂ natural gas include:

• CO₂ component delivered in liquid form ready for immediate underground storage;
• less maintenance with water removed in front of the process, which also eliminates corrosion in the process plant;
• no chemical use, therefore lower operating costs;
• gives natural gas production valuable ‘green’ credentials in carbon aware world.

The alliance between Cool Energy and GGSS will explore both domestic (Australia) and international project opportunities across a range of relevant industries including natural gas, power, cement and other industries.

Combining extensive experience and know-how in their respective fields of expertise, the two companies plan to make a significant impact in the development of CCS by combining CO₂ capture with geological storage technologies.