Cut carbon pollution - bury it at sea

One smart and scientific way of helping to solve the world's problem of reducing carbon release through energy use is to put the carbon back where it came from "” in the ground.

The system is called carbon capture and storage (CCS) and is a process by which the carbon in fossil fuels is captured either before or after combustion and sent to long-term storage in geological formations such as disused oil and gas fields at sea.

Now, the birthplace of the world's first full-scale CCS demonstration plant may be in the United Kingdom, following the announcement of a competition to attract engineers and scientists to build it.

The UK and the relatively shallow seas surrounding it are ideal for developing this new technology for fossil-fuel power plants. Old pumped-out oil and gas fields at sea are suitable for CCS and the plan has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide (CO&sub2;) emissions from power stations by up to 90% and contribute to large global CO&sub2; reduction in 40 years time.

Announcing the plan, Trade & Industry Secretary (UK), Alistair Darling said: "Carbon capture and storage has massive potential to allow us to meet our energy needs at the same time as cutting carbon emissions. It opens up huge possibility, not just for Britain, but also but for the world.

"This is new technology for power plants, never done before on a commercial scale, but the UK is well placed. Depleted oil and gas fields in the North Sea are suitable for storage and we have world-class expertise in geo-engineering.

"Gas and coal are important to the energy mix globally and in the UK. The Stern report was clear that, even with strong action on renewables and other low-carbon technologies, fossil fuels may still make up to half of the world's energy supply by 2050," he said.

"Rapid deployment of CCS technology in growth economies such as China and India will be vital. This competition gives innovative UK industries the opportunity to become the leading exporters of CCS technology for the low carbon age," added Mr Darling.

The Stern Review estimates that CCS has the potential to contribute up to 20% of global CO&sub2; reduction by 2050. Furthermore, Stern estimates that to achieve stabilisation at 550 ppm without CCS will increase costs by more than 60%. More details about the CCS competition are to be announced later and the result will follow in 2008.

The UK government is already at the centre of efforts at home and internationally to build understanding of the potential of CCS and to remove barriers to its development. This includes a cross-government taskforce working to develop a regulatory regime to enable CO&sub2; to be stored safely and legally on and off shore and to encourage capture-ready generation.

Also, later this year will be the announcement of the first recipients of the Department of Trade & Industry's Carbon Abatement Technology demonstration fund, including CCS, valued at 35 million pounds sterling. Technology Strategy program funding of 20m pounds is also going into clean energy technologies such as CCS.

The UK was instrumental in changing the London Protocol in November 2006 to allow CO&sub2; to be legally stored in the marine environment. It is working towards a similar agreement this year to amend the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (Ospar) that similarly governs north-east Atlantic waters.

The UK is actively pressing for CCS to be recognised in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and supports its inclusion in the Clean Development Mechanism of the wider UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The UK is leading the EU Near-Zero Emissions Coal initiative, helping to develop CCS demonstration in China. The government has contributed 3.5m pounds to this project and is actively pursuing similar progress in India.

Norway and the UK, because of their geographic nature, are collaborating on a future regulatory regime for storage under the North Sea and are looking at the possibility of joint infrastructure on the sea bed.

Norway has for 10 years been injecting about one million tonnes of CO&sub2; a year from its Sleipner gas field into the Utsira formation, and companies, including Shell, Statoil and Norsk Hydro, are examining further opportunities for CCS, mainly in relation to enhanced oil recovery.

The UK and Norway are already collaborating on the development of a set of regulatory principles for the geological storage of CO&sub2; beneath the North Sea.