Shell U.K. Limited and SSE are looking to develop the world’s first commercial-scale full-chain gas carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project – the Peterhead CCS Project. Up to 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be captured from the Peterhead Power Station in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and then transported by pipeline and stored, approximately 100km offshore in the depleted Goldeneye gas reservoir, at a depth of more than 2km under the floor of the North Sea.
The proposed Peterhead CCS Project will be a significant step forward in developing CCS technology and helping to decarbonise the UK’s power sector. Adding CCS to a gas power plant can reduce CO2 emissions by more than 90%. In addition, CCS is the only way to collect the CO2 from heavy industry, such as cement and other industrial facilities.
In November 2012, the joint Government and Industry CCS Cost Reduction Task Force reported that gas and coal power stations equipped with CCS have clear potential to be cost competitive with other forms of low-carbon power generation.
In this way, gas can play a long-term role in the low carbon electricity mix and address the intermittency challenges with renewable forms of energy. The Task Force report also expects that, through CCS clustering, new jobs will be created in the CCS industry by 2030, as well as protecting existing jobs.
Subject to securing the necessary approvals, and with the appropriate commercial arrangements in place, the project is expected to capture in the region of 10 million tonnes of CO2 during the 10-year life of the project.
Shell is already participating in a number of CCS projects worldwide including the largest CO2 capture demonstration facility in the world, the European CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad, Norway. In September 2012, Shell also announced plans to progress the Quest CCS Project in Canada and is a partner in Australia’s Gorgon natural gas liquefaction project.
In January 2013, Cansolv Technologies Inc. (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell), working in partnership with RWE npower, successfully captured the first tonne of CO2 at the Aberthaw Power Station in South Wales, the world’s first integrated sulphur dioxide (SO2)/CO2 capture plant. Cansolv Technologies Inc. is also providing the CO2 capture technology for SaskPower’s Boundary Dam project.