Thread by @simonahac

🤓 carbon capture & storage has been given a bad rap.

yes, we've wasted $billions trying to graft it on to coal — we absolutely need to give up on that — but it's likely we'll eventually need the technology.

firstly… #CCS+coal:

there are / have been just 3 significant #CCS+coal projects:

1. boundary dam🇨🇦: $1.4bn project captures CO₂ from a 110 MW coal unit (tiny), averaged 0.592Mt/yr since oct 2014 — 40% below design.

25% of the plant's power goes to extracting and compressing the CO₂.

2. petra nova🇺🇸: heralded by @JoshFrydenberg in 2017, cost US$1bn to build, captured ~4mtCO₂ before being mothballed this year as was uneconomic.

NRG built a 75MW gas power station to power the CCS project.

3. kemper project🇺🇸: after 10 years of construction and US$7.5bn the project was abandoned and converted to a gas power station.

[each of these projects uses/used/was going to use the captured CO₂ for "enhanced oil recovery". ie, using CO₂ to make more CO₂… which would be a bit like the fire brigade knowingly hiring arsonists.]

🇦🇺 we had a go building a #CCS+coal power station in QLD.

the "ZeroGen" project spent $188m in gov't grants before being abandoned as they realised $1.7bn for a 390MW plant was ridiculous.

living up to its name, ZeroGen generated zero energy & sequestered zero tonnes of CO₂.

there's a lot of debate about whether #CCS+coal works.

there's *no* doubt _technical_ feasibility has been demonstrated in 2 small (and several tiny) projects, with some failures.

however also *no* doubt that it's utterly uneconomic.

i'm so confident that #CCS+coal will remain a dud that i've offered this bet:

(no takers)

longbets.org/837/

…but don't be down on #CCS as a technology!

@Chevron is using it to capture "up to" 4 mtCO₂ from one of their LNG plants — just 40% of #gorgon's emissions. took 3 years, finally working.

we should require *every* LNG project in australia to sequester *all* of their emissions.

👇this australian technology provides a pathway to decarbonising cement manufacture using #CCS.

lured to europe thanks to a €12m grant + carbon price, right around time @HonTonyAbbott ripped half a $billion from ARENA and killed our carbon price.

…and there are other industrial products that might benefit from similar tech.

…and #CCS+bioenergy (if done responsibly) provides a credible path to actually pulling CO₂ out of the atmosphere.

it's a crying shame that the coal sector hijacked an important decarbonisation technology (that they never intended to implement) to prolong their life / muddy the debate.

…a little dated, but i wrote this up here:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

...oh, i forgot. we’ve been here before.

gov’t wanted to allow the CEFC to invest in #CCS in 2017.

i did this interview with @SabraLane:

#GroundhogDay

abc.net.au/radio/programs…

this from @albericie: