Weeky News Update 2011 · Design and engineering work will also continue on the proposed Quest carbon capture and storage project at the Scotford Upgrader where some 1 million tonnes

Greenhouse Issues No. 100December 2010 • www.ieaghg.org

Weeky News UpdateSaturday 29th April 2011 - Friday 6th May 2011

Shell’s Scotford Expansion Starts UpShell announced yesterday the successful start of production from its Scotford Upgrader Expansion project in Canada. Athabasca Oil Sands Project has a production capacity of 255,000 and the company notes that its engineers will now focus on improving operating efficiencies and adding capacity through debottlenecking. Design and engineering work will also continue on the proposed Quest carbon capture and storage project at the Scotford Upgrader where some 1 million tonnes of CO2 could be captured and stored underground a year.

Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation Offers $60 Million for Cleaner Energy Production and Carbon Capture Projects The Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation is making $60 million in funding for cleaner energy production and innovative carbon capture projects. Qualified projects will provide opportunities to transform the way we extract, produce and use energy from more traditional energy sources like coal, oil, gas and oil sands and improve carbon capture methods.

“For the foreseeable future, fossil fuels are going to continue to play a major role in addressing global energy demand, even as we transition to other energy sources,” said CCEMC Chair Eric Newell. “Through providing funding to support cleaner energy and carbon capture projects, the CCEMC is helping to reduce emissions while helping Alberta strengthen a growing green economy.”

The Future of Carbon Capture and Storage - 5th Edition is now available to purchasehttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d4999b/the_future_of_carbon_capture_and_storage_5th CCP 2010 Annual Report Published http://www.co2captureproject.org/reports.html Saskatchewan approves $1.24 billion carbon capture project - Environmental Expert (press release)The Government of Saskatchewan has approved construction of the Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration Project - among the first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage facilities in the world.

The $1.24 billion project will transform an aging coal-fired generating unit at Boundary Dam Power Station near Estevan into a producer of reliable, clean electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately one million tonnes per year - the equivalent of taking more than 250,000 vehicles off Saskatchewan roads each year - in addition to capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery.

OPEC Countries Seek “Developing Nation” Funds to Capture CO2Well, now we know why Saudi Arabia held out for Carbon Capture & Storage to be eligible for CDM funding at Cancun. Sequestering CO2 in the ground is being looked at by three Middle Eastern countries, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE that lead the world in production of greenhouse gases from oil production.

According to a study conducted by Australia’s Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Institute, there are currently 243 CCS projects in development worldwide, of which only 85 are large scale. Carbon Capture and

Storage is a promising technology that could reduce the damage done to the climate by the mining and use of fossil fuels. But it is a very new and untested

technology. As yet, only eight large-scale CCS projects are actually in operation.

Greenhouse Issues No. 100December 2010 • www.ieaghg.org

New regulation helps enable carbon storageA new regulation establishes the process for companies to seek tenure rights to evaluate potential deep carbon storage sites for storing carbon dioxide. The regulation for this greenhouse gas reduction technology will guide how large-scale carbon capture and storage projects will proceed in Alberta.

Under the Carbon Sequestration Tenure Regulation, companies will apply for pore space tenure following the same model that is currently in place for petroleum and natural gas rights. Companies will need to continue to work with landowners to obtain surface access and the Energy Resources Conservation Board to obtain necessary approvals required by law. For example, these projects will need a well license before they can drill an injection well and an additional approval before they can begin commercial scale sequestration. Existing provisions available to landowners to intervene in the application process and to seek compensation remain.

DOE Expert Sees Growth in China’s GHG Emissions Stopping in 2 DecadesChina’s energy use should flatten out sometime around 2030, with a similar leveling off of its greenhouse gas emissions, a federal researcher said yesterday. Mark Levine, director of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said his research bucks the mainstream view that China’s energy appetite is swelling indefinitely.

Instead, as Levine and others argue in a report released yesterday, China will reach “saturation” around 2030 -- it simply won’t have to make appliances, roads and raw materials at the pace it needs to right now.

WPR: Carbon capture and sequestration project reaches new phase A carbon capture and sequestration project led by the University of Wyoming’s Carbon Management Institute reached an important milestone this week.

Drilling began at a geologic formation called the Rock Springs Uplift on Sunday. Researchers believe the formation could be a good reservoir for carbon dioxide, and the drilling is part of the process of thoroughly evaluating the site.

10th Annual Conference Carbon Capture & Sequestration | Global CCS Institute Occurred this week 2nd-5th May

Gas company to offer business incentives to offset carbonGas South today announced it has begun offering a voluntary carbon offset program to its commercial and governmental customers through the Valley Wood Carbon Sequestration Project. Valley Wood was established in 2008 to preserve timberlands in rural Georgia for carbon sequestration; the project’s offsets are provided by Verus Carbon Neutral and are certified by the CCX Registry of Chicago.

Alstom sees results from Mountaineer carbon capture projectt a prominent industry conference on carbon capture and sequestration, Alstom Power announced the successful operation of a chilled-ammonia CCS validation project at American Electric Power’s Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.V.

The carbon capture project represents a successful scale-up of ten times the size of previous field pilots (WE Energies Pleasant Prairie, EON Karlshamn).

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Greenhouse Issues No. 100December 2010 • www.ieaghg.org

It achieved:

• Capture rates from 75 percent (design value) to as high as 90 percent,• CO2 purity of greater than 99 percent,• Energy penalties within a few percent of predictions from Alstom’s process simulation model,• CO2 injection levels of about 7,000 tons/month (the equivalent of taking 17,000 cars off the road)• Robust steady-state operation during all modes of power plant operation including load changes,• Availability of the CCS system greater than 90 percent.

Legislation enables carbon dioxide storage in AlbertaThe legislation, named”The Carbon Sequestration Tenure Regulation” allows companies to apply for evaluating potential CO2 storage sites. The tenure process will follow the same model that is applied for evaluating natural gas and oil fields, the government of Alberta says in an official statement.

This legislative action provides a blueprint for evaluating potential CO2 storage sites. First companies must obtain surface rights, then a well license, and lastly the additional approval for commercial scale storage.