July 2010

SPED in the UK & Eire

Promoting SPED

I am currently on holiday, split between the coast of South Carolina and the mountains of North Carolina, and having a great time.

So I am not reviewing the UK Process press and we have temporarily eased down in promoting SPED during the UK holiday season.  We will soon be making greater efforts in looking for our breakthrough with a first hosted Training Day.

If you saw our previous contributions of the SPED Update, you will know that I am organising a 2 day conference on Carbon Capture & Storage for the IMechE in London on October 13 & 14.  So I have prepared a précis of a recent article on CCS by leading UK experts, two of whom are speaking at the October Conference.

UK Energy News Carbon Capture & Storage

There were three contributors to the article published in The Engineer, dated 28 June 2010.

• Jeff Chapman , Chief Executive of the UK’s Carbon Capture & Storage Association.
• Prof. Jon Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in Energy Technology, Edinburgh University.
• Prof. Jon Glyyas, Director for the Centre for Earth Energy Systems, Durham University.

Whilst the British Government have supported European initiatives for 12 CCS sites n Europe and stated that there will be more nuclear stations in the UK on sites that already have operational nuclear facilities, they have been dangerously slow in authorising the construction of new electricity generating capacity.  In their defence the laborious UK planning process has been greatly streamlined.  In choosing the existing nuclear facilities for the construction of new ones, the scope for environmental objections has been minimised.

But in June they did announce a new UK coal fired station since 1970 to be built in Scotland with CCS incorporated into the design from the outset.  The statistics are that the station would supply 3 million homes, provide 1,600 jobs and capture 90% of the CO2 produced.  This facility could provide the bedrock of experience for a massive growth in this technology across the world.  In the UK alone the market is expected to be £3bn ($5bn) per annum by 2030, for new and retrofitted plants.  All the equipment could be manufactured in the UK.

The programme would link to the oil industry in 2 ways.  Since the storage is likely to be in the depleted oil wells of the North Sea, there will need to be more research into the saline aquifers, as we will be re-inflating the sub surface with CO2 rather than deflating it with oil removal.  CO2 may also be used in EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery).

The programme needs continuing Government support, not necessarily financially after the initial research and pump priming funds, if an installed base of 5GW by 2010 is to be achieved.  It is not quite a standing start as 4 plants are currently under construction in the UK.

A serious leak would set the programme back, but the chances are low and nothing like as catastrophic as the BP Deepwater Horizon field.  Since the UK Government is intimately involved as the owner of the sub-sea storage, the Government would be at least jointly responsible.

Norman Harris

Norman.harris@20cc.co.uk