So just to be clear, CCS isn’t experimental – it’s a reworking of existing oil and gas technologies.
- David Hone, Shell Chief Climate Change Advisor
CCS is a technique of burning fossil fuels in a way that does not contribute to greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere by capturing the carbon dioxide and geologically storing it for a long time 100-1,000 years.
Application of CCS to Singapore's emissions
Of Singapore's greenhouse gas inventory 60% is from manufacturing and combined with the natural gas power plants could reduce 80% of territorial emissions. 7-20% of Singapore's GDP can be attributed to the petrochemical industry on Jurong and Bukom Island and employs around 60,000 workers directly and indirectly. Business-as-usual for Singapore means identifying solutions that would have the least disruptive impact to the people from these industries. CCS offers a bridge technological solution for transitioning these industries long term while meeting Paris Agreement targets in the short term. The added capture process adds an "energy penalty" of +20% which is the additional level of energy input to achieve the same level of power utilized compared to the level without CCS. Based on literature sources (Global Carbon Institute) CCS may be a cost-effective solution for carbon price in the range of USD $60-100/ton CO2.
Research on CCS by the Singapore government's
The technology of CCS has been investigated for application to Singapore's industrial and natural gas power plant emissions by NRF under the directive of the National Climate Change Secretariat. The findings are published in the report "Carbon Capture Storage and Utilisation Singapore Perspectives" which was originally published in 2014 and a later version updated in 2019. The findings of the report are consistent with literature, although some of the cost estimates report a wider uncertainty range USD $78-230/ton.
Singapore government official response to CCS CCS is identified as the fourth of Singapore's "4-switches" (Low, 2020) and acknowledged its importance in Long Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LEDS). Response by the NCCS to public feedback suggestions to implement the technology in the near term to meet 2030 obligations highlighted 3 areas as primary concerns for further follow-up (NCCS, 2020).
capture costs $78-230/ton
operational energy penalty +20%
access to permanent storage locations
The projected costs, and efficiency reduction vs time are available from literature reports and are considered to be mostly a limit set by thermodynamics, and are not expected to dramatically improve beyond what is already forecasted. Permanent storage locations while abundant in ASEAN region as with all other imported items of food, natural gas, and labour -- the issue of storage access also must be added to foreign policy agenda with regional neighbors in order to realize the opportunity.
A complete review of the technology is presented in the full report along with references including comparison between pre and post combustion, review of existing demonstration units around the world in Texas, Norway and Japan technical information about scale-up considerations on storage, such as leakage risk and global long term capacity.
References
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