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Australian companies are in the process of developing a new stream of technologies, destined to reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations both here and abroad. Lee Jenson spoke with Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche about the implications of this ground-breaking field of endeavour.
“Well what we have in Australia and particularly here in Queensland is a state government and a coal producer sector very intent on making carbon capture and storage technologies, the so-called ‘clean coal technologies’ a reality, that is a commercial reality, over the next decade,” Mr Roche said.
“So we have on the table from the State Government about $300 million, from the coal producers $600, and a number of other partners from the electricity generators and off-shore investors, and together they are marshalling the resources to test out the various carbon capture technologies to make clean power generation from coal a reality.”
Currently, a $206 million dollar oxy-fuel plant is being developed at the Callide power station at Biloela. Due to be producing electricity by 2010, the plant will utilise oxy-firing technology, creating highly concentrated carbon dioxide, which can be captured and stored. Michael Roche said the project is paving the way for use on existing power stations.
“The oxy-fuel project at Callide is a world-leading project testing a technology which, if this demonstration is successful, leads us to being able to retro-fit existing power stations with the clean coal technology. That’s pretty exciting because we have a huge investment already in power from coal and it would be quite a shame if that technology was not available for the existing fleet of power stations.”
A feasibility study is also currently underway into the ZeroGen project, which will utilise coal gasification to produce gas to generate power, allowing CO2 to be captured and removed for underground storage.
“This is really about the power station of the future, using the gasification technology to generate streams of CO2 to be captured and stored and streams of hydrogen to drive the turbines. This is the sort of technology that we believe will be the power stations of the future. A demonstration project up and running in 2012, and all going well by about 2016 or ’17 a commercial-size gasification power station based on the Zero-Gen demonstration project. We don’t have a monopoly on that expertise but we are undertaking some world leading projects and we believe the IP we develop around these projects will be exportable, so that’s a good commercial opportunity, but it’s also probably the single greatest contribution that Australia can make to the emission reduction challenge globally, is the technology we can develop to export to the rest of the world.”
“Well what we have in Australia and particularly here in Queensland is a state government and a coal producer sector very intent on making carbon capture and storage technologies, the so-called ‘clean coal technologies’ a reality, that is a commercial reality, over the next decade,” Mr Roche said.
“So we have on the table from the State Government about $300 million, from the coal producers $600, and a number of other partners from the electricity generators and off-shore investors, and together they are marshalling the resources to test out the various carbon capture technologies to make clean power generation from coal a reality.”
Currently, a $206 million dollar oxy-fuel plant is being developed at the Callide power station at Biloela. Due to be producing electricity by 2010, the plant will utilise oxy-firing technology, creating highly concentrated carbon dioxide, which can be captured and stored. Michael Roche said the project is paving the way for use on existing power stations.
“The oxy-fuel project at Callide is a world-leading project testing a technology which, if this demonstration is successful, leads us to being able to retro-fit existing power stations with the clean coal technology. That’s pretty exciting because we have a huge investment already in power from coal and it would be quite a shame if that technology was not available for the existing fleet of power stations.”
A feasibility study is also currently underway into the ZeroGen project, which will utilise coal gasification to produce gas to generate power, allowing CO2 to be captured and removed for underground storage.
“This is really about the power station of the future, using the gasification technology to generate streams of CO2 to be captured and stored and streams of hydrogen to drive the turbines. This is the sort of technology that we believe will be the power stations of the future. A demonstration project up and running in 2012, and all going well by about 2016 or ’17 a commercial-size gasification power station based on the Zero-Gen demonstration project. We don’t have a monopoly on that expertise but we are undertaking some world leading projects and we believe the IP we develop around these projects will be exportable, so that’s a good commercial opportunity, but it’s also probably the single greatest contribution that Australia can make to the emission reduction challenge globally, is the technology we can develop to export to the rest of the world.”
