To cope with the increasing pressure of climate mitigation requirements and contribute to the targets set in the 鈥楥onference of the Parties鈥� (COP21) in Paris, technological innovations will be essential to change the way the world does business.
As coal, oil and gas account for 81 percent of global primary energy demand at the moment, it seems fossil fuels will dominate the world primary energy usage in decades to come.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that by 2050, 40 percent of primary world energy demand would still be met through hydrocarbons.
Coal is a critical raw material for electricity generation, steel and aluminum production and cement manufacturing. Hard coal and lignite account for almost 50 percent of all fossil fuel resources. Coal is also the highest carbon emitter.
Therefore, the widespread deployment of advanced coal technologies in both power generation and energy-intensive industries is essential for the future of coal as an affordable source of power.
Since global energy demand is projected to grow considerably in decades to come, especially in the developing world, the challenge of generating electricity while keeping CO2 emissions under control is of utmost importance in meeting COP21鈥檚 agenda. Addressing this challenge can only be possible with innovation through technology.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is currently the only available technology that can capture approximately 90 percent of emissions by integrating the stages of capturing, transporting and storing CO2.
Significant advances in coal technology implemented through CCS hold great promises on the way to a sustainable energy system. Various technologies with different applications have been tested for many years at the CCS value chain. However; it is still considered a significantly expensive technology, with costs reaching up to $1 billion.
Today鈥檚 CCS technologies are extremely costly to build and run. This is because they have not yet been developed at an industrial scale to push total costs down to a level that would increase their commercial viability for countries that consume big volumes of coal.
While it is hard to foresee how much cheaper CCS technology will become in the following years, it should be noted that among the various options towards a low-carbon future, CCS is considered one of the viable alternatives.
Currently operational fifteen large-scale CCS facilities capture at around 27 million tones of carbon dioxide each year globally, while seven other projects under construction will commence their operations in 2018. The Sleipner power plant in Norway has been operational for 20 years, using the CCS stored at one million tonnes each year.
Another project called the Boundary Dam Project in Canada has been one of the coal-fired power plants to benefit from CCS since 2014. To further increase the availability of CCS projects, many of them capitalized on the funds released by the US. However, due to large upfront costs, several CCS projects are either cancelled or postponed.
As I have mentioned in my last week鈥檚 analysis, the most considerable increases in coal consumption will be seen in China, India and the South East Asia due to their constantly increasing demand for power generation.
This is supported by already existing domestic production and the countries鈥� easy accessibility to seaborne trade from various locations.
There are forecasts that these countries鈥� overall demand for coal is likely to increase in years ahead as long as their economies and standards of living improve. The IEA expects that China alone will invest up to 600 gigawatts (GW) in coal-based power generation by 2030.
Although the abundance of geological formations would be suitable for carbon dioxide storage, to convert potential CCS projects into a potential storage capacity, widespread deployment should be accelerated with high-level certainty.
Before the final investment decision is made, some major steps should be taken to develop and make publicly available a basic understanding of CCS.
The development of infrastructure and investigation of various options for ownership as well as seeking possible alternatives to lower the overall costs are some of the options available for successful deployment of CCS.
Despite the technological progress, a comprehensive, coherent and publicly- accepted strategy is a must for the realization of CCS projects. Environmental concerns regarding the risk associated with CCS technology, such as carbon dioxide leakage or water contamination, along with the lack of high-level political support are major challenges ahead.
For instance, locals living near Rotterdam resisted the storage of CO2 in their neighborhood, which has resulted in the more time-consuming and costly option of setting up the off- shore storage site.
Governments, the scientific community and NGO鈥檚 have a great role to play in communicating with the public as part of an effective response to climate change. Therefore, a pro-active engagement policy created on the basis of transparency and solidified by R&D programs would strengthen CCS鈥檚 acceptability in public.
With an aim of lowering the upfront costs and scaling up the deployment of CCS technology, a mechanism of financial support is vital. 聽The development of legal and regulatory frameworks supported by the public would serve in the future commercialization and operation of large-scale CCS projects.
- Opinions expressed in this piece are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu Agency's editorial policy.聽