Posted by jumperhead on June 13th, 2008
Greenbang is worried she’s getting vaguely obsessed with Masdar, the Abu Dhabi initiative that’s spanking $2 billion on photovoltaics and spawning a city in the desert that won’t need even a drop of fossil fuels.
If Masdar carries on at this rate, she’ll be putting Masdar posters up on her walls and carrying a photo of the city around in her wallet.
Masdar’s latest plan: a great big carbon capture test with Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) at its Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) in Taweelah.
It goes like this:
The agreement with ADPC paves the way for the introduction of a scheme for carbon dioxide capture from industrial facilities as well as the development of carbon emission reduction and monetization opportunities under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). […]
Masdar is currently developing a major carbon capture and transmission network in Abu Dhabi. The network will capture carbon dioxide gas emitted from industrial plants for delivery via pipelines to oil reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery.
Masdar is also developing a large portfolio of greenhouse gas emissions reduction and monetization projects in Abu Dhabi and the region. Those projects are focused on oil and gas, power and industry and will benefit from the United Nations based CDM mechanism to convert emission reductions into tradable assets or carbon credits.
“Abu Dhabi Ports Company’s (ADPC) aims to make the Khalifa Ports and Industrial Zone (KPIZ) a green zone is a significant contribution towards building a sustainable future in Abu Dhabi, and Masdar will be working closely with ADPC to introduce low-carbon technologies to the industry,” said Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Masdar CEO.
Posted by jumperhead on June 12th, 2008
Greenbang believes the word solution is only acceptable in the following chemistry related joke: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate!
It is not acceptable in the phrase ‘ready meal solutions’ as it appears in Greenbang’s local supermarket. When did the word solutions become an acceptable substitute for the word products? It makes Greenbang want to weep for the death of the English language whenever she hears it used like that. (Greenbang realises this makes her sound like an old woman. Next you’ll be telling her Camp coffee and listening to Geroge Formby are outdated too.)
Greenbang may have an aversion to the word solution, but used correctly, the word can earn you millions (assuming you have some clean tech to use alongside it.)
At least, that’s the evidence from CO2 Solution, a carbon capture company that’s landed $2.3 million in funding.
Among the investors are Dundurn Capital Partners as well as Martin P. Pelletier, Normand Voyer, Jocelyn Proteau and Glenn R. Kelly, all “directors and/or insiders of CO2 Solution”.
According to CO2 Solution’s interim president, Normand Voyer:
“We will immediately put this new funding to work to accelerate key efforts towards its commercialization and related business development activities. This financing will help propel CO2 Solution from R&D to commercial deployment.” blockquote>
Posted by RobAshwell on June 10th, 2008
The British think tank, Policy Exchange, has just published a damning report on carbon capture in the UK and has laid out a road map to help reduce the increasing rate of CO2 release. The full document can be found here.
The 38 page document concentrates on carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the overriding way to cut emissions and meet targets. If you have the time, it’s definitely worth a read.
Here are some of the findings:
- Fitting CCS equipment to coal and gas tower stations could slash global emissions by between 28-50% by 2050;
- Fitting CCS to UK plants could cut emissions by 20% by 2020;
- These emission reductions could be extremely affordable. If all large gas and coal fuelled electricity plants in the UK were fitted with commercially viable CCS, the additional cost of electricity would be around £60 per household per year. This is similar to the UK price currently paid for wind, the cheapest renewable technology currently available.
The report highlights the current situation, including the the well urges the government to offer incentives for CCS investors. In addition to this it recommends the following legislation be made
- From 1 January 2009, all new fossil fuel power plants must have average annual emissions from the whole plant of 350 kg CO2/MWh. This would eliminate new-build coal with no CCS, but would still enable unabated gas plant to avoid electricity shortages;
- By 2015, new build stations must meet an emissions standard of 170kg CO2/MWh or better for coal, and 70
kg CO2/MWh on gas. This would require CCS to be fitted for both coal and gas;
- By 2020, old build power stations should be retrofitted to meet this standard.
Posted by jumperhead on June 10th, 2008
Greenbang never thought she’d say this after the whole ’scientific’ whaling thing, but it seems that Japan is her new environmental hero.
No, really - Greenbang is deeply impressed by Japan’s sheer guts this week after the country’s PM Yasuo Fukuda said that Japan will cut its carbon emissions by between 60 and 80 percent by 2050, The International Herald Tribune reports.
And that’s not all, says the paper, Fukuda, is going to put $1.2 billion into a “an international greenhouse gas reductions fund and will take a more supportive role in establishing an emissions trading market worldwide”.
Greenbang loves Fukuda’s beautifully understated quote on the whole process: “This will involve extreme effort.” Yep, Greenbang imagines it will. And then some.
That was all a bit serious for Greenbang wasn’t it? Here’s one of Greenbang’s favourite jokes to even things out:
What game can you play with a wombat?
Wom.
Posted by jumperhead on June 10th, 2008
Waiting for the G8 to get on with some sort of environmental action planning is a bit like waiting for a delayed Northern Line train - you know it will happen eventually, it’s a long, uncomfortable journey for everyone but still, the only way to get through it is teeth-gritted stoicism and a resigned hope that things might improve one day.
Ladies and gentlemen: I bring you further evidence. According to those nice people over at the AFP, the G8 countries have decided to back a series of pilot carbon capture projects “broadly deploy” the technology by 2020.
Greenbang would also like to give props to the AFP folk for calling it “carbon burying”. Let’s forget all this greenwash nonsense and just call it what it is - taking carbon and sticking it underground for a bit.
According to AFP, all the G8 energy ministers released a statement which read: “We strongly support the recommendation that 20 large-scale CCS demonstration projects need to be launched globally by 2010 … with a view to supporting technology development and cost reduction for the beginning of broad deployment of CCS by 2020.”
The cost? A mere $1.5 billion per demonstration project. Ouch.
Posted by jumperhead on June 4th, 2008
Greenbang loves a good commitment to reduce carbon story. Every single one of them makes her experience that feeling normally felt by children on Christmas Day when they’re expecting a book on woodworking and get a BMX, a puppy and a couple of bottles of White Lightning instead.
Get ready to be touched in that special place once again as Greenbang shares a carbon cutting scheme from our favourite former state owned communications monopoly, BT.
BT, the telco behind such things as red telephone boxes and the ‘you get an ology, you’re a scientist’ ad, has pledged to cut its emissions by 80 percent by 2020.
How will they do it? Like this, that’s how.
BT intends to meet the 80 per cent reduction target through a continued combination of energy efficiency, on-site renewable generation (aiming for 25 per cent of its UK electricity to come from dedicated wind turbines by 2016) and purchased low-carbon electricity. [its Climate Stabilisation Intensity] target will enable the company to draw up an international road map to achieving this reduction. BT has already reduced emissions in the UK by nearly 60 per cent between 1996 and 2008.
Posted by jumperhead on June 4th, 2008
Where will you be in 2020? Greenbang hopes she’ll be hanging out with Buck Rogers and drinking cocktails in space, possibly with some sort of cyborg capacities. Maybe expandable legs, like Inspector Gadget.
Scottish and Southern Energy though has a far more pragmatic goal in mind for the coming decade. It’s aiming to halve the amount of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity produced at power stations “in which it has an ownership or contractual interest” by 2019/2020.
If it pulls it off, it’ll be down to 300g per kilowatt hour.
The new target tramples all over Scottish and Southern’s last stated goal: a 20 percent cut by 2015/16.
Here’s the small print:
SSE’s new target includes power it acquires under asset-specific contracts with other electricity generators, but excludes power acquired via contracts which do not specifiy the asset at which the power is to be produced. Similarly, the target includes Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) from specific generation projects under the Clean Development Mechanism established under Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, but would exclude those which are not related to a specific generation project.
Posted by jumperhead on June 2nd, 2008
The last time Greenbang went for a stroll by the seaside, she found a strange collection of tat littered around the sea shore, the higlights of which included a peeled onion, a solitary shoe and a dragon-headed walking stick (Greenbang pities the onion-loving individual who had to get home that night). All manner of nonsense, it seems, can end up in the ocean.
However, if the UN Convention on biological diversity has its way, none of the sea-bound flotsam and jetsam will be contributing to ocean iron fertilization or OIF.
OIF is a controversial process being touted as one way to battle carbon emissions. Under OIF, iron is put into the ocean to stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, which in turn capture carbon and whip it out of the atmosphere.
Given its carbon offsetting potential, companies like Climos are already looking into the commercial potential of OIF.
Not everyone’s convinced it’s the way forward for the environment though - opponents say its untested and could lead to the acidification of the oceans.
The UN Convention seems to agree. Late last week, it voted in a temporary moratorium on ocean iron fertilisation “in light of questions about the effectiveness of ocean fertilization for climate change mitigation and its potential adverse impacts on marine biodiversity”.
According to Reuters, over 200 countries at a recent Convention summit backed the moratorium with the delegates opting to use the London Convention, which controls dumping waste at sea, to govern OIF.
According to the London Convention, there’s not enough scientific research around at the moment, saying last year “knowledge about the effectiveness and potential environmental impacts of ocean iron fertilization currently is insufficient to justify large-scale operations”.
Posted by jumperhead on May 28th, 2008
Interesting news from British Columbia: you go months without any and then two interesting pieces turn up at once. Much like buses, burglaries or Guns ‘N Roses albums in the early nineties.
The first, if Greenbang maybe permitted a smattering of tabloidese for a moment, is that an art heist has rocked the Canadian state, after the Museum of Anthropology saw 10 artworks by artist Bill Reid go missing.
The second, and far more pertinent to Greenbang’s readership, is that a massive carbon capture project will be kicking off in the state, financed in part by a $3.4 million grant from the state government.
Utility Spectra Energy will be running the large scale trial, near its Fort Nelson natural gas plant in northeast British Columbia, with the governmental cash used to assess whether the “deep underground saline reservoirs and associated infrastructure in the area are appropriate for CCS”.
Deep underground saline reservoirs? Sounds distinctly Indiana Jones.
According to Spectra, there are two of these deep underground - 2km underground, no less - bad boys that could be just the job for carbon capture and sequestration and if the initial testing phase goes smoother than a greased eel, they could be used to keep 25,000 tonnes of that naughty carbon.
More from Spectra:
During the initial phase of the project — which will evaluate geological, technical and economic feasibility — Spectra Energy will drill two test wells to determine whether surrounding geology is suitable for the permanent storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). These compounds are present in the raw natural gas produced in the area and removed during processing at the company’s Fort Nelson gas plant.
Posted by jumperhead on May 22nd, 2008
What’s green, a bit slimy and worth $13.9 million? Nope, it’s not Oscar the Grouch with a winning lottery ticket, it is in fact algae: the pond muck that Greenfuel Technologies is aiming to use as a carbon sink.
Greenfuel’s plan for the green stuff is to create algae farms that will suck up carbon dioxide, and then dry and process the resulting algae to make an “ingredient in feeds, foods, and fuels, and especially in algae biodiesel”.
The VCs are clearly impressed with all this algae malarkey and have decided to invest $13.9 million, in a funding round led by Access Private Equity, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Polaris Venture Partners.
Greenfuel said it will use the funds to prepare and develop the farms.
Here’s what Bob Metcalfe, Interim CEO of GreenFuel and General Partner of Polaris Venture Partners, said:
GreenFuel’s algae farming technologies are advancing in our 100m2 bioreactors, but they are not yet fully developed or scaled. In the coming weeks, we expect to announce signed development and scaling projects, the arrival of our scaling CEO, and the raising of a strategic C round.
