Britain wants to develop CO2 'capture' knowhow: minister

Steam rises from a cooling tower at the Ferrybridge power station near Leeds. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has revealed that Britain hopes to develop a new technology to "capture" and store carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels instead of letting it out into the atmosphere, British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said Monday.

Britain hopes to develop a new technology to "capture" and store carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels instead of letting it out into the atmosphere, British Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said Monday.

"The realists among us recognise that going forward for much of this century, the vast majority of our energy in the world will (still) come from fossil fuels," Wicks told journalists at the International Energy Forum here.

The challenge would be dealing with carbon emissions in ways that do not to contribute to global warming, he said.

"If we burn fossil fuels and do not find solutions dealing with the CO2, then in terms of climate change, we're in very serious difficulties," Wicks said.

"My government has said that we will publicly fund a large-scale demonstration project of carbon capture and storage (CCS)," he said.

"It will be one of the first in the world based on a coal-powered station, stripping out the CO2, transporting it, storing it in a depleted oil or gas reservoir under the North Sea."

The cost of the project was expected to run into hundreds of millions of pounds, Wicks said, adding that the technology was still in its infancy.

"I would just love it if this technology were 15 years ahead of where it is, because the needs are urgent," Wicks said.

It would probably be another decade before a number of demonstration projects were up and running, Wicks the minister said.

"Ours, I think, will come onstream in 2014. The Norwegians have one or two projects that they are developing.

"The Dutch are interested, the Canadians. The Australians are also keenly interested."

Š 2008 AFP

ť Next Article in Space & Earth science - Environment: Scientists study how climate change impacts food production

would you recommend this story?

User Rating

3.2 out of 5 after 10 total votes

not at all
1
2
3
4
5
highly

Leave a Comment or

Flag

Posted by poiuyt 04/23/08 18:51

Rank: 1/5 after 1 vote

If all the coal burning power plants on the planet sequestered their CO2 wouldn't the long term effect be the gradual depletion of atmospheric oxygen? We would be burying two atoms of oxygen for every atom of carbon.

Flag

Posted by deepsand 04/23/08 22:31

Rank: 5/5 after 1 vote

If all the coal burning power plants on the planet sequestered their CO2 wouldn't the long term effect be the gradual depletion of atmospheric oxygen? We would be burying two atoms of oxygen for every atom of carbon.

Firstly, coal contains anywhere from approx 2.5% (Anthracite) to 34% (Lignite) oxygen, so that it is not the case the every molecule of CO2 produced by the burning of coal strips an O2 molecule from the atmosphere.

Secondly, sequestering CO2 does not mean that it will remain in that form; CO2 is mildly reactive, such that it will ultimately yield a variety of end products, depending on the materials available for its reacting with.

Finally, and most importantly, the existing Carbon Cycle (see http://en.wikiped...on_cycle ) continuously releases CO2 long sequestered by nature, thereby returning oxygen as well.