The current status of carbon capture and storage development in Japan: potency, policy, demonstration projects, implication, and scenario model in emission reduction

ABSTRACT

Japan aims to contribute to an 80% reduction of global emissions by 2050 and has accordingly set policies to promote the acceleration of technological development for Carbon Capture and Storage. The first pilot project began operation in 2016 to demonstrate the viability and reliability of Carbon Capture and Storage. However, there are challenges faced today of a technological, social, and economic nature, leading to uncertainty in future energy scenarios. To evaluate the opportunities and challenges of further development and expansion of Carbon Capture and Storage, this paper uses a TIMES (The Integrated MARKAL-Efom System) code generator and identifies four potential scenarios: base, low penetration, high penetration, and carbon tax scenario. In the base scenario, no CO₂ is delivered to the reservoir, while in the low and high penetration scenarios, 1.62% and 22% CO₂ are absorbed, respectively, but it is not enough to reach Japan’s target. The use of carbon taxes, however, achieved a greater CO₂ reduction of 53%. The results of this research are useful for informing policymakers in the energy sector toward sustainable development. Overall, it provides valuable insights into the potential of Carbon Capture and Storage to mitigate climate change.

Highlight

• Japan requires CCS technology to reduce carbon emissions due to limited low-emission energy and dependence on fossil fuels.

• The policy of CCS in Japan is confronted with social and economic issues that are associated with the technology.

• The demonstration of the CCS project in Japan has revealed both successful outcomes and encountered challenges.

• Building the correct perception of the technology has implications for action to advance CCS development.

• The carbon tax scenario produces the lowest emissions with a lower storage burden than the optimistic scenario.

KEYWORDS:

• CCS
• current status
• policy
• scenario
• TIMES

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Nomenclature

$\mathrm{CA}{\mathrm{P}}_{\mathrm{XLM}}$	=	The Capacity XLM (externally managed plants)
$\mathrm{EL}{\mathrm{C}}_{\mathrm{XLM}}$(Z)(Y)	=	The Electricity supply of XLM (externally managed plants) of the year covered by each time slice
CAPUNIT	=	Capacity Unit
CCS	=	Carbon Capture and Storage
CCU	=	Carbon Capture and Utilization,
CCUS	=	Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage
CF(Z)(Y)	=	Capacity Factor of a year covered by each time slice
EOR	=	Enhanced oil recovery
ETSAP	=	Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program
GHG	=	Greenhouse Gas
IEA	=	International Energy Agency
IGCC	=	Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle
IPCC	=	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
JAEA	=	Japan Atomic Energy Agency
JFY	=	Japan Fiscal Year
MARKAL	=	MARKet ALlocation
METI	=	Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry
MoE	=	Ministry of the Environment
PJ	=	Petajoule
QHR(Z)(Y)	=	The fractions of a year covered by each time slice
RES	=	Reference Energy System
TIMES	=	The Integrated Markal-Efom System

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the No Funding [11].