Designing policy for deployment of CCS in industry

Abstract

Attaining deep greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in industry in order to support a stringent climate change control target will be difficult without recourse to CO₂ capture and storage (CCS). Using the insights from a long-term bottom-up energy systems model, and undertaking a sectoral assessment, we investigated the importance of CCS in the industrial sector. Under climate policy aimed at limiting atmospheric concentration of GHGs to 650 ppm CO₂e, costs could increase fivefold when CCS is excluded from the portfolio of mitigation option measures in the industry sector as compared to when CCS is excluded in the power sector. This effect is driven largely by the lack of alternatives for deep emission reductions in industry. Our main policy conclusion is that a broader recognition of CCS in industrial applications in both current policy discussions and research, development, and demonstration funding programmes is justified. In recognition of the heterogeneity of the many types of industrial production processes, the size and location of industrial CO₂ sources, the specific need for CCS-retrofitting, and the exposure of most industrial sectors to international trade, policies aimed at supporting CCS must distinguish between the different challenges faced by the power and industrial sectors.

Keywords:

• CO₂ capture and storage (CCS)
• climate change mitigation
• energy technology
• industrial sector

Acknowledgements

Tom Kober, Heleen de Coninck and Tom Mikunda acknowledge funding from CATO-2, the Dutch national research programme on CCS. CATO-2 is financially supported by the Dutch government (Ministry of Economic Affairs) and the CATO-2 consortium partners. The quantitative and scenario-based analysis has greatly benefited from modelling work funded by the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under grant agreement n° 282846 (LIMITS project). Tom Kober, Hilke Rösler and Bob van der Zwaan acknowledge previous modelling efforts by Illka Keppo. Morgan Bazilian, Heleen de Coninck and Tom Mikunda acknowledge the IEA, UNIDO, the Norwegian Government, and the Global CCS Institute for their support in developing the IEA/UNIDO Roadmap on CCS in industrial applications, by which this article was inspired.

Notes

1. In TIAM-ECN, relatively conservative estimates are used for the maximum global biomass potential (about 150 Exajoules (EJ) in 2100), which reflects the limited availability of biomass under consideration of sustainability criteria and prioritization of food price issues (GEA, 2012; Hoogwijk, Faaij, Vries, & Turkenburg, 2009; Thrän, Seidenberger, Zeddies, & Offermann, 2010). In TIAM-ECN a total potential for underground storage of CO₂ of 1000 GtCO₂ is assumed (Keppo & van der Zwaan, 2011), with 27% in the Middle East, 22% in the countries of the former Soviet Union, 19% in Asia, 15% in North and South America, 8% in Africa, 5% in Europe, and 4% in Australia/Oceania (Hendriks, Graus, & Bergen, 2004). No inter-regional transport of captured CO₂ is assumed in the model.

2. In this article, the regional classification of industrialized and developing countries refers to the current status of the regions.

3. See http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/lowcarbon/ner300/