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why ccs is a no-brainer

though both started at a similar place –
roughly 6,000Mt/year in 1990.
In 2019, the renewables fraction
(excluding nuclear) in Europe was
twice as high as in the US: 16.5 per cent
versus 8.7 per cent. The US will not be
able to catch up, and a logical prediction
is that the EU will need far fewer CCS
projects to deal with leftover GHG.
Liquid hydrogen is almost a perfect
fuel, and water is the product after it
is burned, so no GHG. It has obvious
use in shipping and aviation, where
batteries are too large and cumbersome,
and maybe in long-haul trucking. These
are the sectors where transition to
green energy is most challenging.
Green hydrogen is produced by
electrolysis of water. Blue hydrogen
(H₂) is created when methane, CH₄, is
broken into H₂ and CO₂. Since methane
is the main component of natural gas, it
is available on an industrial scale. The
chemical process is called autothermal
reforming (ATR). The biproduct, CO₂,
would need to be buried, so CCS is
always linked to blue hydrogen.
According to Rystad Energy, most
global GHG could potentially be CCS IS ALWAYS LINKED TO BLUE HYDROGEN
decarbonised by electrification,
batteries, hydrogen, and CCS. Power A long tail in gas production is linked to OGCI also reported that CCS of 5,000-
plants, transportation, industry, and BP’s vision of clean natural gas that is 10,000Mt/year will be needed by 2050.
buildings represent the larger portions almost carbon-free. This converts to a supply that would
of GHG. These could be covered by This would come about by a CCS last 1,300 – 2,600 years.
electrification, with partial use of process that produces gas like EOR
batteries (full use in transport). produces oil. The driver is again CO₂ BP is developing plans for
What could be fully covered by and its burial compensates for the
hydrogen is shipping, aviation, and GHG when the produced natural gas is a large blue hydrogen plant
industrial processing of chemicals and burned later (it burns a lot cleaner than at Teesside in the UK – to
steel, totaling a small but significant oil). BP predicts that by 2050, 40 per provide 20 per cent of the UK’s
seven per cent of global GHG. By 2050, cent of the world’s gas may come from hydrogen needs by 2030. The
Rystad predicts that seven per cent of the such CCS projects.
total CCS (8,000Mt/year) would be CO₂ This scenario adds support to goal of this first ‘hydrogen hub’
associated with hydrogen production. the idea of natural gas as a halfway is to decarbonise the nearby
Another potential use of hydrogen house on the road to renewables. As industrial area, as well as
in Europe is to blend it with natural mentioned before, all the issues around
gas in the immense gas grid that gas transmission and distribution by supply hydrogen energy to homes
serves energy-intensive industries, a vast network of pipelines (actually
commercial buildings and houses. networks for both natural gas and CO₂) CCS in 2020 stored only a puny
BP is developing plans for a large would have to be dealt with. 40Mt/year. Rystad predicts it will need
blue hydrogen plant at Teesside in to be 400Mt/year by 2030, an increase
the UK – to provide 20 per cent of the CCS FUTURE ACROSS THE WORLD. by 10 times, and 8,000Mt/year by
UK’s hydrogen needs by 2030. The The governments of both the USA 2050 - a total increase by 200 times.
goal of this first ‘hydrogen hub’ is to and UK have made funding available This would represent a 20 per cent
decarbonise the nearby industrial area, to research and field-test CCS. Much growth in CCS year-over-year. The
as well as supply hydrogen energy to work remains to optimise collection of numbers are staggering, but to make
homes. BP will operate two CCS projects CO₂, distribution of project sites across it happen a CCS industry would end
that would bury two Mt/year of CO₂ a country, CO₂ transport to multiple up in size on the scale of the present-
from the production of blue hydrogen, project sites, long-term injection of day oil and gas industry.
equivalent to the emissions from CO₂, safe CO₂ burial without leaks, and
heating a million UK homes. efficient design of infrastructure for A petroleum engineer and consultant,
In BP’s projection of future energies, pipelines and wellheads. Ian Palmer PhD has worked at Los
in its ‘Rapid’ scenario, global oil On a worldwide basis, the numbers Alamos, The Department of Energy, BP
declines after 2020. Natural gas peaks for CCS are large. After evaluating 715 and Higgs-Palmer Technologies. He is a
in 2035, largely due to Asia switching CCS sites in 18 countries, the total contributor at Forbes.com and the author
power plants from coal to gas burners. capacity found was 13,000Gt, and of The Shale Controversy.

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