GPA Convention 2012: Carbon- capture technologies well established

The growing amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere demonstrates an acute need for carbon-capture projects and for gas processing engineers to build and maintain those projects, a technology manager with Kellogg Brown and Root told an audience of gas processors.

Speaking at the international breakfast of the annual convention of the Gas Processors Association, David Weeks said the need for carbon-capture storage is clear and the technology to implement it is well established, although there are obstacles to convincing the public and some power producers that it is both viable and needed.

Carbon-capture projects offer multiple opportunities for companies that know how to build the plants and to process gas, although there has to be the political will to build them and fund them, he said. Currently, about 74 carbon-capture projects exist in the world today, with 25 in the U.S. and another 21 in the European Union, he said.

Based on some optimistic projections, Weeks said that as many as 40 projects per year could be constructed for the next 90 years, although he expressed high skepticism that these projects would get full funding.

"The subject for today, carbon-capture storage, is extremely controversial. Some people love it. Other people hate it," he said. Some environmental groups still oppose it on the grounds that they don't want any specific project located near them, even though the intent of the projects is to reduce CO₂. There is a major public relations issue that needs to be done," he said.

Before discussing some of the specific projects around the world, Weeks pointed out the need for carbon capture. Prior to the industrial revolution, the amount of CO₂ and its equivalent in the atmosphere was around 280 parts per million. The current level of CO₂ equivalent gases is around 430 parts per million, and growing at about 2 parts per million per year.

If the world's level of greenhouse gases stabilize at 450 to 550 parts per million, the world temperature is expected to increase at about 2 degrees centigrade. At that level, scientific studies have shown that 15% to 40% of the world's species face extinction. Higher levels of global warming could have even greater consequences, he said.

The CO₂ equivalent is an attempt to include the effect all greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and to measure their effect on the world atmosphere. With CO₂, the benchmark starts at 1: one ton of CO₂ is equal to 1 ton of CO₂ equivalent. One ton of methane, for example, is equivalent to 25 tons of CO₂. One ton of nitrous oxide gases is equivalent to several thousand tons of CO₂.

Although the dangers of global warming remain clear, the main emitters of greenhouse gases today are power producers. Some of these producers remain skeptics of the technology surrounding carbon capture and are not convinced the technology for carbon capture is possible.

Despite this, gas processing engineers have been using it for many years and there is no question about the reality of the technology, Weeks said.

"For us as gas processors, these technologies are pretty well known. However, for the power industry, which is the main emitter of CO₂, they seem to have to go through the process of proving this technology to themselves and to convince the public that is actually safe to store CO₂ long term," he said.

The development of carbon-capture projects involves a chain of technologies, which gas processors have used for years: CO₂ capture, CO₂ compression, CO₂ dehydration, CO₂ pipeline and CO₂ storage and monitoring.

"Every single link in that chain is proven," he said, but other obstacles remain. Even when power producers are convinced the technology for carbon capture is possible, they are not always convinced it is economically viable to implement it, Weeks said.