Conference sets sights underground for CO2 storage

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A conference being held in Queenstown this week is looking at ways of pumping the world’s carbon problem underground, instead of into the atmosphere. More than 200 delegates from around the world are attending the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies event, organisation chief executive Peter Cook said.

An Australian research initiative, the centre studies ways to capture and store CO2 so that it does not reach the atmosphere.

Its technology, which has been used in Australia, involves taking emissions from large producers of CO2 — such as power stations and steel smelters — and compressing them into liquid form.

This highly compressed CO2 is then pumped 1km or more underground into porous rocks, where it remains.

“It’s the only way we have at the moment of capturing emissions from fossil fuels,” Dr Cook said.

The New Zealand Government helps fund the programme, alongside partners including Solid Energy, Genesis and GNS.

Altogether, New Zealand organisations contribute about $500,000 to the project’s $22 million total budget.

Dr Cook singled out the Huntly coal-fired power station as one example of a viable entity for the technology, but said it would have wider applications in heavy industry countries such as India and China.

So, the obvious question; how easy is it to justify flying 200 people to New Zealand to talk about minimising carbon in the atmosphere?

Dr Cook said the organisation had people distributed throughout the world and came together only once a year, normally relying on tele-conferencing to meet and discuss matters.

“And we’re not after hundreds of tonnes of carbon savings. We’re after millions … ”

The technology would continue to be useful as long as fossil fuels were being consumed, he said.

Asked how carbon capture and storage can be applied to the problems generated by New Zealand’s livestock industry, Dr Cook admitted he did not have all the answers.

“We can’t do anything about farting cows. We’re not in the farting cow business.”

By WILL HINE