Report on U.S.–China collaboration on carbon capture and sequestration

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://publicaffairs.llnl.gov/news/news_releases/2009/NR-09-11-02.html

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2009
NR-09-11-02

Report on U.S.–China collaboration on carbon capture and sequestration

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Julio Friedmann, in collaboration with the Center for American Progress, the Asia Society Center and with partner Monitor Group, today released the report, “A Roadmap for U.S.-China Collaboration on Carbon Capture and Sequestration.”

The report provides a framework for long-term bilateral cooperation in the development and use of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, and sets out the benefits of the job creation opportunities and consumer savings. In addition, CCS offers a potential pathway for helping achieve the scientifically required reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions that energy efficiency, conservation and renewable energies are unlikely to meet on their own.

CCS is a process that separates and captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial and power plant flue streams, then compresses the gas and stores it underground, most likely in geological formations. The process essentially captures the greenhouse gas emissions before they enter the atmosphere and stores them underground. The report identifies three areas of cooperation on CCS.

• Cooperation on sequestration pure CO2 streams from existing Chinese industrial plants. Approximately 100 industrial facilities throughout China are producing pure streams of CO2 that are vented into the atmosphere unabated. The vast capacity of geological storage across China points to geological sequestration projects as an ideal focal point for near-term collaboration. This phase would consist of five jointly funded geological sequestration projects in China that can easily capture this source of carbon. Each project would cost $50 million to $100 million, with a U.S. share of $20 million to $40 million. These five sites could sequester 10 to 15 million tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to taking 1.7 to 2.5 million cars off the road.


• Invest in research and development for retrofitting existing power plants. Much attention has been placed in both countries on producing a new generation of integrated coal-fired electricity plants, which combine power production, capture of CO2 and sequestration. But even with successes in this new technology both countries will maintain huge fleets of existing plants in the short to medium term, which must be retrofitted for capture and sequestration of CO2 as well. Under the auspices of an already planned U.S.-China joint clean energy research center, the report proposes a strategy for research, development and deployment of a series of pilot facilities for CCS retrofits for existing coal power plants.


• Catalyze markets for CCS. In order to mobilize private capital for the plants envisioned in step two, public funds must be stimulated to encourage public-private partnerships. This stage of the roadmap focuses on the development of financial incentives for companies to invest in cooperation initially through government-backed public finance structures that serve as a bridge to market mechanisms such as a carbon-offset regime that includes proven CCS facilities and the creation of a global market for carbon abatement.

“A rapid deployment program for CCS is needed if we are to address our continued dependence on coal while tackling climate change,” said Friedmann, leader of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Carbon Management Program and technical adviser to the roadmap. “This roadmap lays out a proposal that accelerates both the demonstration and commercialization of sequestration safely and economically. Because of how the Chinese use coal in industry, there are real opportunities for large-scale projects there at very low cost.”

The report argues that cooperation in these three areas with China could accelerate CCS deployment in the United States by five to 10 years.

Collaboration also will quickly help lower the cost of CSS deployment in the United States and such savings will be passed on to the American electricity consumer. The report estimates that a five-year acceleration of CCS deployment in the United States would lead to $5 billion in savings while a10-year acceleration would lead to $18 billion in savings.

According to the report, a proven CCS sector would create 127,000 jobs in the United States by 2022 under a business-as-usual scenario. A five-year acceleration of CCS deployment as a result of U.S.-China collaboration increases that figure to 430,000. A 10-year acceleration in deployment could create as many as 940,000 new U.S. jobs by 2022.

“The United States stands to gain more through collaboration with China than through the independent pursuit of developing CCS technologies,” said John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “The impacts on U.S. job creation and consumer savings would be immense and more than compensate for American investment in this roadmap.”

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

https://publicaffairs.llnl.gov/news/news_releases/2009/images/US_China_Roadmap.pdf

[amandabeech]

1. 127,000 jobs in the U.S.

Doing what? Selling and installing equipment made in China?

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. (From the report)

…

1. Accelerate U.S. technology

American expertise in sequestration technology and research is well developed and ready to be immediately applied in China as part of a new program. Cooperation between the two countries would accelerate the market penetration of this technology. Conducting initial sequestration projects using the high-purity CO2 streams more readily available in China will allow both sides to benefit from the faster execution and lower costs that China offers.

Proving technologies as quickly as possible is critical to accelerate development of cost assessments, technical findings, risk profiles, and regulatory frameworks. The working knowledge of CCS practices and protocols gained from initial demonstrations in China would also be available to the United States and would help to accelerate the deployment of CCS facilities in the United States by five to 10 years, with benefits to utility, energy, and technology companies.

2. Create U.S. jobs

By taking advantage of U.S. technology and heavy equipment purchases and testing, projects in both the United States and in China would help to improve the competitiveness of U.S. firms in a global market, while also supporting industry and creating jobs in the United States. Although China is developing much cutting-edge technology of its own in this field, a significant amount of the most advanced technology and research and development in the world would logically end up being exported to China to supply its new CCS market. Such collaborative projects would also spur U.S. domestic job growth again through acceleration of wide-scale deployment of CCS technology. Our estimates show that in a baseline scenario, the CCS sector would create 127,000 direct and indirect net-new jobs in the United States by 2022. A five-year acceleration increases that to 430,000 in 2022, and a 10-year acceleration gets us 943,000 in 2022.

…

[amandabeech]

3. My fear is that there will be no attempt to make the stuff here because

making things in China is so much cheaper. Even if there is a trigger in legislation that provides for tariffs or other adjustments if all the work goes to cheaper countries, then I would still be dubious because I don't think that the corporate masters would let congress or the executive exercise a trigger even if they wanted to, which I don't think they ever will.

The report may make this statement over and over but, frankly, at this point I won't believe it until the factories staffed with U.S. workers, start cranking out the products.

As for white collar jobs, well, outsourcing and insourcing are extremely popular, even in a recession.

I guess that you've just hit my ultra-cynical point.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Yeah, I hear you

My concern right now is that we start putting this stuff in place.

For example, it’s frustrating to me that there are Chinese made wind turbines going up in Texas:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-10/huge-texas-wind-turbines-will-be-made-china

However, I hold my nose and tell myself, "At least there are wind turbines going up in Texas.”

When you think in terms of the survival of humanity, some (valid) economic concerns become lower priority.

[amandabeech]

5. When I think about the survival of my country, some more distant concerns

become lower priority.

Yes, I see your point, but those Chinese turbines in Texas really rubbed me the wrong way.

[amandabeech]

6. Check this out:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/11/04/evergreen_solar_to_shift_some_operations_to_china/

This is a story about Evergreen Solar moving its production to China after having received mucho dinero from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

It's totally depressing.

On Edit: How much more pollution will result from building these things in China, and how much more carbon will go into the air as a result. New England gets a huge amount of electricity from relatively clean-burning natural gas. In China, they're much more likely to get electricty from old, inefficient, highly polluting of just about everything coal plants.

Also, since China doesn't have fair labor standards, unionization or enforced workplace safety standards, how many more people will be harmed by the construction and operation of the plant? No one seems to care about that.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Yes, even the shipping incurs environmental costs

I know. It’s depressing.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out, they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here — once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel — once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity — y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else:
music
movies
microcode (software)
high-speed pizza delivery

(And even that list needs updating…)

[amandabeech]

8. One or two on the list need to go.

Worldbeat may take out U.S. music and Bolywood may take some away from Hollywood (which already makes a lot of films in Canada).

When oil was at $150, I thought that it might be a plus for U.S. manufacturers even though it was a problem for consumers. It's longer trip to China from Latin America and Europe than it is from the U.S.