The federal government has strongly backed carbon capture and storage projects such as Victoria’s CarbonNet to reach its net zero emissions target by 2050.
The Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia, Madeleine King, said by managing emissions from Australia’s oil and gas production, carbon capture presented an opportunity to decarbonise Australia’s energy exports, in particular gas processing, liquefied natural gas and potentially hydrogen.
“The use of CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage) will allow us to become a top exporter of low-carbon intensity energy in our region,” she said in a speech in Darwin last week to the Australia and Southeast Asia Global CCS Institute forum.
“CCUS will also become essential if we are to manage emissions for industrial processes that have no known technological alternatives, such as cement and some chemical manufacturing processes. The use of CCUS will allow us to become a top exporter of low-carbon intensive energy in our region,” she said. “We have legislated for net zero and there can be no doubting our resolve on this front.”
CarbonNet, jointly funded by the state and federal governments since 2010, aims to capture carbon dioxide released by industrial processes in the Latrobe Valley and Wellington Shire. The CO2 would be compressed, transported and pumped underground into depleted oil and gas reservoirs offshore in Bass Strait.
Ms King said Australia had the ability to become a world leader in the emerging CCS industry, with large, stable geological formations for greenhouse gas storage.
The October Budget committed $141 million over 10 years to implement a new carbon capture technologies program. “Australia has already entered into low emission partnership agreements with the Republic of Korea, Japan and Singapore, which includes cooperation on carbon capture. Our collaboration with these countries on key policy, regulatory and technical matters will further enhance and progress the development of this essential technology,” she said..
“We are also a member of the Japan-led Asia Carbon Capture Use and Storage Network that seeks to support deployment of carbon capture through the Southeast Asia region.
“Collaboration includes technical and research work in mineralisation and carbonation technologies, synthetic aviation fuel, methanation and carbon dioxide storage monitoring injection and testing.”
Ms King said Australia had a huge capacity for geological storage of carbon dioxide in saline aquifers and depleted fields, both onshore and offshore.
“Geoscience Australia is leading work in this field, identifying possible sites around Australia for storage. There are some 16 projects that are at various stages of development across Australia,” she said.
While industry developed CCU, “the government’s Offshore Greenhouse Gas Storage Release Program is a key mechanism to support the sector”, she said.
Five permits had been awarded – the first titles granted in offshore Australia outside the Victorian Government’s CarbonNet project.
Ms King warned: “Nationally and internationally, we have a long way to go with carbon capture.”
She added that achieving net zero would need more mining, not less. “Batteries, wind farms, solar panels – they all need minerals, and we will need gas to process the minerals to build them. Without a thriving resources sector there will be no net zero. The road to net zero runs through the resources sector,” Ms King said.
