Carbon Capture and Use

Laura Sandys Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2014 Westminster Hall

[Laura Sandys (South Thanet) (Con)]

I am honoured to be serving under your chairmanship today, Mr Crausby.

As the Minister knows, few Conservative Members have a greater commitment to building a sustainable, clean and low-carbon economy than I do—an economy that is truly resilient to price shocks and international crises, while making a serious contribution to the global reduction in carbon emissions. The Government have been tireless in building the policy framework around a low-carbon infrastructure that was so neglected for so many years. There are also a few who would like to see more energy from renewable sources, with little to no reliance on fossil fuels. Even I, however, live in the real world. I totally recognise that the pressures to use new and existing fossil fuels will be real and immediate for many economies, now and into the future.

As part of the armoury to combat climate change, it is essential that we promote technologies that can capture carbon and restrict emissions. I would very much prefer our default option to be low carbon at the point of generation, but carbon capture and storage offers greater flexibility in the energy source, and as a technology it will be important for coal and gas-rich economies.

I have to admit that I am not a techie, but—my word—CCS is an incredibly complex route for achieving carbon-free fuels. I sometimes accuse the energy sector of being over-engineered, but CCS is an engineer’s dream. Extraction, transportation and deep-sea storage—quite a feat to rid us of waste that in some minds should not have been emitted in the first place.

How did we get to that particular solution? Part of it perhaps is that carbon is seen as a waste product. Carbon has suffered from a bad image, in particular among the greenies. Carbon itself, however, is not bad; what is bad is its atmospheric build-up, the emitting of carbon dioxide. Carbon can be recycled, utilising rather than storing this so-called waste, not only reducing the cost of land fill—or sea fill—but ensuring that new products do not need to use new carbon. The issue is about resource reutilisation and remanufacturing what we now consider a waste product into something of value.

I am aware that the quantities of carbon that would need to be used to complete the whole carbon cycle through utilisation are huge. Few scientists can envisage full utilisation of CO₂ from fossil fuel generation; at best, 10% might be feasible to reuse at this stage. There are scientists, however, who believe that we must start looking at utilisation alongside capture and storage. Perhaps utilisation should be the first call on carbon, not only the afterthought.

Carbon utilisation is not only a fringe area of interest. Sir David King, now the Foreign Secretary’s special representative for climate change, even highlights carbon dioxide conversion and use as one of the top 10 emerging technologies for 2013-14 on behalf of the World Economic Forum. The US is investing $1 billion in carbon capture and utilisation research; Germany is investing £118 million and the Chinese are making it a key part of their carbon management programme. What can be done with CO₂ that would add to the greater good, rather than its merely being regarded as waste? Sir David King’s group states that the conversion of

“unwanted CO2 into saleable goods can potentially address both the economic and energetic shortcomings of conventional CCS strategies.”

A leading group of scientists from Imperial college, while warning that carbon capture and utilisation must work in conjunction with CCS, agree that there is potential for conversion into liquid fuel. They also agree that captured carbon need not simply displace conventional petrochemicals. Some say that, in the longer term, polymers could be used for sustainable packaging and construction materials, as a by-product of CO₂. The universal key reservations, however, are scale and whether enough added value could be created by the end of the process. No one is saying that the technology will change the world of carbon overnight or that we should halt our focus on carbon capture and storage, but utilisation and reuse should be part of the mix. We want to get rid of landfill onshore, so why do we want to create a different sort of landfill offshore?

This debate aims to raise the profile of the utilisation of carbon, to rehabilitate carbon and offer it a second chance—or even a second life. I ask the Government to consider the following policy interventions. Although carbon capture and storage will be the main focus of decarbonising fossil fuels, to what extent have the Government focused on utilisation, particularly in light of Sir David King’s belief that CCU could be a game-changing technology?

The US and Germany are putting huge investment into research. What is the current spending on research on carbon capture and utilisation in this country, and should we be looking at it again as a priority? Did the carbon capture and storage cost-reduction taskforce examine the cost implications and potential benefits of utilisation, such as chemical and/or liquid fuels? If carbon capture and utilisation could be scaled up or work in conjunction with carbon capture and storage, would it attract contracts for difference? The big potential prize of carbon capture and utilisation is its transference into liquid fuels. As we know, one of our biggest challenges is decarbonising the transport sector. Could CCU play an important part in the decarbonisation of that sector, and help deal with such a vexatious and challenging issue?

Carbon capture and utilisation is an excellent example of the circular economy that keeps products within the productive sphere rather than leaving them as a waste product, and turns a malign substance into an economic asset. Although there is much that we still need to overcome, with economic and engineering challenges that are also shared by carbon capture and storage, CCU could become an integral part of our decarbonisation strategy and could deliver innovation. Perhaps some game changers might even emerge. It is early days for utilisation of carbon, but as we are still a while away from fully functioning carbon capture and storage, utilisation technologies have time to catch up. With a bit of Government help and encouragement, that could be achieved for all our benefit, both here and globally.