Issue 138 • 9 May, 2008

South Africa promotes domestic CCS research

South Africa is keen to promote research into carbon capture and storage, which will help it to exploit its huge CO2 storage capacity. It is also hoping to attract foreign investment alongside domestic private funds to finance a research centre to promote the technology, writes François Misser in Brussels.

With fossil fuel consumption set to increase as South Africa tackles its energy deficit, the government is keen to promote research into carbon capture and storage, as well as making use of the country’s carbon dioxide storage capacity. Dr Anthony Surridge, the senior manager of the South African National Energy Research Institute (Saneri)’s advanced fossil fuel use programme held talks in Brussels on 25 April with experts from the European Commission’s Energy, Development and Environment Directorates, in the hope of attracting finance and technical support.

Surridge told the meeting that the domestic power supply crunch, with demand exceeding capacity by some 200MW/yr, created a special opportunity for introducing new technologies into South Africa’s energy sector. By 2020, existing thermal generation plants will be close to the end of their life, but before then, new power stations will come on stream, including Botswana’s 3,600MW Mmamabula coal-fired plant, being developed by Canada’s CIC Energy Corporation (AE 117/17). He also mentioned plans to increase SA’s nuclear generation capacity to 20,000MW by 2025 (AE 132/6).

Researchers say that if the European Union is to achieve the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from developed countries by 30% by 2020, it will need to develop CCS techniques. Researchers are gaining experience through participation in international research projects, as well as pilot storage projects such as Ketzin in Germany, and the Otway Basin project in Australia.

South Africa has a major interest in developing CCS technologies that could help reduce emissions that could affect climate change. A study from the Department of Minerals and Energy has found that South Africa has the potential to store CO2, and that the most appropriate target for the first investigation would be the 30m t/yr of 95% CO2 emitted by Sasol. The study noted that SA had technical expertise in relevant areas such as underground coal gasification, the transport of large volumes of gas via pipeline, geology and drilling.

According to Surridge, the plan is to inject CO2 underground, for example into disused mines close to power stations, or into underground caves or other geological formations. South Africa offered huge potential, with its domestic sequestrable capacity estimated at 249m t/yr. The Karoo basin is the most obvious place with an estimated storage capacity of 287 gigatons, followed by Vryheid (183 gigatons). These domestic “sponges” have a sequestration capacity of 100 years.

Surridge stressed that there was also a need to develop human resources capacity, and to set up a centre of expertise in chemical and physical capture, geology, storage techniques, transport and logistics. One significant challenge is the monitoring and the verification of the storage sites’ integrity. Another problem is the distance between the capture sites in the Witbank and Mpumalanga areas and the storage sites.

The DME has already established a CCS timeframe, aiming for the capacity-building period to end by 2013, and demonstration projects to be operated between 2010 and 2013. Implementation on an industrial scale could begin as early as 2015. So far, PetroSA, Sasol, Eskom and Anglo Coal have agreed to finance the project with a total of R2m ($262,950), and Surridge hopes to persuade the EU to come on board.

Because of South Africa’s significant coal reserves, coal will continue to play a significant role in the country’s energy mix. Cleaner coal technologies are being developed, including underground coal gasification, which is likely to play a growing role. UCG is a process where coal is converted underground into a synthetic gas, which can be used as fuel for power generation or a raw material for chemicals. A network of wells is drilled into the coal seam, and the coal is ignited with air that is pumped underground. Eskom has a pilot project at Majuba power station near Volksrust in Mpumalanga (AE 108/8).