No. 489: Japanese technology to collect and retain carbon dioxide deep into the ground nadir goes abroad (April 18, 2012)

Business trend

The construction of a nuclear power plant is receiving a headwind worldwide. This means a good business opportunity for some companies. IHI is one of them. Coal-fired thermal power invites attention worldwide, but it needs a system to reduce CO2 emissions efficiently and effectively. Judging from the current situation, the company decided to take part in the business to collect and retain CO2 from coal-fired thermal power generation starting in 2015. IHI’s system is to separate and collect 90% of CO2 contained in exhaust gases, and retain them deep into the ground nadir using pipelines. The company has built experimental facilities to develop such methods as the chemical absorption method.

IHI plans to market their system and technology to western electric power companies, but the critical issue is the cost to collect and retain CO2. Currently, it costs 5,000-10,000 yen to collect and retain CO2 per ton. It is necessary to reduce the cost less than 2,000 yen per ton to allow coal-fired thermal power to compete successfully with generation by renewable energy. According to International Energy Agency, the amount that the collection and retention system can reduce will account for 19% all amounts that can be reduced by 2050. The coal-fired thermal power generation will have a combined capacity of 1,400 million kW worldwide in 2030, two times as big as the capacity in 2008. Effective measures for dealing with CO2 emissions are in great demand.  

The system to separate and retain CO2 underground

On the technology to retain CO2 underground