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Rio includes CCS in climate change arsenal

Rio includes CCS in climate change arsenal

Photo by Bloomberg

9th September 2014

By: Esmarie Iannucci

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Australasia

  

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining giant Rio Tinto has touted carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a viable solution to climate change, with Rio’s energy CEO, Harry Kenyon-Slaney, saying that further CCS milestones could be expected as the technology continues to prove itself.

“Understand this. CCS is technically available. It’s been commercially deployed in gas processing and enhanced oil recovery for over a decade. Applying it to power generation is primarily a commercial challenge. And they can be met through technology and cost reductions.”

Speaking at a meeting of the Australian British Chamber of Commerce, in Sydney, Kenyon-Slaney noted that despite detractors of the coal industry, the fossil fuel was likely to remain the most significant source of energy generation in the near future.

He pointed out that global thermal coal production was currently around seven-billion tonnes a year, with China alone producing and consuming half of this. Australia, in turn, exported some 200-million tonnes a year of thermal coal, less than 3% of the world’s demand.

“Put simply, that all-important requirement - for large-scale, reliable, affordable energy - means one thing only; a great deal of it will be generated from coal. That’s because coal is abundant - with estimated global reserves plentiful for more than another century.”

Kenyon-Slaney said that in 2012, coal supplied 80% of electricity in China and 70% in India, with coal use continuing to grow in both countries.

“Coal is relatively easy to produce, compared to rival fuels. Coal-powered generation capacity is relatively quick and easy to build and cheap to operate. Coal generators can supply the large scale, base-load power that modern economies depend upon, around the clock, every day of the year. They are indifferent to whether the wind blows or the sun shines.

“In most places on earth, with the possible exception of nuclear power in China, a coal generator can sell you electricity cheaper than any other kind that is reliable - now, tomorrow and for decades to come. There is no escaping these practicalities and economic imperatives.”

However, he noted that as incontrovertible as the need for coal-fired electricity was, it was also a truth that climate change was being caused largely by carbon dioxide emissions.

“To be in business is to be in a perpetual cycle of problem solving. If we’re sensible we prioritise our effort and expertise to tackle our biggest problems first. I want to suggest that the problem of emissions-driven climate change is among the world’s biggest and most pressing,” Kenyon-Slaney added.

He noted that a major part of the answer to climate change would be low emissions coal generation, which would require a concerted effort from both industry and government, as both should invest in the science and research necessary to develop the technology.

“We support the development of renewables like solar, but on the most optimistic projections they can economically provide only a small fraction of what’s required in the next several decades,” Kenyon-Slaney said.

“Whereas we know coal is going to continue to contribute many times what renewables do to the energy mix. A system that acknowledges both these facts will support the commercialisation of CCS, at least as much as it does renewables.”

Edited by Mariaan Webb
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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