CCUS IN THE EUThe EU emits almost 4.5 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year.

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This amount will need to be drastically reduced to transform the EU into a net-zero emitting economy, thus calling for several solutions to be deployed. One of these solutions involves the capture and storage or utilisation of CO2.

POSITION PAPERJanuary 2020

Brussels, January 2020 - By capturing and storing CO2 underground, its accumulation in the atmosphere is avoided, and so are the resulting effects on climate. This process is known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). Alternatively, the captured CO2 can also be employed in processes and products. This is known as Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU), and it helps abating fossil fuel CO2 emissions temporarily or permanently, depending on their specific final use.

By capturing carbon emissions or taking carbon out of the atmosphere, these two technologies help achieving our EU common goal of carbon neutrality. If we are serious about reaching this goal we must include both CCU and CCS (CCUS together). For this reason, CCUS needs to be part of EU long term strategy.

The capture of CO2 can essentially take place in two ways, namely (i) straight from flue gas of industries such as steel making, which we will refer to as Point Source Capture or (ii) from the atmosphere, a process known as Direct Air Capture (DAC).

Currently the world is not on track to remain well below a 2°C increase in global temperatures – let alone remaining below 1.5°C – meaning that the large scale deployment of CCUS is imperative.

As the European Commission stated in their “European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy”, CCS deployment is necessary, especially in energy intensive industries and – in the transitional phase – for the production of carbon-free hydrogen.2

If we only rely on generating more electricity from renewable sources, investing in energy efficiency and producing more renewable fuels and carriers, we will not be able to achieve an adequate amount of emissions reductions.

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https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/greenhouse-gas-emission-trends-6/assessment-2 https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regdoc/rep/1/2018/EN/COM-2018-773-F1-EN-MAIN-PART-1.PDF

Why do we need CCUS?

The role that CCUS needs to fulfil is recognised on a European and global level. This is well reflected in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report “global warming of 1.5°C”. The IPCC’s fifth assessment report concluded that not making use of carbon capture technologies would significantly increase the costs of climate change mitigation.3

CCUS needs to be rolled out on a large scale at the latest by 2035 in order to achieve the long term goals of carbon neutrality. Besides the climate benefits this will deliver, it will also help European companies to export their technologies and provide jobs of all skill levels for European workers.

We have mentioned that CCU and CCS can contribute to mitigate CO2 atmospheric concentration, either by preventing CO2 emissions to enter the atmosphere or by direct extraction from it. However, the climate change mitigation potential varies depending on whether CCU or CCS is used and on whether the CO2 sequestered is from fossil or biological origin.

The outcomes range from halving CO2 emissions compared to the fossil fuel alternative, to carbon neutrality and even to carbon negative emissions. Therefore, it is important to understand clearly that different types of CCUS lead to different degrees of decarbonisation, as explained in the figure below.

Figure 1: Different types of CCUS lead to different degrees of decarbonisation4

What can CCUS do?

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https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/clima/files/docs/pages/com_2018_733_analysis_in_support_en_0.pdf Here “CO2 storage” includes the use of CO2 in long lived products, e. g. building materials

CCUS is not a technology out of our reach; several successful demonstration projects already exist and are currently operating. Below we will have a brief look at some of these projects.

The Northern Lights Project is a CCS project in Norway, a country with over 20 years of successful CCS experience. In this specific project, CO2 is captured from three industrial plants close to Oslo: a cement factory, an ammonia plant and a waste-to-energy plant. This captured CO2 is transported by ship to an offshore underground reservoir. Here, the captured CO2 is permanently stored in microscopic rock pores, similar to the way the earth has stored natural gas for millions of years.

The MefCO2 project is an EU-funded CCU project in Germany where CO2 is captured from a power plant. This CO2 is then converted into methanol together with hydrogen from renewable electricity. This methanol can then be used as a fuel for industry and transport. By doing so the CO2 is recycled, displacing the use of fossil fuels. This way CO2 is treated as a valuable resource which we should use efficiently, thus contributing to close the carbon cycle and becoming carbon neutral. Currently the project is being succeeded by the ALLIGN-CCUS project that intents to demonstrate the greater CCUS value chain based on existing pilot plants.

The DRAX project in the United Kingdom demonstrates the feasibility of Bioenergy CCS (BECCS). A bioenergy plant produces electricity while capturing the CO2 and storing it underground. Meanwhile, discussions are ongoing with the beverages industry to also use part of the captured CO2 to create the fizz in beers. Through the entire process at DRAX carbon negative electricity is produced which helps fight climate change, increase the renewable energy share and keep the energy system stable.

Figure 2: MefCO2 project progress (source: MefCO2 website)

What has been achieved already by CCUS?

Northern Lights

MefCO2

DRAX

https://www.equinor.com/en/news/2019-09-cooperation-carbon-capture-storage.htmlhttp://www.mefco2.eu/https://www.drax.com/press_release/world-first-co2-beccs-ccus/https://www.equinor.com/en/news/http://www.mefco2.eu/https://www.drax.com/press_release/world-first-co2-beccs-ccus/

How can we make sure that CCUS technologies live up to their potential and contribute their share in the struggle to reduce CO2 emissions? There are several actions needed to ensure this but the most important step is the recognition of the potential of CCUS technologies to combat climate change.

CCUS is not a silver bullet, but it is an integral part of the solution which needs an appropriate political framework to live up to its potential.

Therefore, Energy Technologies Europe calls the European policymakers to:

Demonstration CCUS projects do not only bring cost reductions by progressing along the learning curve, but they can also spark new projects in the area that can make use of the newly created infrastructure and value chains. In this manner, a demonstration project can support several commercial projects in its slipstream.

State Aid rules should be revised to cover also the topic of CCU, next to renewables, energy efficiency and CCS. Currently, EU State Aid Guidelines have no scope for CCU technologies which complicates government support. To this regard we advocate for CCU projects that have significant carbon abatement potential to be eligible for State Aid.

The quantification of carbon abatement is currently done by means of a number of different lifecycle analysis methodologies, and not all capture the complexity of the processes and applications. For that reason, we need an EU methodology that is fit to be systematically applied to all CCU projects, but takes into account their specificities in order to endure a level playing field.

To transition CCU projects from demonstration to the commercial stage, clear and stable legislation is needed. The treatment of CCU and CCS under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), but also under other pieces of legislation such as the Renewable Energy Directive needs to be clarified. It is still not entirely clear how CCU will be treated under the EU ETS.

The methodology to determine whether fuels making use of captured carbon (recycled carbon fuels) comply with the sustainability criteria, still needs to be determined. The lagging of these legislative processes creates uncertainty on the market and delays investment decisions and the implementation of carbon emissions reducing CCUS projects.

Appropriately recognise CCUS in the EU Long Term Strategy on greenhouse gas emissions reductions;

Ensure funding is made available, especially for the much needed large scale demonstration.

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What is needed from EU policies?

Policy recommendations

5) Finally, there are currently no incentives for negative emission projects such as Bioenergy CCS (BECCS) in place. Without a market for negative emissions, BECCS projects cannot become commercial and achieving our climate targets will be more difficult. Therefore, a European market solution needs to be designed in order to monetise the value that BECCS projects bring.

Therefore, we call upon the EU institutions to recognise the important role of CCUS and to develop a clear and supportive legislative framework to foster the development of CCUS technologies appropriately in line with their climate change mitigation potential.

Han Greijn - Policy Officer h.greijn@eteurope.eu

Tel: +32.2.743.29.86

Contacts

Energy Technologies Europe is the European association representing technology providers of state-of-the-art solutions for energy conversion technologies. Energy Technologies Europe is a committed actor of the energy transition promoting

awareness on solutions to achieve a decarbonised economy.

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