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Energy Research Centre • University of Cape Town |
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Completed research projects
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Carbon capture and storage in South Africa Client: World Resources Institute Period: Nov 2004 – March 2005 A number of countries, including key developing country economies, are expected to remain dependent on fossil fuels for decades to come, and hence a continuation of the global challenge of cutting down emissions of GHGs. This suggests that carbon capture and storage (CCS) may need to become an important component of a coherent climate strategy. Research on CCS has been receiving much attention recently, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is preparing a special report on the subject. While there has been increasing interest in CCS in the developed world, its only serious consideration in developing countries has been in instances where international energy companies are active in those countries. There is no substantive discussion of how CCS could be applied in developing countries and what its implications for local development might be. In this study we will look at the implications of implementing CCS in the developing world, as well as the technological and institutional prerequisites for making it work. The focus will be on South Africa—a developing country that has a range of technical and institutional strengths and a high dependence on coal. Policy agendas in developing countries give climate change a low priority, being primarily concerned with development for basic human needs. Understanding the implications of CCS for sustainable development is therefore important if it is assumed that CCS will be applied widely in bringing down the emission of GHG into the atmosphere. If CCS were to be applied successfully in developing countries like South Africa, the implications for development paths need to be understood. One of the issues that the research will try to answer is to what extent CCS can contribute to local sustainable development. South Africa provides a useful case study for these issues for a number of reasons. Initial scoping of potential for geological sequestration (Engelbrecht et al. 2004) has identified the SASOL coal-to-liquids process as promising. In their coal gasification process, there are reportedly CO2 streams of 90-98% purity, meaning that no capture is needed. The other potentially large source is coal-fired electricity generation, which provides 93% of electricity supply (NER 2002) through the publicly owned company Eskom. However, the flue gases contain much lower concentrations of CO2 at 10-15%, implying that the costs of capture will be significant. Coal provides some three quarters of total primary energy supply (DME 2002), and industry uses large amounts of coal as the other major energy carrier next to electricity ERC project team: Harald Winkler, Stanford Mwakasonda, Philip Lloyd Reports for download:
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