Workshop & Capacity Building
CCUS Technical Workshop: Day 3-Utilisation of CO2
Virtual Conference, 7 October 2021: The Carbon, Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Technical Workshop is organised by the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) and the Asia CCUS Network (ACN) to bridge the knowledge gap of CCUS technology and development. The Network strives to contribute to the decarbonisation of emissions in Asia through research, training, and knowledge sharing on CCUS technologies. The event is part of a workshop series that fall under the ACN’s capacity building training pillar, encompassing one of three core missions.
Opening Remarks and Introductory Remarks
Dr Han Phoumin focused his Opening Remarks on the day’s agenda ‘Utilisation of CO2’ on the prospect of carbon recycling in CO2 emissions reduction. CO2 capture can be harnessed by industries and countries to produce valuable goods or services such as fuel, concrete, cleaning products, plastic, and food. Dr Phoumin explained that ‘this allows us to recycle the emission and create a circular carbon economy.’
The IEA estimated that most of today’s 230 million tonnes of carbon emissions are emitted by the fertiliser industry to produce urea, followed by oil and gas for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The future will look different where nearly 95% of carbon emissions will be used as feedstock for synthetic fuel production and the remainder for the chemical sector. The IEA’s ‘Sustainable Development Scenario’ predicts that synthetic fuel production will use CO2 sourced from direct air capture (DAC) directly from the atmosphere or biomass by 2070. In the immediate term, carbon dioxide will continue to come from industrial and fossil fuel sources thus Mrs Shinchi assessed that the shift to biomass or DAC will be crucial to realising a carbon-neutral future.
The promising potential of carbon recycling does not warrant an automatic answer to decarbonisation as a life cycle assessment (LCA) of CO2 reduction is more important to contribute to climate change mitigation strategies. Mrs Kikuko Shinchi outlined several points of consideration including the duration the carbon is retained in the product, the CO2 source, and whether the CO2-based products or services displace fossil-based products. To maximise CO2 reduction, carbon sourced from biomass or the air, as opposed to fossil fuels or carbon-intensive industrial processes, is naturally more impactful. Mrs Shinchi shared how energy sources from RE provide a high LCA impact and how scalability will be crucial to deploy this carbon-neutral innovation in as many areas as possible.
Presentations
Research Activities of CCU Technologies in Indonesia
Ms Dewi Mersitarini, Advisor CCUS, Pertamina RTC, Indonesia explained her company’s commitment to ensuring environmental sustainability through decarbonisation and reducing carbon footprint. Part of Pertamina RTC’s carbon neutrality efforts involve the implementation of CCUS which Ms Mersitarini explained ‘is key to sustain energy supply with current business model.’ The company works with tech providers in the provision of available and applicable innovations of carbon capture and conducts in-house research and development. Ms Mersitarini shared that a Joint Crediting Mechanism scheme between the governments of Indonesia and Japan encompasses CCS as well as CCUS study and implementation. Using CCS or CCUS, a combined 18 million tonnes of CO2 could be absorbed from the Gundih Field in Central Java within 10 years and Sukowati Field in East Java within 25 years.
Pertamina RTC has explored other methods of CO2 application including the mineralisation of carbon which it uses for the in-house production of precipitated calcium carbonate. It is then used for filling agents in the paper, paint, tire, pharmacy, cosmetics, food industries. The company already has plans to undertake a study to develop CO2 into green and blue methanol. Furthermore, ongoing studies on carbon bio-capture using microalgae is ‘the most natural way to reducing CO2 emissions by using photosynthesis.’ Ms Mersitarini explained that because algae can be manipulated, the rate of CO2 absorption can be increased and could result in a good quality product from the extraction process.
An additional core objective of the company’s decarbonisation programmes is to achieve a circular carbon economy that includes the production of valuable products using carbon. Expanding the product portfolio would allow Indonesia’s economy to strengthen, generate new revenue sources, enhance the employment rate, and maximise the use of local resources. Ms Mersitarini acknowledged that a circular carbon economy does not guarantee total CO2 removal from the atmosphere, but it will lengthen the CO2 usage chain before it is emitted into the air. She expects that once a circular carbon economy is achieved, technologies such as DAC will already be mature in their development to further decarbonisation initiatives.
The push for decarbonisation requires a multisectoral effort from various stakeholders including governments, academia, society, and the public sector. For Pertamina RTC, government support and funding have been crucial in their ability to undertake numerous in-house decarbonisation studies. Equally crucial is providing a robust legal and regulatory framework that would facilitate CCUS development while also providing certainty and confidence to project developers and financiers in green and low carbon project investments. In the future, Ms Mersitarini expects CCS and CCUS regulations to be issued by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Indonesia though she also shared that talks over a carbon tax are ongoing in the country.
Presentation 2: CO2 Utilisation Research Activities and Potential Industrial Application
Prof Ning Yan, Dean’s Chair Associate Professor, Head of Green Catalysis Lab, National University of Singapore (NUS) gave a thorough overview of his various work on CO2 conversion to fuels and chemicals. For nearly 150 years, industries have used CO2 to manufacture salicylic acid on a commercial scale followed by urea production, but several routes of carbon utilisation are now possible. Through his research, Prof Yan stated that the bulk production of fuels and chemicals from CO2 will be necessary to reach significant climate mitigation. Prof Yan and NUS have made it their objective to no longer rely on fossil fuels and instead strengthen reliance on RE.
Prof Yan is spearheading two CO2 conversion projects into methanol and formic acid/formate. He explained that methanol is comparatively easy to make and has several advantages including becoming the most economically viable solution as a hydrogen carrier. While methanol is economically competitive, to compete with other solutions, the hydrogen production costs must be significantly reduced. Prof Yan stated that researchers are expecting production costs to decrease by 70% - 80% in the next 10 years as hydrogen production is projected to be facilitated by water electrolysis. Similarly, CO2 conversion to formic acid makes it an easy fuel to store and transport. The biggest advantage is the minimum energy consumption needed, its reversible characteristic, and is one of the easiest products to create from carbon. Prof Yan and his team’s work on formic acid have received recognition from the science community.
In deepening their work, NUS has three ongoing projects to convert CO2 to higher alcohol and food as well as electro-conversion to chemicals. Higher alcohols are perceived to be better than methanol because it has a higher market value, energy intensity, and is more compatible with fuels. The electro-conversion pathway is viable but challenging, however, Prof Yan believes that if the study is successful, it will offer another economically competitive solution to the market. The conversion of CO2 to food is of particular importance to small cities and countries like Singapore. ‘Chemical farming’ can facilitate the production of nutritional food products by reducing reliance on land, water, and non-renewable resources and therefore, enhancing efficiency and reducing carbon footprint. For smaller countries like Singapore with its respective set of challenges on non-renewable resources, ‘chemical farming’ offers a ground-breaking pathway to the future of farming and food production.
Questions and Answers
Although it is possible to implant methanol into gasoline, CO2 can still re-enter the atmosphere. What is your view on helping to reduce CO2 emissions?
Utilising CO2 into our products may not permanently reduce CO2 emitted to the atmosphere. Nonetheless, the use of methanol already greatly reduces CO2 production compared to fossil fuel use. Hopefully, in the future, methanol and gasoline will be utilised in the post-combustion process and emitted, and that a mature technology for DAC will be available.
How do you manage the intermittence and fluctuation of solar energy?
Solar energy is managed by our subsidiary PT Pertamina Power Indonesia, and the reliability of solar PV must be followed with the battery quality. Therefore, good management of solar PV requires batteries with quality of containment of power. In other words, managing the solar PV depends on the battery that we use.
How did the Indonesian govt select Gundih and Sukawati fields for studies and implementations?
These two sites were selected as preliminary projects for CCUS development in Indonesia. We chose Gundih because we are expecting a decline in its performance as a current active gas field in the coming years. As such, there will be space in the subsurface formation that can be filled in by CO2. It is worth noting that production activities at both sites will not interrupt the fulfilment of Indonesia’s annual target for oil and gas production intended for domestic consumption.
What is the ratio of CCU contribution towards CO2 reduction compared to CCS and EOR based on your estimation or target?
Our current production scale is still minimum. If we do not change the model now, the CCU contribution to CO2 mitigation will be around 1%. If we are more ambitious and strive towards a future using RE, then CCU will have a bigger role to play, around 1% to 20%.
The conversion process of CO2 to methanol solution that you applied uses palladium which is known to be expensive and rare. Can palladium be replaced with other metals to make the overall process more economical on a larger scale?
We tried other metals and found that copper is good though not as good as palladium, but it can certainly work. What needs to be pointed out is that catalyst price is not the primary issue as it contributes less than 10% of the entire process. What drives up costs is the production process. On a larger scale, the rarity of palladium brings about the sustainability issue because there may be an insufficient quantity of it as a catalyst. In such situations, copper can be the alternative.
To utilise CO2, investments in hydrogen and energy including RE are needed. How can Singapore meet the demand with limited natural resources available?
For now, Singapore continues to position itself as an energy importer. In the future, even if we transform into a more renewable and sustainable nation, we are still going to import hydrogen-based carriers. This has been well-positioned because Singapore cannot generate enough hydrogen by itself. However, we are trying to do our share in Singapore to expand CO2 conversion programmes. Next January, NUS will announce the establishment of a Hydrogen Centre where an in-house supply chain covering aspects of production, transportation, and utilisation.
What can you tell us about the cost competitiveness of the CO2-based chemical products that the NUS is currently developing?
So far, we have relatively mature technology for methanol and formic acid. Methanol is better but in the longer term. In the short term, other chemicals will be more economically viable specifically C2 and CC products. If we’re talking about CO2 mitigation, then methanol is the most promising one. We recognise that it is either about economic viability or mitigation capability which may not always align.
Closing Remarks
Mrs Shinchi provided the Closing Remarks during the three-day workshop summarising the noteworthy insights gathered from each expert. On day one, she highlighted the significance of energy sources, carbon footprint, high concentration of CO2, and space requirement when considering each technology.
On the second day, Mrs Shinchi clarified how ASEAN faces numerous challenges due to the lack of adequate existing gas pipeline infrastructure coupled with limited research, studies, and demonstrations on various modes of transport. Furthermore, she underscored the necessity of research to support the safe and secure deployment of CO2 storage technologies in Southeast Asia along with cost considerations, a regulatory framework, and a monitoring scheme. Altogether, Mrs Shinchi finds that there are ample areas of improvement that ASEAN can improve upon.
On the final day of the workshop, Mrs Shinchi explained how CCS and CCU technologies are equally crucial in the move towards a decarbonised society. The presentations of various CCUS technologies in Singapore and Indonesia ought to give audience members a better sense of the overall decarbonisation picture in Southeast Asia. Mrs Shinchi closed her speech by thanking all the speakers of the three-day event and expressed hope that better awareness of carbon-neutral innovations had been achieved.
DOWNLOAD PRESENTATION