Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
6/12/2015
Australian energy company AGL announced late last week that it has joined with multinational industrial gas company Air Liquide to pursue carbon capture and utilization on the AGL Torrens Island power station in Adelaide, Australia. Once completed, the post-combustion retrofit is expected to capture 50,000 tonnes of CO2 from the natural gas power station each year. The CO2 will then be used in the merchant CO2 market in South Australia, according to an AGL press release, where it may be utilized in the beverage or wastewater treatment industries. The plant would be the first CCS project on a power station in the country. “Innovative processes such as the Air Liquide CO2 recovery plant will be critical in helping reduce emissions from the electricity generation sector,” AGL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Andy Vesey said in the release. "AGL is pleased to partner with Air Liquide in channeling CO2 from our Torrens site for productive use.”
Air Liquide is Australia’s leading CO2 supplier and “is pleased to develop a solution that contributes to preserve the environment which not only supplies the food industry segment but also reduces the distance travelled by delivery trucks to supply local customers,” Air Liquide Australia Managing Director Michele Gritti said in the release. “This new agreement represents a great opportunity to reduce the carbon footprint for AGL, using CO2 for local customers rather than releasing it into the atmosphere.”
AGL voiced its support for CCS in a new greenhouse gas policy released in late April. At that time, the company also committed to closing all of its existing coal plants by 2050 and not building, financing or acquiring any new plants which do not utilize carbon capture and storage technology. “Continued use of coal and gas for power generation by mid-century is likely to be dependent upon cost-effective deployment of very low emissions technology, such as Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS). Long-term policy certainty is a pre-requisite for decarbonisation to occur efficiently and affordably for consumers. Both renewable and lower-emission fossil fuel generation will form an integral part of the energy generation mix throughout the transition to a low-emission global economy,” the document states.
