CCS - Carbon capture and storage

CCS entails the capture, transport, injection, and long-term storage in suitable geological reservoirs of carbon dioxide gas emitted from large point sources. A coal or gas-fired electricity generation plant would be a New Zealand example, as would plants manufacturing synfuels, cement or steel, oil refineries, and proposed lignite conversion to briquettes, urea, and diesel.

While the component technologies are mature in their own right, bringing them together at scale presents challenges and barriers. One is public opinion - in the minds of many, CCS is not a realistic option for New Zealand, or the world.

Against that, CCS continues to be taken seriously by the International Energy Agency, of which New Zealand is a member. The IEA has published a guide for policy-makers on CCS. The IEA has also prodcued a road map for CCS.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decided at the 2011 Conference of the Parties at Durban, South Africa, that the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) would provide for CCS projects, with guidelines reviewed every five years to ensure environmental integrity. 

New Zealand Carbon Capture and Storage Partnership  

The NZCCS Partnership was formed in 2006 to assess and address the enabling of CCS technologies at a commercial scale in New Zealand. It comprises interested industry and government representatives, including the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Ministry of Economic Development, Coal Association of NZ, and Solid Energy.

The NZCCS Partnership commissioned a consortium led by Transfield Worley to investigate the challenges facing CCS deployment in New Zealand. This work concluded that CCS is feasible, in particular for new projects, and depending on international carbon prices and other economic incentives, and adequate regulation and risk management of, e.g. of the transport and storage of CO2.