BATTELLE GLOBAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY PROGRAM RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS
May 10, 2006

BATTELLE GLOBAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY PROGRAM RELEASES COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS

Carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies will play critical role in addressing climate change

Alexandria, VA--In a keynote speech today at the Fifth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration, James J. Dooley, Senior Scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute (founded by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland), unveiled a detailed analysis of the potentially critical role that carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies may play in addressing global climate change. The analysis released today is a synthesis of more than 10 years of cutting-edge research at Battelle on carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies.

The report being released today, Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geologic Storage: A Core Element of a Global Energy Technology Strategy to Address Climate Change, documents the tremendous potential value that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies offer society as it confronts the challenge of addressing climate change.

"The principal merit of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies is their ability to significantly lower the cost of addressing climate change-potentially by hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars," said Dooley, the lead author of the report. "Carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies can do this by offering the potential for continued use of the earth's abundant fossil fuel resources while still making significant progress on climate change by preventing the release of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere," he said.

Other key findings include:

  • There is potential geological capacity to store more than 11,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide around the world, likely many times more than would be required in response to even the most strict climate mitigation policies over the course of this century.
  • Like other natural resources, the geologic CO2 storage reservoirs are not distributed evenly throughout the world. Nations--such as the United States--that have an abundant supply of these deep geologic CO2 storage formations will be able to maintain a robust, diversified fuel mix well into the future.
  • CCS technologies have the potential to deploy in many regions of the world and within many different economic sectors.
  • The electric power sector will be the largest potential market for CCS technologies: CCS systems will be most economic when deployed with new advanced coal-fired baseload electric power plants.
  • The next 5-10 years constitute a critical window for research and field experimentation in which to amass needed real-world operational experience with CCS systems before large-scale commercial adoption of CCS technologies begins.
  • Large-scale deployment of CCS systems will likely not begin until carbon permit prices exceed $25/ton CO2. This cost level is comparable to--and in some cases significantly less than--other large-scale CO2 emissions reduction and abatement options.
  • Much work needs to be done to ensure that the potentially large and rapid scale-up in the deployment of CCS can be safely accomplished.

    The Global Energy Technology Strategy Program is a unique public-private collaboration supporting research on the potential role of energy technologies in addressing the challenge of global climate change. The program has profoundly influenced national and international dialogues about how to best address the challenge posed by climate change.

    Research conducted by the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program has clearly identified those advanced energy and carbon management technologies that will need to be deployed globally, and suggests that this deployment will need to occur on a massive scale over the course of this century in order for these technologies to fulfill their promise as keys to addressing climate change.

    The report being released today is the first of six Global Energy Technology Strategy Program reports to examine key climate mitigation technologies that will be released in the coming months. These other reports will address biotechnology and bio-energy, hydrogen energy and other advanced transportation technology systems, nuclear power, renewable energy technologies, and advanced energy efficiency technologies.

    The Global Energy Technology Strategy Program partners include sponsors and collaborators from every part of the globe and from all types of organizations involved in the climate issue: national governments and agencies, the energy industries, nongovernmental organizations, and research institutions. This partnership will continue its work to develop the knowledge necessary to construct and execute a global energy technology strategy within a larger portfolio of strategic responses to the challenge of global climate change, including resolution of scientific uncertainty, development of credible commitments to addressing climate change, and adaptation.

    Battelle is a global leader in science and technology. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, it develops and commercializes technology and manages laboratories for customers. Battelle, with the national labs it manages or co-manages, oversees 20,000 staff members and conducts $3.4 billion in annual research and development. Battelle innovations include the development of the office copier machine (Xerox), pioneering work on compact disc technology, medical technology advancements, and fiber optics technologies.

    For more information contact Battelle's National Media Relations Manager Katy Delaney at (410) 306-8638 or at delaneyk@battelle.org

    Read the report

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