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Carbon Capture and Storage

While alternative sources of energy will be an important part of the energy supply of the future, the current reality of widespread reliance on fossil fuels means that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a necessary solution. Realistically, there is no other way to reduce emissions enough to avoid significant climate change – barring shutting down coal plants and the resulting power outages.

CCS is a set of technologies that reduce CO₂ emissions from power plants and industrial facilities. It most commonly involves three steps: the capture of CO₂ emissions at their source, the transport of CO₂ via pipelines or ships, and the long term storage of CO₂ in geological reservoirs where, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it can be safely immobilized and retained for millions of years.

The basic CCS technologies exist, though at varying levels of maturity. To date they have been used in disparate, small-scale pilot projects, often focused on one or two of the three steps – capture, transport, and storage. We must therefore prove the technology at a large scale and as part of an integrated value chain. But this is complex and costly, requiring a massive infrastructure build-out and cooperation across multiple industries and sectors.

Our Approach

CCI’s approach is ambitious. Rather than build standalone demonstration projects to prove only the technology, our goal is to create projects that help governments anticipate and resolve a complex host of critical issues. Government partners who adopt our "network" approach will be poised to roll out a commercial CCS program swiftly and effectively when the market is ready.

Our approach connects multiple capture facilities into a common pipeline and storage system sized to support long-term, commercial-scale use. We work in strategic locations with a concentration of emission sources from appropriate facilities and fuel types; where there is sufficient storage capacity; and where the government is committed both to CCS and our holistic approach.

Our approach demonstrates the technology at ambitious scales, and delivers a number of additional benefits:

• The economies of scale gained from sharing the costs of a common pipeline and storage sites support commercial viability.
• The availability of sufficient transport and storage infrastructure gives incentive to further capture projects.
• The concentration of power generation and industrial emitters gives the projects long-term public value and significant potential for expansion.
• The planning of networks across multiple stakeholder groups, including both the private and public sectors, forms political, regulatory, business, and financial models that enable implementation.
• The potential establishment of CO₂ hubs stimulates the growth of industries seeking CO₂ mitigation infrastructure.

As valued advisors, we provide government partners with a range of critical services. Our involvement in each project depends on local circumstances, but across the board we play a very active and important role in analyzing deployment and investment scenarios and forming business plans, brokering introductions, convening stakeholders, and coordinating their participation. Our global perspective, flexibility, and drive are all key assets, allowing us to bring the experience and relationships gained from one project to another, and giving vital momentum to CCS deployment.

CCI provides the following services to our project partners, all of which can be tailored to local needs.

Integrated Project Development

We have significant experience in project development, offering both technical knowledge as well as global private and public sector relationships across the relevant industries. We bring this experience, knowledge, and portfolio of relationships to our local government partners when we advise them.

Technical Analysis

We have built a valuable database of engineering requirements and key cost drivers across the CCS value chain, supplied on a confidential basis from third parties. We use this data to provide pre-feasibility scoping assessments for partner governments. As projects move forward, we help our partners engage external engineering consultants and other project stakeholders to collect and analyze more detailed data and to optimize systems engineering.

Financial Analysis

We create operational, project finance, and business models for the projects on which we work to raise key questions regarding first-in-kind operational, liability, and incentive structures. Additionally, we help our partners engage and work with external financial advisors and potential sources of finance and funding.

Relationship Building

Our role as an independent and unbiased project advisor allows us to create strong relationships with governments, industries, and service providers as well as build cooperation between the private and public sectors. Our relationships enhance projects in a number of other ways, including securing advisory and consultancy services, providing key board-level corporate and CCS expert introductions, and supplying insight into the latest products and guidelines.

Projects

We are currently developing CCS projects in Australia, the EU and the US, all of whom have all committed substantial funding to large scale demonstration projects. In addition, CCI has an agreement with the Global Carbon Capture & Storage Institute (GCCSI), hosted by the Australian government, to assist in the development of flagship CCS projects.

Our Partners

CCI is focused on delivering integrated, commercial scale CCS demonstration projects that bring stakeholders together to forge the necessary and new commercial, financial, insurance, legal and regulatory frameworks. Without appropriate levels of coordination, this effort could take decades – a trajectory wholly inconsistent with the urgency of the climate problem.

Stakeholders include: owners and operators of power plants and other industrial facilities; CO₂ capture technology companies; pipeline and shipping companies; oil and gas companies and other geological specialists; manufacturing and engineering companies; and the financial, legal, insurance, and other professional sectors that will support new commercial models, public sector regulators, and legislators.