Glencore, China Huaneng sign deal to fit carbon capture to Australian coal plant

Mining and trading company Glencore and China Huaneng Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on carbon capture utilization and storage, starting with a project at the 850-MW Millmerran coal-fired power station in Queensland, Australia, Glencore said April 12.

The companies have committed to support deployment of low carbon emission technologies like CCUS to reduce greenhouse emissions from the use of fossil fuels and other industrial processes, it said.

"This project is vitally important because it can scale up to support the reduction of Scope 3 emissions from the use of fossil fuels across a broad range of industrial sectors," Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said.

The Carbon Transport and Storage Company (CTSCo) project at Millmerran coal plant is to use China Huaneng technology to capture a stream of CO2 that would then be transported and stored in a non-potable aquifer at a depth of over 2 km. The volume of planned capture was not disclosed.

"This is the first integrated international carbon dioxide capture and storage project that China has participated in," said Li Weidong, Chairman of China Huaneng Group Clean Energy Research Institute.

It would help build cross-industry cooperation in achieving "near zero emissions" from a coal plant, he said.

The CTSCo project is Australia's most advanced onshore CCUS project, looking to demonstrate the technical viability of CCUS in the Surat Basin west of Brisbane, where there are a number of coal-fired power stations.

Funding and project participants include Glencore, China Huaneng, Low Emission Technology Australia, Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development and the Australian government.