The Carbon Corner - Issue #11

Happy Thanksgiving holiday! We are grateful this season for our Carbon Corner community!

We are sending our 11th issue of The Carbon Corner on Turkey Day afternoon to celebrate.

As always, this space is growing and pushing limits in new and exciting ways. We hope you enjoy the read!

CARB Issues Comprehensive Roadmap to Carbon Neutrality

On November 16, 2022, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) provided a proposed 2022 Scoping Plan Update. This update included a roadmap focused on reducing sources of greenhouse gas emissions and promoting carbon capture and removal projects. The proposal aims to achieve the following by 2045:

• Cut greenhouse gas emissions by 85% below 1990 levels

• Achieve a 71% reduction in smog-forming air pollution

• Reduce fossil fuel consumption (liquid petroleum) to less than one-tenth of what we use today— a 94% reduction in demand

• Create 4 million new jobs

• Save Californians $200 billion by 2045 in health costs due to pollution

The CARB Board will vote on implementing this Scoping Plan at their meeting held December 15-16.

CARB seeks to limit the number of diesel fleet trucks in California, a proposal that promises to be controversial within industry trade groups.

Steel Industry Struggles with Decarbonization

Amid the global transition to a greener future, the steel industry has struggled with decarbonization.

To bring light to the situation, Deloitte produced a report detailing the industry’s roadmap to cleaner production. To create this report, Deloitte consulted 100 experts representing 57 organizations.

The report strongly suggests a change in materials, for example, using iron-electric arc furnaces powered with renewable energy. This would reduce emissions by an estimation of 65 to 80 percent. They also advised that production move away from mines and closer to green hydrogen hubs.

To reach the International Energy Agency’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide intensity by 3% annually through 2030, there needs to be a collaboration in the industry between government incentives and standards. Deloitte’s report specifies that the funding needs to be steel-specific, and there needs to be an emphasis on transparency so that all operators can know how green their steel is.

Steel and iron ore production account for ~7-9% of all man-made GHG emissions, a staggering figure. However, it is unclear whether CCS technology can be deployed cost-effectively to mitigate emissions from these plants due to lower purity and disaggregated byproducts.

Gulf Coast Sequestration and Climateworks to Develop the First Direct Air Capture and Storage Hub in Louisiana

Gulf Coast Sequestration (GCS) and Climeworks announced a Memorandum of Understanding signifying a partnership to reduce carbon dioxide by one million tonnes annually by 2030.

This partnership is interesting because the dialog GCS has started with local stakeholders to formulate an informed community benefits plan. They hope to engage interested parties for the planning and development phases of the project.

Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. spoke on the project, saying, “Louisiana is leading the way on direct air capture innovation. This deal is a great step forward for our state and all those working to strengthen our economy, create jobs in Louisiana, and reduce global carbon emissions.”

Louisiana has become a national focus in the effort to ramp CCS commercialization due to the co-location of heavy industry and accommodative geology, making the state ideal for sitting.

Mitsui is Looking for Carbon Storage Sites in Asia-Pacific

Japan’s geography does not lend itself readily to the storage of CO2.

For that reason, many large regional companies are looking to secure areas outside of Japan to store carbon and further the decarbonization movement.

However, Mitsui & Co. has committed to searching for sites in the Asia-Pacific region suitable for storage to find a site suitable for receiving 15 million tonnes of carbon annually. This figure is large by comparison to most US-based projects.

The company plans to begin CCS by 2030, and Mitsui executive managing officer Toru Matsui said, “We will contribute to decarbonization by making CCS services one of the areas we focus on.“

SoCalGas and Captura to Test Direct Ocean Carbon Removal Technology

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and Captura have announced the deployment of a carbon removal technology that uses 100% renewable energy and ocean water to capture CO2. The first installation of this innovation was at Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Lab in Newport beach.

The companies plan to test and validate the energy efficiency costs and purity of extracted CO2 over a few months before scaling the size to operate for larger CO2 removal on offshore oil and gas platforms.

Steve Oldham, CEO of Capture, says, “Captura’s process removes a measurable stream of CO2 from the ocean. We then return that de-carbonized water into the ocean, absorbing the same quantity of CO2 from the air. The CO2 stream we produce can then be permanently sequestered or utilized in products.”

This is certainly a novel application of CCS technology, one we expect may require years to commercialize.

That’s it for this week’s edition of Carbon Corner! We hope you enjoyed the rundown and as always, stay tuned for next week’s issue.

If you have more questions or want to get involved in carbon capture, find out more about our offerings at https://schaperintl.com/carbon-strategies/ or reach out to us at info@schaperintl.com

See you next week!

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