On April 10 at the 6th China International Conference on CO2 Capture Utilization and Storage, China Huaneng Group Clean Energy Research Institute Co Ltd and the Carbon Capture Transport and Storage Company of Glencore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation on carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology, commencing with the CTSCo Project in Millmerran power station in Australia.

Glencore is one of the world’s largest diversified natural resource companies and China Huaneng is one of the world’s largest energy and technology companies. Signing the MOU today both companies committed to supporting the deployment of low emissions technologies like CCUS to reduce greenhouse emissions from the use of fossil fuels and other industrial processes.

The CTSCo Project in Queensland, Australia will use China Huaneng’s CO2 capture technology at the Millmerran coal fired power station to capture a stream of CO2 which will then be transported and stored permanently in a non-potable aquifer at a depth of more than 2 kilometres. “This is the first integrated international carbon dioxide capture and storage project that China has participated in. Huaneng will work with Glencore to complete a high-quality carbon capture project in Australia’s Surat Basin, build a high-quality cross-industry international cooperation project, help coal-fired power generation achieve ‘near zero emissions’, and enhance its international influence,” said Dr Li Weidong, Chairman of China Huaneng Group Clean Energy Research Institute Co Ltd.

Glencore CEO, Ivan Glasenberg, welcomed the ongoing collaboration with China Huaneng. “We are very pleased to strengthen our collaboration with China Huaneng on the CTSCo Project. 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.”

The CTSCo Project is Australia’s most advanced onshore CCUS project and will demonstrate CCUS at an industrial scale. Key funding and project participants include Glencore, China Huaneng, Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA), Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development (ANLECR&D) and the Australian Government.

Glencore says its CTSCo Project will lay the foundation for commercial-scale onshore CCUS from industrial processes and power generation in Queensland’s Surat Basin. It will also provide a technology pathway for materially reducing Australia’s overall carbon footprint, help federal and state governments achieve their stated emissions reductions targets, and provide a pathway for many of our international end-use customers to reduce CO₂ emissions. CCUS is a group of technologies that can capture up to 95% of the CO₂ emissions produced by using fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, and stores this CO₂ underground. This prevents the CO₂ from entering the atmosphere and adding to global emissions.