Coal at what price?

The science on coal sequestration presents as very impressive from the computer generated modelling but what do we really know about the experience of coal sequestration and C02 storage and what do we know about the toxic ash that comes from coal combustion? Moreover, how responsible are the companies that conduct these mining operations? Can we trust them?

Onshore storage

Onshore storage of the C02s is envisaged either in old mines or deep geological formations. The epi-centre of coal sequestration in Victoria is the LaTrobe Valley’s Hazelwood Power Station. Storage is expected to occur over a wide area that includes hill tops above communities and it includes the borders of an aquifer. Some of the storage facilities are also on fault lines and according to the most recent computer seismic modelling they could pose a significant risk of rupture [earthquakes] affecting nearby communities (Australian School of Petroleum data).

No one really knows how safe or secure the C02 storage is. “A general problem is that long term predictions about submarine or underground storage security are very difficult and uncertain and C02 might leak from the storage into the atmosphere”. There are a lot of disadvantages, the most obvious being the geographic distribution of old oil fields and the small amount of space they provide for storage. Some may also contain remnants of oil, which must be burnt off, this in turn offsets much or all of the reduction in C02 emissions.

Again according to the DPI website, “coal seams can be used to store C02s because C02 adsorbs to the surface of coal”. However, “the technical feasibility depends on the permeability of the coal bed. In the process of absorption the coal releases previously absorbed methane”. The methane can be recovered and sold providing it is economically viable to do so. The burning of methane would produce C02 and this in turn would offset any emissions advantage.

Aquifers

Government information suggests that “saline aquifers have been used for storage of chemical waste in a few cases” and aquifers have a greatest potential for storage volume. The disadvantage of saline aquifers is that relatively little is known about them. In 1986 a large leakage of naturally sequestered carbon dioxide rose from Lake Nyos in Cameroon and asphyxiated 1,700 people. While the carbon had been sequestered naturally, it may give some indication of the dangers involved in sequestering carbon and storing it in areas of salinity.

In 2000 as part of their climate change and environment campaigns Friends of the Earth International (US) embarked on a platform to try to stop the World Bank from funding coal, oil and gas mining because the impacts on the world’s poor and indigenous communities were so devastating and because it had such negative impact on the environment. In 2000 the risks were far less hazardous than they are today. Climate change has increased the chances of a major catastrophe and the public are kept in the dark about the risks. What we get are the mixed messages.

On the ABCs Four Corners program on November 9, 2009 the Federal Resources Minister Ian MacFarlane made the point that he did not believe another coal fired power station would be built in Australia. Nor did he believe that clean coal would ever get off the ground. Given these comments the Victorian state government is way out of step with its federal counterparts and seemingly with the majority of Australians; so why is the Victorian government going ahead with coal sequestration and storage? Could they be pre-empting an increased value in carbon credits under the Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme? Could it be that we will not only be storing our own C02s but everyone else’s as well?