Some Expensive New Carbon Capture Bullshit, This Time W. A Democratic Gov. Pimping It
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced a decarbonization project Wednesday that he believes could be a prototype for industrial-scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), but some renewable energy advocates are skeptical of the project. The project is a collaboration between three companies to capture emissions from CF Industries’ manufacturing complex in Ascension Parish. It would transport the carbon dioxide through EnLink MidStream’s transportation network and permanently store it underground on property owned by ExxonMobil in Vermilion Parish, according to a Louisiana Economic Development agency press release.
CF Industries recently announced a $198.5 million plan to build a carbon dioxide dehydration and compression unit at its ammonia production facility in Donaldsonville that will play a pivotal role in the project. The unit will allow the company to produce 1.7 million metric tons of blue ammonia annually. A chemical process is considered “blue” when its carbon emissions are captured before being released into the air.
EDIT
EnLink has a system of more than 4,000 miles of pipeline that will transport the carbon to the 125,000 acre geologic storage location in Vermillion. The companies expect the project to begin in early 2025 and estimate they will capture and sequester up to 2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to replacing roughly 700,000 gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles, the press release said.
Ed. - Just to make things clear, 2 million metric tons per year would be roughly 1/200th of 1% of annual anthropogenic carbon output of approximately 40 billion tons a year.
EDIT
“[The technology] has a poor track record of reducing carbon emissions in a cost effective manner,” said Simon Mahan, executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association. “Renewable projects have a proven track record of providing low cost power and hitting production milestones without putting ratepayers at risk.” Mahan pointed to a project at a “clean coal” Kemper power plant in Mississippi that ended up costing $4 billion over budget and was demolished last year because the carbon capture technology failed to work.
Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, said projects such as the one Edwards announced Wednesday have been promised by the fossil fuels industry for a long time. “‘Clean coal’ was supposed to be one of them,” Burke said. “It sounds like a great idea, but we’re not seeing this [technology] scale and certainly not cost effectively. Instead what we’re seeing is these promises are a way for the fossil fuels industry to expand and not contract.”
EDIT
https://lailluminator.com/2022/10/13/louisiana-carbon-capture-project-draws-criticism-from-environmental-advocates/