Emerging Economies Reducing Greenhouse Gases

By Cheryl Pellerin
USINFO Staff Writer

Emerging Economies Pool Expertise To Reduce Greenhouse Gases

As excess greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) collect in the atmosphere and steadily boost world temperatures, scientists and engineers in several emerging economies are pooling their expertise to reduce such emissions.

With the help of a capacity-building task force that is part of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) – an international climate change initiative with 22 member countries – several developing countries are acquiring the knowledge, skills and institutions they need to understand and implement carbon dioxide capture and storage.

This technology encompasses capturing CO2 from power plants and fuel-processing facilities, then transporting it and injecting it for long-term storage into nearby geologic formations of gravel or porous rock, or into old oil or gas fields.

The CSLF was established in the United States in 2003. Its members are Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, the European Commission, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. (See related article.)

Carbon Dioxide Mitigation Capacity

The CSLF held its first capacity-building workshop for emerging-economy members in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May.

There, 55 delegates from six countries – Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Mexico and South Africa – and a participant from Saudi Arabia attended a three-day workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its Pittsburgh-based National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). (See related article.)

In October, some of the Brazilian delegates will host their own two-day capacity-building workshop and a daylong international seminar on CO2 capture and storage in Porto Alegre, one of Brazil's largest cities and the capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

"This is a manifestation of the concept of the CSLF task force," Justin "Judd" Swift, deputy assistant secretary for international affairs in DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and chairman of the CSLF capacity-building task force, said in an August 3 USINFO interview.

Task force members envisioned that the first workshop in Pittsburgh would lead to other international workshops, he said, and that individual countries like Brazil would initiate their own efforts.

"We're actively involved in helping them in any way we can," Swift added.

Marcelo Ketzer, associate professor of geology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, said in an August 3 USINFO interview that the Pittsburgh event was extremely important "not only to capacitate people, but also to speed up many actions regarding carbon capture and storage in Brazil."

Saudi Arabia will host the next capacity-building workshop in 2008.

Building Something Big

The Pontifical Catholic University and Petróleo Brasileiro (PETROBRAS), a semi-public oil company based in Rio de Janeiro that is leading CO2 capture and storage in Brazil, have joined forces to create the Energy and Carbon Storage Research Center in Porto Alegre.

"The energy grid in Brazil for electric energy generation is quite clean," Ketzer said. "It's not based on coal-fired power plants, it's based on hydropower. But that doesn't mean we don't have emissions. We are big emitters. That's why we are taking action to diminish CO2 emissions to the atmosphere."

The center, a 1,000-square-kilometer facility with laboratories, classrooms and meeting rooms, will officially open October 17, at the start of the workshop, an international seminar on Perspectives for Near-Term Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment in Brazil.

The Brazilian government has been active in contributing to climate change mitigation. Brazil ratified the Kyoto Protocol in August 2002, and in November 2006, in a submission to a meeting of the Kyoto parties, Brazil supported "the acceleration of research, development, deployment and diffusion of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies."

The government, through the Brazilian National Research Council, funds part of Ketzer's research, such as a project to develop geochemical and mineralogical criteria for choosing geological targets for CO2 storage.

Ketzer expects the government to contribute to the research center by funding student scholarships and by giving PETROBRAS, which funds much of the center's infrastructure, tax deductions for science and technology investments.

"We are trying to build something big here," Ketzer added, "something at least of national importance."

Large-scale Capture And Storage

A growing number of experts consider CO2 capture and storage one of the best ways to help mitigate climate change.

"Carbon sequestration is a key component of the president's strategy to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions," NETL Director Carl Bauer told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources August 1.

The new center in Porto Alegre will focus on carbon dioxide capture and storage rather than other CO2 mitigation methods, and Ketzer said proposals are being considered for collaborations with NETL and the DOE Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

"What we want to accomplish with the research center is to disseminate the carbon capture and storage culture in Brazil in terms of public perception and public acceptance," Ketzer said, "and to make carbon capture and storage commercial and large-scale in Brazil. That's our mission."

ENDS

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

More: Latest World News | Top World News | World News Archive

© Scoop Media