Landmark carbon capture project hosts Chinese delegation

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Image credit: www.dmp.wa.gov.au

Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion has welcomed a delegation of senior Chinese officials which arrived in Western Australia on Monday to visit the nation’s leading South West Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) project.

Image credit: www.dmp.wa.gov.au
Image credit: www.dmp.wa.gov.au

Jointly funded by the State and Australian Governments, the CSS project represents a leading initiative to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Western Australia and involves capturing CO2 emissions from industrial sources before they are released into the atmosphere. The captured CO2 is transported to an injection site where it is pumped deep below the surface for permanent storage.

Mr Marmion said this visit from senior Chinese officials strengthened the already strong ties between the two nations.

“A vital concern to both countries is the creation and use of low emission technology, to cut waste and increase the amount of energy gained from each tonne of coal,” Mr Marmion said in a media release.

Adertisement

“Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a developing technology that offers very good prospects of emissions reduction in the future.”

Along with Australian Government and Eastern States representatives, the Chinese delegation is in WA for the 7th Australia-China Bilateral Dialogue on Resource and Energy Cooperation and major meetings on carbon reduction technology.

The delegation inspected sites in the Harvey and Waroona shires where the State Government’s Department of Mines and Petroleum is overseeing the drilling of three new wells for the South West Hub project.

“This is an area with excellent prospects as an injection site for the underground storage of carbon dioxide in the Lesueur Sandstone. The Chinese delegation is also aware of the advances we have made in CCS in co-operation with industry in WA,” the Minister said.

“The Gorgon Project at Barrow Island is the world’s largest carbon sequestration project, storing up to four million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and set to reduce the project’s greenhouse gas emissions by about 40%.”

China and Australia are collaborating on two carbon Post Combustion Capture projects in China worth $14.4 million.