Overview
The background
The Carbon Transport and Storage Company (CTSCo) Project, from natural resources company Glencore, is designed to demonstrate the capacity and performance of large scale and permanent capture and storage of carbon emissions in southern central Queensland. The region, called the Surat basin, has the potential to store up to three billion tonnes of captured CO2.
The work undertaken also has significant funding from the Australian Government and LETA. The project will help:
- develop emissions solutions for Australia’s newest base load generators and many emission intensive industries including cement and chemicals
- show a pathway to a commercial scale CCUS plant of at least one million tonnes of CO2 captured per year
- improve energy security for the National Electricity Market
- improve liquid fuel security through enhanced oil recovery
- enable future industries including hydrogen and carbon recycling
- form the foundation for the development of the Queensland Carbon Hub
- foster international collaboration and leadership on technology and emissions reduction.
The work
- A Post-Combustion Capture Plant (PCC) located south-west of Toowoomba
- Storage and transport of CO2.
These two components will see 110,000 tonnes of CO2 captured per annum. Carbon dioxide will be ready for transport to industrial customers in Toowoomba, Brisbane or Gladstone. And capture carbon emissions will be used to revitalise the Moonie oil fields.
Once construction of the PCC plant is complete, a three-year project to ensure the safe geological storage of CO2 in the southern Surat Basin will begin.
The outcomes
Glencore’s CTSCo Project will demonstrate the first full-scale, operational and end-to-end use of CCUS on a coal-fired power station. Not only will the project build the foundations of the nation’s first carbon hub, it will serve as a test-case for safe CCUS use for all industries.