Memorandum from the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers
The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)
is a professional body of over 78,000 professional engineers in
the UK and overseas. The Institution's membership is involved
in all aspects of energy exploration, conversion, supply, use
and recovery. As a Learned Society, IMechE's role is to be a source
of considered, balanced, impartial information and advice.
IMechE welcomes the Environmental Audit Committee's
inquiry into Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS). CCS has the potential
to reduce the impact of energy generation. Given the very short
timescale, the Institution's response will focus attention on
general issues affecting new and existing coal plants in the UK
(including Kingsnorth) and particularly the need for market, certainty
regarding the implementation of CCS.
The Institution believes that:
1. For a variety of reasons, including diversity,
security of supply and grid balancing, coal-fired power generation
should be allowed to continue to meet the UK's energy demand,
at least in the short and medium terms. There is, therefore, a
strong case to allow new coal-fired plants to be built.
2. Coal's high carbon content dictates that
new and existing plants should only be allowed to continue to
operate if their carbon emissions can be substantially reduced
by roughly 85-90%. To achieve this, CCS and biomass co-firing
are the two most viable options.
3. The Government needs to provide a strong
incentive for coal plant operators to reduce their emissions,
over and above the uncertainties of the EU ETS. We believe this
is best provided by setting a date, after which all coal-fired
plants would only be allowed to operate if the amount of CO2 emitted
per MWh used (heat and/or electricity) are below a specific level.
4. Although the full CCS technology chain
has not yet been demonstrated at commercial scale, all the individual
elements of that chain have been realised; there is every reason
to be optimistic that full-scale CCS is a practical prospect.
5. CCS is applicable to natural gas-fired
generation as well as coal. A similar emissions limit and cut-off
date should apply to gas to ensure a fair and level playing field
for both energy sources.
6. Our preliminary assessment is that a
suitable cut-off date would probably be 1 June 2018.
7. Efficient modern coal-fired plants, operating
in power-supply mode only and without CCS, have emissions factors
of about 700gCO2/MWh. Our preliminary assessment, therefore, of
a suitable post-2018 emissions factor for coal would be 100kgCO2/MWh.
8. Making use of a significant proportion
of the heat currently wasted, by operating in Combined Heat and
Power (CHP) mode, through links to suitable domestic, commercial
and/or industrial heat users, would also greatly reduce the plant's
emissions per unit of energy delivered. Alongside CCS and biomass
co-firing, such schemes should be strongly encouraged and incentivised.
9. Such a technology blind approach gives
operators freedom to find the most cost effective ways to meet
this requirement, be it by pre or post-combustion CCS, CHP, biomass
co-firing or any combination of these measures; and
10. The Government must recognise and support
the tremendous potential for UK engineering, applied via CCS and
other projects, to set a world lead in this vital emerging technology
area, and the consequent job creation, export earnings and global
emissions reduction opportunities.
2 June 2008
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