Weekend Australian
Saturday 10/5/2008 Page: 32
WHAT was touted as Australia's biggest contribution to developing clean coal technology for use around the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been scrapped even before it got to first base. BP confirmed yesterday the $2 billion "hydrogen energy" coal-to-gas plant at kWinana, south of Perth, would not proceed. The plant was to have been constructed by Hydrogen Energy, a joint venture between BP and Rio Tinto, and was designed to burn coal, converting it into water, hydrogen and carbon dioxide.
The hydrogen was intended to be used as fuel for a 500MW power plant supplying electricity for 500,000 homes, while the CO2 was slated to be buried in geological strata between Fremantle and Rottnest Island, Perth's holiday playground. The proposed onshore site was close to BP Kwinana oil refinery and Rio's HISmelt direct iron ore smelting plant.
But after more than two years of investigations and several million dollars of research, BP has now admitted that the geological formations off Perth contain gas "chimneys" that mean it is next to impossible to establish a seal in the strata that could contain the CO2. "What we wanted with this first project in Australia was the lowest risk, biggest and simplest way of demonstrating the commercial success of the technology," a BP official said yesterday. "It was just not possible to do that with the Kwinana location."
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