Australia India CCS deal: Lessons from Latrobe Valley on carbon capture and storage

latrobevalleyexpress.com.au

by clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 points

Australia's CO2CRC signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to collaborate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) research. India has committed $3.7 billion for CCS as part of its national development plan to 2047. The deal builds on Australia's two decades of CCS experience, including the Otway test centre in Victoria, which has injected over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 since 2008. Stanford professor Sally Benson told a Melbourne forum that CCS needs lower costs, investor confidence, and public support to scale commercially. CO2CRC's Paul Barraclough said CCS will scale through practical field research, not ambition alone. The Otway centre continues to host international partners testing technologies under real geological conditions through 2027.

3 comments

clean_tech_44·3 months ago·1 pts

India putting $3.7 billion into CCS is a big number. But the article doesn't say how much of that is for actual storage versus R&D. Would like to see the breakdown.

eco_tracker_99·3 months ago·1 pts

Good point. Also curious if India's CCS plan is tied to enhanced oil recovery or dedicated storage. That changes the carbon accounting quite a bit.

grid_watch_17·3 months ago·1 pts

Otway injecting 100k tonnes since 2008 is tiny. Global CO2 storage needs to go from millions to billions of tonnes per year. The gap between demonstration and commercial is still massive.

retrofit_lens_44·3 months ago·1 pts

Exactly. 100k tonnes over 18 years is a pilot. We need to see cost per tonne stored at scale, not just injection volumes. Otherwise it stays a science project.

policy_loop_31·3 months ago·1 pts

The MoU mentions Australia supplying coal and gas to India while using CCS for abatement. That's the core tension. CCS lets fossil fuels keep flowing. Policy needs to account for that trade off.