In focus: CCS and renewables leading the energy transition race

The summer holiday season doesn’t seem to be slowing down the activities of the global energy sector. Energy companies are still moving strongly towards a low-carbon and sustainable future, with carbon capture and storage (CCS) and renewables serving as the main topics of the conversation.

TotalEnergies demonstrated its commitment to energy transition through two deals it signed. It joined forces with Petronas and Mitsui on a carbon storage hub in Malaysia to support decarbonization in Asia, and it entered a strategic collaboration agreement with Gentari Renewables, a clean energy solutions arm of Petronas, to develop renewable energy projects in the Asia Pacific region.

MAN Energy Solutions and Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under which the two will work on optimizing CCUS plants with the aim of reducing CO2 capturing costs.

The duo is expected to focus on the marine industry where they aim to promote the development of sustainable fuel options and integrated digital services for marine applications, as well as assess collaboration in the area of methane slip reduction, which they see as “a crucial topic” for environmental impact mitigation in the marine sector.

In addition, the two majors said they are committed to developing and providing integrated decarbonization solutions that help minimize CO2 emissions from their production plants and supply chains while assisting their customers in reducing emissions from their operations.

In another recent milestone, Synergia Energy has been awarded a license under the North Sea Transition Authority’s first carbon storage licensing round, which it sees as an important step for its Medway Hub CCS project. According to the company, the license application was made jointly with its partner, Wintershall Dea.

Operated by Synergia, the Medway Hub CCS project enables the capture and transportation of CO2 emissions from coastal combined-cycle gas turbine power stations in liquid form by marine tanker to a floating injection, storage and offloading (FISO) vessel from which the CO2 would be injected into depleted gas fields and saline aquifers situated on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) for permanent sequestration.

The UK has already put the wheels into motion to step up CCS projects with £20 billion (nearly $24.2 billion) funding unveiled as part of its 2023 Spring Budget.

Hydrogen in a leading role in the energy transition?

Hydrogen keeps on playing a “significant” role in creating a low-carbon energy mix, especially when it comes to Europe.

The HOPE (Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe) project, which aims to develop, build and operate the first 10 MW offshore hydrogen production unit in the North Sea, off the coast of Belgium by 2026, has received a €20 million (around $21.8 million) grant from the European Commission (EC).

The project is expected to be able to produce up to four tons a day of green hydrogen at sea, which will be exported to shore by composite pipeline, compressed and delivered to customers for use in industry and the transport sector.

The grant awarded by the EC for the HOPE project covers a period of five years and will be used to finance the design phases, the supply of equipment and the construction work, as well as research, development and innovation work, focusing mainly on optimizing technological solutions and the operation of this type of infrastructure. The techno-economic analysis of offshore renewable hydrogen production solutions on a much larger scale will be another area of work.

The grant agreement comes on the back of Lhyfe’s inauguration of Sealhyfe in 2022, the world’s first pilot production plant for offshore hydrogen powered by a 1 MW floating wind turbine. The platform began producing its first kilograms (kg) of offshore hydrogen on 20 June 2023.

To note, this week, RINA and AFRY informed they have undertaken an initial study on how the Gulf region and Europe could be linked directly with a pipeline to transport low-carbon hydrogen, and the results indicated an opportunity to fully unlock the Gulf’s potential as a cost-effective source of low-carbon hydrogen for Europe.

Gasunie also took the investment decision for the first part of the Dutch national hydrogen network, which will connect major industrial regions in the Netherlands and surrounding countries, such as Germany and Belgium, from 2030 onwards.

It is also worth mentioning that according to a new study by CE Delft, commissioned by Transport & Environment, Seas at Risk, Ocean Conservancy and Pacific Environment, the global shipping industry can reduce emissions by nearly 50% by the end of the decade. The analysis showed that ships can achieve 36-47% emissions reduction by 2030 compared to 2008 levels by deploying 5-10% zero or near-zero emission fuels, wind-assist technologies and by “climate optimising’ the speed of ships.

The tidal energy sector in a race to reach its full potential

A report on the potential of tidal stream energy to support sustainable growth in the UK, published by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment, said that this form of energy can serve as an effective complement to wider efforts on both net zero and energy security.

The UK’s University of Oxford, along with two other universities and over twenty industry stakeholders and regulatory bodies, announced they will work together on a project that will address the key challenges currently preventing the tidal energy sector from reaching its full potential. The project is dubbed ‘Co-design to deliver Scalable Tidal Stream Energy (CoTide).‘

Sue Barr, Chair of the Marine Energy Council, said: “In order for tidal stream energy to become more competitive, we need real step changes in system performance, reliability metrics and scalability of the technology, which will require integrated tools which can be utilized by the sector… (The CoTide project’s) collaborative and innovative scope provides a real opportunity for successful outcomes.”