Canadian government funding of carbon-capture projects is both important and timely

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The federal government has put up $140 million for eight projects aimed at refining and proving carbon capture and storage technology.

This is important, because grabbing carbon out of exhaust stacks and similar places, then sequestering it underground may turn out to be a valuable tool in the effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.

It’s a technology that’s been talked about for several years, but the only working example I’ve found is the one in southern Saskatchewan. The Great Plains Synfuels plant in North Dakota pipes its CO2 to the Estevan oilfield, where it is injected into the ground to create pressure that will allow the extraction of more oil.

It’s been working since the year 2000, but it’s a small effort, and questions remain about whether the technology can be scaled up to true commercial levels.

Now, a new power plant in North Dakota has a U.S. government grant it will use to help move its CO2 to the Great Plains plant, and then into the existing pipeline into Saskatchewan. The projected start-up is 2012.

Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist with the Carnegie Institution in Stanford, Calif., has a warning for us all that underscores the importance of this work.

He says that people assume society will switch to low-carbon fuels as the world approaches and passes the point of peak oil. But his fear is that we will all simply jump to the most abundant fuel around: coal.

The problem there, he says, is that liquefying coal, then burning the synthetic oil that results, emits 25 to 50 per cent more CO2 per energy unit than petroleum does. That would mean a greatly increased need to have technologies such as carbon capture and storage ready to go.

Another interesting tid-bit:

Scientists have known for a while now that some strains of algae can be converted to biodiesel fuel, but the process was slow and expensive.

Now they’ve found that a particular metal oxide can be the catalyst for quicker, cheaper conversion of the algae.

Biodiesel made from algae is still a long way from the commercial market, so I don’t think there will be any shortage of pond scum for a while yet.

Speaking of biofuels, there was an announcement recently from the Swedish government, telling us that the city of Kalmar is on the verge of eliminating the use of fossil fuels —and slashing fuel bills and saving jobs in the process..

Kalmar is a city of 60,000, but the 12 towns in the surrounding area bring the region’s population to about 250,000. And it has traded in most of its oil, gas and electric furnaces for “district heat” produced at plants that burn sawdust and wood waste left by timber companies.

The city’s publicly owned cars and buses — plus a growing share of its private and business vehicles — run on biogas made from waste wood and chicken manure, or an 85-per-cent ethanol blend imported from Brazil.

Hydro and nuclear power are important parts of the energy mix in Sweden, although the country’s 10 nuclear plants will not be replaced when they reach the end of their lives. That means an increased emphasis on such alternatives as wind and wave power.

There has been no decline in the standard of living in Kalmar or the rest of Sweden. People have not been forced to give up their cars, and they don’t huddle under blankets in cold houses.

Fuel costs have been reduced for everyone, which means, in these tough economic times, that some layoffs have been avoided.

Sweden plans to increase renewable energy production to 50 per cent of its needs by 2020, to move its entire vehicle fleet to fossil fuel independence by 2030, and reach complete carbon neutrality by 2050.