Using renewable energy to power liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Asia Pacific could reduce emissions by about 8%, says Wood Mackenzie.
Asia Pacific produces over a third of the world’s LNG, but also generates over 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) of emissions during liquefaction.
Australian LNG projects account for over half or 29 MtCO2e of liquefaction emissions from LNG projects in the region.
According to Wood Mackenzie, three main decarbonisation levers could help reduce emissions at LNG plants, namely
- operational efficiency,
- design changes, and
- the use of renewable energy
If a solar plant or a hybrid solar plus battery storage plant is installed at the LNG facility, back-up generators could be switched off and renewable A carbon tax is likely to be the biggest driver for LNG projects to switch to renewable energy at the plant or deploy carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions from upstream gas, or both.electricity could be used to meet the power load.
As costs continue to decline and technology improves, renewable plus battery storage could become an alternative in the future, especially for new LNG plants.
Their analysis shows that installing renewable energy generation could reduce emissions at Asia Pacific’s LNG plants by 8% in 2020 alone.
A carbon tax is likely to be the biggest driver for LNG projects to switch to renewable energy at the plant or deploy carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions from upstream gas, or both.
In APLNG for example, installing 60 megawatts of solar in 2020 at a cost of US$60 million increases the remaining value of the project by US$62 million.
“This is due to the additional revenues generated from selling the ‘saved’ feedgas. The relative benefits of installing solar are increased further when a carbon tax is considered.”
This is a Syndicate Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team