Decarbonisation Technology – August 2021

CCUS challenges and opportunities in Chile For Chile, carbon capture use and storage presents a potential opportunity to go beyond carbon neutrality and provide a source of ‘negative emissions’

Jose Barriga Cabezón ENAP

C hile has considerable solar, geothermal, wind, mini-hydro, ocean and biomass/ biogas resources, yet they currently (2019) make up just 9% of the total energy production. A national effort is underway to raise the Renewable Portfolio Standard of energy from renewable energy sources from the expected 20% by 2025 to 40% by 2030. Renewable energy is at the heart of Chile’s transition to net zero, but with flexible power stations still required to ensure the stability of the power grid, the decarbonisation of our gas-fired power plants and fossil fuel industrial facilities also has a significant role to play in reducing emissions. The transition to a net-zero sustainable energy regime in any country is not just an engineering question but an economic, social and cultural

technologies indicated in the planned strategy by the Ministries of Environment and Energy to achieve these goals (see Figure 2 ). This is possibly due to a preference for the natural advantages of CO 2 capture in Chile’s extensive forest area, plus a lack of knowledge of the technological elements, advantages and costs associated with the utilisation of CCUS. Possible prejudices could also relate to the technology’s reliability, safety and control, and the length of time the captured carbon is stored in the subsoil. It is a similar story in many other Latin American countries, where the use of CCUS is relatively unknown, except for Brazil. The Santos Basin CO 2 - EOR plant, located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, has captured and injected some 10 million tonnes

issue. So Chile, like several other countries participating in the Paris Agreement, has set decarbonisation targets within its nationally determined contribution (NDC) proposal for 2050 in line with a strategy that favours the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable fuels but relying heavily on forest carbon capture to achieve carbon neutrality (see Figure 1 ). Consequently, among the proposed alternatives for emissions reduction, carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) has not been considered as one of the

200

200 metric tons of CO equivalent

Emissions in net-zero scenario Carbon capture in net-zero scenario

100

-100

‘18 ‘20 2016

‘22

‘24

‘30 ‘26 ‘28

‘32 ‘34

‘36 ‘38

2050 ‘40 ‘42 ‘44 ‘46 ‘48

Figure 1 Delicate balance: Chile’s carbon neutrality target relies heavily on forests Source: Chile Energy Ministry