ABSTRACT

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) project proponents within Australia lie principally within the gas processing/liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector, which has the capability, capacity and motivation to drive CCS forwards. However, the lack of existing government support and incentives for CCS nationally, combined with its high cost, means that Australia’s CCS project rollout is lagging. This paper articulates a project-centric roadmap for the deployment of CCS in Australia. Our key premise is that foundational, gas processing/LNG-based CCS projects are critical to securing the decarbonisation of the wider manufacturing economy, especially within the hard-to-abate sectors. The proposed roadmap involves the following four steps: (1) west coast and South Australian natural gas processing/LNG leads the (project) way and provides the foundational projects around which multi-sector CCS hubs, which combine large storage volumes with low storage costs, begin to emerge; (2) the use of CCS in the hard-to-abate sector evolves progressively around the developing hubs; (3) CCS hubs and the hard-to-abate storage sector expand as transboundary CO₂ importation ramps up; and (4) production of carbon-negative fuels for transport, agriculture and power become key industrial components within the CCS industrial hubs. Without a range of geographically spread, large, foundational CCS projects, the hard-to-abate sector will struggle to ever decarbonise effectively, and the proposed importation of CO₂ into Australia will remain largely unrealised. A national and supportive approach to CCS is needed urgently so that a diverse range of foundational projects are rolled out, to facilitate the stabilisation and subsequent growth of the hard-to-abate sectors.