Carbon capture and storage

　　碳的收集和儲存

　　A shiny new pipe dream.

　　閃亮的管子 嶄新的夢想。

　　Capturing the carbon dioxide from power stations is not hard. But it is. expensive. A newproject in Norway aims to make it cheaper

　　從發電站收集二氧化碳不難，但花費很高。挪威的一個新項目旨在降低碳捕捉的成本。

　　AS Helene Boksle, one of Norway s favourite singers, hit the high notes at the Mongstad oilrefinery on May 7th, the wall behind her slid open. It revealed, to the prime minister andother dignitaries present, an enormous tangle of shiny metal pipes. These are part of theworld s largest and newest experimental facility for capturing carbon dioxide.

　　五月七日挪威最受歡迎的歌手Helene Boksle 在蒙斯塔德煉油廠引吭高歌，她身后的大幕緩緩打開。首相和其他政要現身，一個巨大閃亮的金屬管網也映入觀眾的視線。這是世界上最大最新的收集二氧化碳的試驗裝置的一部分。

　　Such capture is the first part of a three-stage process known as carbon capture andstorage that many people hope will help deal with the problem of man-made climatechange. The other two are piping the captured gas towards a place underground where therocks will trap it, and then actually trapping it there. If the world is to continue burning fossilfuels while avoiding the consequences, then it will need a lot of CCS. There is no other goodway to keep the CO2 emitted by power stations, and also by processes such as iron- andcement-making, out of the atmosphere. To stop global warming of more than 2C-a widelyagreed safe limit-carbon-dioxide emissions must be halved by 2050. According to theInternational Energy Agency, an intergovernmental body that monitors these matters, CCSwould be the cheapest way to manage about a fifth of that reduction.

　　很多人希望用三個階段的這種碳收集儲存來應付人為的氣候變化問題，這種收集是第一部分。其他兩個部分用管道會把收集到的氣體引入地下由巖石吸收，實際上接下來氣體會被隔離在巖石里。如果人類繼續燃燒礦物燃料并且避免其不利影響，將用到很多的CCS。沒有其他的好辦法來保存發電廠、鋼鐵廠和水泥廠排放到大氣層的二氧化碳。為了阻止全球變暖超過2℃，必須在2050年以前把二氧化碳的排放量降低一半。按照國際能源署的說法，CCS能用最便宜的方式在降低碳排放中做出兩成的貢獻。

　　To do this, the agency reckons, requires the building of 100 capture facilities by 2023 and3,000 by 2050. Which is a problem, because at the moment there are only eight, none ofwhich is attached to a power station. Another 28, mostly in North America, are underconstruction or planned. But some are likely to be cancelled-as happened on May 1st to aproject in Alberta. CCS is thus having difficulty reaching escape velocity.

　　為實現目標，國際能源署呼吁要在2023年以前建造100座收集裝置，在2050年之前要建造3000座收集裝置。這就是問題所在，因為目前只有八座，而且沒有一座裝置是聯接發電廠的。其他28座裝置大部分在北美，有的處于施工階段，有的還在計劃中。很有可能取消一些裝置的建造，因為五月一日在亞伯達的一項工程中發現 CCS在達到脫離速度方面存在難度。

　　That is not because it is hard. Since 1996, for example, Statoil, Norway s largest oil company,has captured and stored the CO2 which forms part of the natural gas extracted from theSleipner field in the North Sea. Rather, the process consumes a lot of power that would nototherwise have to be generated-which is ironic, and also makes it expensive. Hence theneed for experiments like those at Mongstad, to try to improve and cheapen it.

　　這些并不是因為難度問題。比如自從1996年以來，挪威最大的石油公司就從北海的斯萊普內爾氣田開采的天然氣里收集并儲存二氧化碳。但是有諷刺意味的是這個過程成本高昂并且會消耗大量能源。因此需要做類似蒙斯塔的試驗，做出改進，降低消耗。

　　Burying bad news

　　隱瞞壞消息

　　The most common capture technologies involve running the gas to be processed through asolution of amines or ammonium carbonate. These react with CO2 to form solublechemicals called carbamates and bicarbonates. The remainder of the exhaust can then be vented safely to the atmosphere. The carbon-rich solution,meanwhile, is treated in a separate vessel to release its burden of CO2, which can then bepiped away and stored, and the amines or ammonium carbonate thus liberated recycled.

　　最普通的收集技術是用胺類溶液或者碳酸銨處理這些氣體。這些物質和二氧化碳發生反應生成氨基甲酸鹽和碳酸氫鹽。廢氣的剩余物可以安全地排到大氣。與此同時，在單獨的容器中處理含碳豐富的溶液，將其負載的二氧化碳釋放，用管子排走并儲存起來，離析的胺或碳酸銨可以被循環利用。

　　All of which is fine and dandy except that, if rigged to the average coal-fired power station,this process might use a quarter of the energy the plant produces. According to HowardHerzog, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has made astudy of the matter, that implies a cost of between $50 and $100 per tonne of carbon stored.Carbon dioxide can sometimes be sold to oil companies for injection into partially depletedwells, in order to force more petroleum out of them. For that use it fetches at most $40 atonne. But much CO2 is not produced near depleted oil wells-and anyway, the price wouldsurely drop if CCS became widespread. In one way or another, then, the technology willneed to be subsidised if it is ever to become important.

　　如果普通的燒煤發電廠使用這些被賦予美好愿望的先進技術，這個過程會消耗電廠產生的四分之一的能源。麻省理工學院的化學工程師霍華德赫佐格研究過這個事情，他說這意味著每儲存一噸碳的成本在50到100美元之間。有時候可以把二氧化碳賣給石油公司，他們用來注入部分耗盡的油井，這樣就能出更多的石油。每噸最多能賣到40美元。但是在這些將近開采殆盡的油井的周圍不能生產更多的二氧化碳，總之一旦廣泛采用CCS技術，這個價格一定會降下來。如果這項技術的重要性要得到提高，必須對其進行資助。

　　There was a rush of interest in CCS in the late 2000s, including $3 billion for it in America sstimulus package of 2009. But many projects are now being cancelled. Either the developershave lost confidence in government commitments to support them or their costs haveturned out higher than expected. Mongstad-a billion-dollar development owned jointly by theNorwegian government and three oil companies, Statoil, Shell and Sasol of South Africa-is arare exception that has actually opened. Hence the hoopla.

　　二十世紀末，有一陣子人們對CCS感興趣，2009年美國曾對其直接投入三十億美元。但是很多工程現在被取消了。不是支持工程的開發商對政府的承諾失去信心就是成本超出預期。蒙斯塔出人意料地聯合挪威政府和三家石油公司開發的價值十億美元的項目已經正式開工。關于CCS的爭論更加激烈。

　　The facility itself consists of two capture plants fitted with more than 4,000 instruments tomonitor what is going on, and with a total capacity of 80,000 tonnes of carbon a year. Theseplants are connected to the exhaust flues of the refinery and also to a nearby gas-firedpower station. That lets operators experiment with different flow rates and carbon-dioxideconcentrations, which can be tweaked to be anything from 3.5% to 14% .

　　這個裝置本身包括裝配著兩個收集設備，這兩個設備里面安置了四千個用來監控設備運行的儀表，每年能收集八萬噸碳。這些設備和煉油廠的廢氣管相連，而且附近就是一座燃燒天然氣的發電站。操作人員可以用不同的流速和二氧化碳濃度進行試驗，這些參數可以從3-5%調整到14%。

　　The operators will also experiment with the capture technology itself. At one of the twoplants Aker Clean Carbon, a Norwegian firm, will have 14 months to try out a new aminesolution. At the other Alstom, a French concern, has 18 months to test the ammonium-carbonate process.

　　操作人員也可以用設備本身的收集技術做試驗。一家叫阿克清潔碳的挪威公司在其中的一臺設備上用了十四個月的時間提煉出一種新的胺溶液。另一家法國公司阿爾斯通則用十八個月的時間測試碳酸銨工藝。

　　Amine- and ammonium-carbonate-based CCS are not, however, the only ways to do things.Two other techniques, called gasification and oxy-combustion, work by reacting coal withpure oxygen rather than air, and thus produce exhausts that require little treatment beforeburial. The former uses coal, oxygen and steam to produce burnable hydrogen. The latterburns coal directly. Purifying oxygen and raising steam, however, both consume energy.And gasification also requires bespoke plants. Unlike the other processes it cannot beretrofitted to existing power stations.

　　然而，基于胺和碳酸銨反應的CCS并不是唯一的方法。其他兩種叫做氣化和富氧燃燒的技術，用純氧氣而不是空氣燒煤，這樣產生的廢氣在掩埋之前幾乎不用處理。以前用煤、氧氣和蒸汽生產可燃氫氣。以后可以直接燒煤。提純氧氣提升蒸汽都要消耗能量。氣化也要專門的設備。不像其他的工藝，沒有必要為了現有的發電廠對其實施改造。

　　The upshot is that there is no free lunch. If people are serious about carbon capture andstorage, they will have to pay for it. The best that facilities like Mongstad can do is make themeal as cheap as possible.

　　天下沒有免費的午餐。如果人們要認真對待碳的收集和儲存，他們需要為此埋單。蒙斯塔德的設備是最好的，能讓這頓大餐最省錢。

　　Carbon capture and storage

　　碳的收集和儲存

　　A shiny new pipe dream.

　　閃亮的管子 嶄新的夢想。

　　Capturing the carbon dioxide from power stations is not hard. But it is. expensive. A newproject in Norway aims to make it cheaper

　　從發電站收集二氧化碳不難，但花費很高。挪威的一個新項目旨在降低碳捕捉的成本。

　　AS Helene Boksle, one of Norway s favourite singers, hit the high notes at the Mongstad oilrefinery on May 7th, the wall behind her slid open. It revealed, to the prime minister andother dignitaries present, an enormous tangle of shiny metal pipes. These are part of theworld s largest and newest experimental facility for capturing carbon dioxide.

　　五月七日挪威最受歡迎的歌手Helene Boksle 在蒙斯塔德煉油廠引吭高歌，她身后的大幕緩緩打開。首相和其他政要現身，一個巨大閃亮的金屬管網也映入觀眾的視線。這是世界上最大最新的收集二氧化碳的試驗裝置的一部分。

　　Such capture is the first part of a three-stage process known as carbon capture andstorage that many people hope will help deal with the problem of man-made climatechange. The other two are piping the captured gas towards a place underground where therocks will trap it, and then actually trapping it there. If the world is to continue burning fossilfuels while avoiding the consequences, then it will need a lot of CCS. There is no other goodway to keep the CO2 emitted by power stations, and also by processes such as iron- andcement-making, out of the atmosphere. To stop global warming of more than 2C-a widelyagreed safe limit-carbon-dioxide emissions must be halved by 2050. According to theInternational Energy Agency, an intergovernmental body that monitors these matters, CCSwould be the cheapest way to manage about a fifth of that reduction.

　　很多人希望用三個階段的這種碳收集儲存來應付人為的氣候變化問題，這種收集是第一部分。其他兩個部分用管道會把收集到的氣體引入地下由巖石吸收，實際上接下來氣體會被隔離在巖石里。如果人類繼續燃燒礦物燃料并且避免其不利影響，將用到很多的CCS。沒有其他的好辦法來保存發電廠、鋼鐵廠和水泥廠排放到大氣層的二氧化碳。為了阻止全球變暖超過2℃，必須在2050年以前把二氧化碳的排放量降低一半。按照國際能源署的說法，CCS能用最便宜的方式在降低碳排放中做出兩成的貢獻。

　　To do this, the agency reckons, requires the building of 100 capture facilities by 2023 and3,000 by 2050. Which is a problem, because at the moment there are only eight, none ofwhich is attached to a power station. Another 28, mostly in North America, are underconstruction or planned. But some are likely to be cancelled-as happened on May 1st to aproject in Alberta. CCS is thus having difficulty reaching escape velocity.

　　為實現目標，國際能源署呼吁要在2023年以前建造100座收集裝置，在2050年之前要建造3000座收集裝置。這就是問題所在，因為目前只有八座，而且沒有一座裝置是聯接發電廠的。其他28座裝置大部分在北美，有的處于施工階段，有的還在計劃中。很有可能取消一些裝置的建造，因為五月一日在亞伯達的一項工程中發現 CCS在達到脫離速度方面存在難度。

　　That is not because it is hard. Since 1996, for example, Statoil, Norway s largest oil company,has captured and stored the CO2 which forms part of the natural gas extracted from theSleipner field in the North Sea. Rather, the process consumes a lot of power that would nototherwise have to be generated-which is ironic, and also makes it expensive. Hence theneed for experiments like those at Mongstad, to try to improve and cheapen it.

　　這些并不是因為難度問題。比如自從1996年以來，挪威最大的石油公司就從北海的斯萊普內爾氣田開采的天然氣里收集并儲存二氧化碳。但是有諷刺意味的是這個過程成本高昂并且會消耗大量能源。因此需要做類似蒙斯塔的試驗，做出改進，降低消耗。

　　Burying bad news

　　隱瞞壞消息

　　The most common capture technologies involve running the gas to be processed through asolution of amines or ammonium carbonate. These react with CO2 to form solublechemicals called carbamates and bicarbonates. The remainder of the exhaust can then be vented safely to the atmosphere. The carbon-rich solution,meanwhile, is treated in a separate vessel to release its burden of CO2, which can then bepiped away and stored, and the amines or ammonium carbonate thus liberated recycled.

　　最普通的收集技術是用胺類溶液或者碳酸銨處理這些氣體。這些物質和二氧化碳發生反應生成氨基甲酸鹽和碳酸氫鹽。廢氣的剩余物可以安全地排到大氣。與此同時，在單獨的容器中處理含碳豐富的溶液，將其負載的二氧化碳釋放，用管子排走并儲存起來，離析的胺或碳酸銨可以被循環利用。

　　All of which is fine and dandy except that, if rigged to the average coal-fired power station,this process might use a quarter of the energy the plant produces. According to HowardHerzog, a chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has made astudy of the matter, that implies a cost of between $50 and $100 per tonne of carbon stored.Carbon dioxide can sometimes be sold to oil companies for injection into partially depletedwells, in order to force more petroleum out of them. For that use it fetches at most $40 atonne. But much CO2 is not produced near depleted oil wells-and anyway, the price wouldsurely drop if CCS became widespread. In one way or another, then, the technology willneed to be subsidised if it is ever to become important.

　　如果普通的燒煤發電廠使用這些被賦予美好愿望的先進技術，這個過程會消耗電廠產生的四分之一的能源。麻省理工學院的化學工程師霍華德赫佐格研究過這個事情，他說這意味著每儲存一噸碳的成本在50到100美元之間。有時候可以把二氧化碳賣給石油公司，他們用來注入部分耗盡的油井，這樣就能出更多的石油。每噸最多能賣到40美元。但是在這些將近開采殆盡的油井的周圍不能生產更多的二氧化碳，總之一旦廣泛采用CCS技術，這個價格一定會降下來。如果這項技術的重要性要得到提高，必須對其進行資助。

　　There was a rush of interest in CCS in the late 2000s, including $3 billion for it in America sstimulus package of 2009. But many projects are now being cancelled. Either the developershave lost confidence in government commitments to support them or their costs haveturned out higher than expected. Mongstad-a billion-dollar development owned jointly by theNorwegian government and three oil companies, Statoil, Shell and Sasol of South Africa-is arare exception that has actually opened. Hence the hoopla.

　　二十世紀末，有一陣子人們對CCS感興趣，2009年美國曾對其直接投入三十億美元。但是很多工程現在被取消了。不是支持工程的開發商對政府的承諾失去信心就是成本超出預期。蒙斯塔出人意料地聯合挪威政府和三家石油公司開發的價值十億美元的項目已經正式開工。關于CCS的爭論更加激烈。

　　The facility itself consists of two capture plants fitted with more than 4,000 instruments tomonitor what is going on, and with a total capacity of 80,000 tonnes of carbon a year. Theseplants are connected to the exhaust flues of the refinery and also to a nearby gas-firedpower station. That lets operators experiment with different flow rates and carbon-dioxideconcentrations, which can be tweaked to be anything from 3.5% to 14% .

　　這個裝置本身包括裝配著兩個收集設備，這兩個設備里面安置了四千個用來監控設備運行的儀表，每年能收集八萬噸碳。這些設備和煉油廠的廢氣管相連，而且附近就是一座燃燒天然氣的發電站。操作人員可以用不同的流速和二氧化碳濃度進行試驗，這些參數可以從3-5%調整到14%。

　　The operators will also experiment with the capture technology itself. At one of the twoplants Aker Clean Carbon, a Norwegian firm, will have 14 months to try out a new aminesolution. At the other Alstom, a French concern, has 18 months to test the ammonium-carbonate process.

　　操作人員也可以用設備本身的收集技術做試驗。一家叫阿克清潔碳的挪威公司在其中的一臺設備上用了十四個月的時間提煉出一種新的胺溶液。另一家法國公司阿爾斯通則用十八個月的時間測試碳酸銨工藝。

　　Amine- and ammonium-carbonate-based CCS are not, however, the only ways to do things.Two other techniques, called gasification and oxy-combustion, work by reacting coal withpure oxygen rather than air, and thus produce exhausts that require little treatment beforeburial. The former uses coal, oxygen and steam to produce burnable hydrogen. The latterburns coal directly. Purifying oxygen and raising steam, however, both consume energy.And gasification also requires bespoke plants. Unlike the other processes it cannot beretrofitted to existing power stations.

　　然而，基于胺和碳酸銨反應的CCS并不是唯一的方法。其他兩種叫做氣化和富氧燃燒的技術，用純氧氣而不是空氣燒煤，這樣產生的廢氣在掩埋之前幾乎不用處理。以前用煤、氧氣和蒸汽生產可燃氫氣。以后可以直接燒煤。提純氧氣提升蒸汽都要消耗能量。氣化也要專門的設備。不像其他的工藝，沒有必要為了現有的發電廠對其實施改造。

　　The upshot is that there is no free lunch. If people are serious about carbon capture andstorage, they will have to pay for it. The best that facilities like Mongstad can do is make themeal as cheap as possible.

　　天下沒有免費的午餐。如果人們要認真對待碳的收集和儲存，他們需要為此埋單。蒙斯塔德的設備是最好的，能讓這頓大餐最省錢。