ZeroGen

Facts:

The ZeroGen project is Queensland Government’s demonstration project of Integrated Coal Gasification Open Cycle project combined with CCS. The project will be the world's first commercial-scale IGCC power plant with CCS capability, producing 530 megawatts of electricity starting operation in 2015.

ZeroGen had originally planned to first build a demonstration plant, however following discussions with project stakeholders a new opportunity emerged to proceed directly to commercial-scale.

On June 22, 2009, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) announced that they will provide the feasibility study for the project, and to provide the technologies for both the IGCC and the CCS units.

The project partners the Queensland Government, Australian Coal Association’s COAL21 Fund (ACALET), Shell Development (Australia), ZeroGen Pty Ltd, in addition to the Japanese technology providers MHI and MC. The project has been endorsed by a number of leading national and international entities including the Queensland Government, Australian Coal Association, WWF-Australia, CFMEU, World Coal Institute and Electric Power Research Institute.

While the costs of the ZeroGen project to date have been met by the Queensland Government, the Australian Coal Association, through the COAL21 Fund is providing $26 million to cover additional costs in the revised feasibility study for Stage One.

Storage:

Royal Dutch Shell continues to support ZeroGen's CO2 injection testing program as part of its global efforts to develop and deploy CCS technology. As part of the feasibility study undertaken for the original demonstration project, drilling investigation of geological sites began in June 2006 in the Northern Denison Trough located in the Springsure/Emerald region in Central Queensland. The goal of the drilling program is to carry out the necessary scientific procedures to understand the local geology of the Northern Denison Trough and confirm its ability to safely and securely store carbon dioxide (CO2).

In mid 2007, ZeroGen announced positive results from the first stage of its drilling program and confirmed the geology was suitable to safely store CO2. The program is currently in the second stage of its drilling program and is aiming to identify specific reservoirs with sufficient capacity to store CO2. ZeroGen will carry out a test injection of CO2 into the reservoirs to allow it to conduct a series of further studies which will include CO2 monitoring and verification techniques, and injection optimization.