Japanese oil refiner Eneos Holdings has partnered with utility J-Power to set up Japan’s first Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) facility. The facility is expected to begin operations at the end of the decade, helping giant firms to cut down their carbon emissions. A site is targeted in western Japan with designs beginning next year and final financial investment decisions in 2026.
The announcement comes at a time when the Japanese government is working on putting up structures for CCUS in the country. The government has pledged to have a legal framework for CCUS in place by 2030, allowing corporations to store the carbon they generate. The framework will also be instrumental in guiding the standards for the storage and usage of CO2.
CCUS is a technique vastly used by other countries that are leading the way towards decarbonization. Through this process, significant quantities of CO2 released through the industrial process can be captured and stored under the sea and through other avenues.
The Japanese government says that this approach will help meet its net-zero objective by 2050. According to Japan’s Industry Ministry, the country will store 120 to 240 million tons of CO2 in the year 2050 and CCUS will play a critical role in the matter.
Besides carbon capture and storage, the country has a program that targets capturing carbon from the atmosphere. Through the Direct Air Capture, Japan will be able to extract CO2 from the atmosphere, further helping reduce carbon pollution.
There has been continued growth in the global CCUS market over the past few years, with expectations that it will reach $120 billion by 2050. Even so, Japan has been left far behind by other developed countries such as the United States. Oil companies in the US have already adopted an efficient way of capturing carbon and pumping it into existing underground oil reservoirs. Japan’s announcements come almost a decade since the UAE started the same process. As a result, they are able to pump out the oil while at the same time capturing carbon. (inhabitat via Nature World News, Nikkei Asia)
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