Singapore is exploring partnerships with companies and other countries to capture and store carbon dioxide permanently underground as it has insufficient suitable known geological formations to do so, said Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng on Tuesday (27 July) in Parliament.

He was responding to questions filed by Dr Tan Wu Meng (PAP-Jurong) on the current state of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) as well as the assessment of potential CCUS technological advancements in the next decade.

Dr Tan said that one of Singapore’s key thrusts of its enhanced 2030 Nationally Determined Contributions and Long-term Low Emissions Development Strategy is to adopt advanced low-carbon technologies to decarbonise its economy, which include technologies like CCUS and low-carbon hydrogen.

The Minister explained that a “small number” of pathways for CCUS are at a technologically advanced stage, however they need further development to make it commercially usable in Singapore.

Carbon capture and storage is deemed as one of these pathways. Although there are higher amount of large-scale projects developed internationally, Singapore faces problems in trying to bring it in domestically given that the country doesn’t have known geological formations suitable for the permanent storage of carbon dioxide underground, he said.

“We are therefore exploring partnerships with companies and other countries with suitable geological formations to enable carbon dioxide storage opportunities,” he added.

For those who are unaware, carbon capture and storage is a process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide before it is allowed to be released into the atmosphere.

If that’s not all, Dr Tan also revealed that the Government is exploring carbon capture and utilisation pathways, where carbon dioxide is captured and recycled. Carbon dioxide that’s recycled can be used to produce reclamation aggregates or building materials.

“There are a number of companies developing test-beds for use in Singapore and examples of commercial-scale operations in other countries,” said Dr Tan.

Beyond that, captured carbon dioxide can be utilised to manufacture synthetic fuels and chemicals like kerosene and methanol, adding that it can also be used as aviation and marine fuels.

“However, most pathways for synthesising fuels or chemicals from carbon dioxide are not mature and they are relatively nascent,” he said.

He elaborated that some are pricier than traditional methods of production, some remain at lab-scale and others need “significant amounts” of energy in the form of low-carbon hydrogen.

Singapore cannot produce low-carbon hydrogen until CCUS is commercially viable

During Tuesday’s parliament sitting, Dr Tan Wu Meng also asked on the state of Singapore’s low carbon hydrogen.

To this, the Manpower Minister said that “low-carbon hydrogen is a key technology for Singapore to decarbonise”, adding that recent study indicated that hydrogen could decarbonise maritime, electricity generation, heavy transportation as well as some industrial process.

“However, until CCUS is commercially viable, Singapore cannot produce low-carbon hydrogen at scale,” he said.

Therefore, Singapore is looking at other sources, the Minister noted.

Dr Tan said that the main challenge of scaling up the supply of hydrogen is the high storage and transportation costs. He added that it is “significant engineering challenge” to actually transport and store hydrogen in a commercially viable method.

In a supplementary question, Associate Professor Jamus Lim (WP-Sengkang GRC) asked if the Government would consider to include public transportation as part of its low-carbon push.

To this, Dr Tan said the Government could “potentially” look at it on a “limited basis”, depending on the proposals it receives.

But, he explained that the Government is “actively pursuing” renewable energy imports from ASEAN countries as well as countries that have “maximum geographical advantage” in producing renewable energy with “very low carbon or zero carbon”.

“Those are the immediate short-term measures that we will be moving forward to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.

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