Power, Oil Industries Set Up Carbon Capture Research Firm

Tokyo, June 30 (Jiji Press)–A total of 24 Japanese power and energy-related companies have jointly launched a research company to develop carbon capture and storage technologies.

The aim of CCS is to mitigate global warming by capturing carbon dioxide from thermal power plants and other major CO2 sources and storing the major greenhouse gas underground or below a seabed.

The new company, Japan CCS Co., said at a news conference Monday that it is hoping to win research projects from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and to select candidate locations for implementations of such technologies by the March end of this fiscal year.

It also aims to launch large-scale experiments as early as possible.

The Japanese government is targeting an annual reduction of 100 million tons in carbon dioxide emissions through CCS technologies in 2020.

The 24 companies, with each investing 3 million yen in the new firm, include 10 power utilities, such as Electric Power Development Co. , and seven oil-related companies, such as Nippon Oil Corp. , as well as civil engineering firms, steelmakers and chemicals firms.

The new firm aims to combine the CCS technologies of the participating companies to overcome technological difficulties for commercialization.END

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