The Saudi Pavilion at the COP26 conference today held a session on current and future carbon capture technologies. The discussion was attended by a number of academics and climate experts.
The speakers explained the objectives of the Saudi Green Initiative (SGI), which was recently announced by HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The initiative, they noted, aims to reduce carbon emissions by increasing vegetation, combat pollution and land degradation, and conserve marine life.
The session discussed some of the initiative’s aspects, most notably the planting of 10 billion trees throughout the Kingdom over the following decades, a twelvefold increase of the area covered by existing trees..
This constitutes a contribution of more than 4% towards achieving the objectives of the Global Initiative on Reducing Land Degradation and Enhancing Conservation of Terrestrial Habitats and of 1% of the global target of planting a trillion trees.
The speakers gave a presentation on the different carbon capture technologies, including pre- and post-combustion methods for liquid-fuel engines, capture and sequestration technologies, and other natural methods such as balancing emissions by increasing vegetation or cultivating algae for carbon sequestration.
The panelists also discussed the current initiative by Saudi Aramco to implement one of the largest pilot carbon capture and storage projects in the Middle East, as 45 MMSCFD of gas is captured and processed in the company’s plant in Hawiyah.
As part of this ambitious project’s process, the speakers explained, CO2 will be transported through an 85 km long pipeline to the Uthmaniyah oil field.
This technology will enable gas to be captured, the pressure level in the reservoir to be maintained, and larger quantities of oil to be extracted. The company is currently considering the possibility of implementing this technique in other oil facilities in the Kingdom.
