Santos: Moomba CCS and zero-emission hydrogen

Overview

In 2021 Santos has continued to progress its globally significant Moomba CCS project which has now completed all technical and commercial milestones. Following finalisation of the methodology for CCS by the Federal Government in October, Santos is seeking to have the project registered with the Emissions Reduction Fund to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Once the project has been registered, Santos will then be in a position to make a Final Investment Decision.

Problem Being Solved

The capture and storage of CO2 and generation of zero-emission hydrogen

Solution

CCS is recognised as a safe, well-established solution for permanent, large-scale emissions reduction and clean hydrogen production, the keys to economy-wide decarbonisation. The lowest-cost and most common way to produce hydrogen today is by splitting natural gas molecules (carbon and hydrogen). When used in conjunction with CCS, the hydrogen produced can be carbon neutral and also eliminates scope 3 emissions.

Outcomes

The front-end engineering design is complete for the capture, compression, dehydration (removing any water) and storage of CO2 from the Moomba plant. Appropriate policy settings will accelerate further CCS deployment in the Cooper Basin, which has the capacity to store up to 20 million tonnes of CO2 per annum and become a large-scale, commercial CCS hub. The Cooper Basin will be able to offset emissions not only from oil and gas, but from other industries such as power generation, steel, cement and chemicals and enable clean hydrogen production at significantly lower cost than produced via electrolysis.