Japanese utility Chugoku Electric Power is to partner on its carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy with trading house Mitsui that has a planned project offshore Malaysia.
Chugoku signed an initial agreement with Mitsui on 19 February to jointly study building a CCS value chain, by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from Chugoku's coal-fired power plants and transporting liquefied CO2 to storage sites offshore Malaysia.
Chugoku is planning to launch floating offshore temporary storage facilities before handing over the CO2 to a shipping firm. The capacity of the floating facilities is unclear but the company is expecting to export a few hundred thousand t/yr of CO2. Chugoku aims to halve its CO2 emissions by the April 2030-March 2031 fiscal year against 2013-14 levels before achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Mitsui is currently developing a CCS project offshore Malaysia with Malaysia's state-owned Petronas through its subsidiary Petronas CCS Solutions and France-based oil major TotalEnergies. They are aiming to start storing CO2 by around 2030, with its relatively early start-up attracting Chugoku to become a partner with Mitsui. The Malaysia CCS project is backed by Japan's state-owned energy agency Jogmec.
Japan has been looking to Malaysia as a destination for CO2 exports and storage because of its limited domestic storage sites. Japan's trade and industry ministry and Jogmec have signed an initial agreement with Petronas to begin discussing a regulatory and general framework on CO2 exports from Japan and storage in Malaysia.
