Shell sold millions of carbon credits for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that never happened, allowing the company to turn a profit on its fledgling carbon capture and storage project, according to a new report by Greenpeace Canada.

Under an agreement with the Alberta government, Shell was awarded two tonnes’ worth of emissions reduction credits for each tonne of carbon it actually captured and stored underground at its Quest plant, near Edmonton.

This took place between 2015 and 2021 through a subsidy program for carbon, capture, utilisation and storage projects (CCUS), which are championed by the oil and gas sector as a way to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.

At the time, Quest was the only operational CCUS facility in Alberta. The subsidy program ended in 2022.

  • barsoap@lemm.ee
    0·
    6 months ago

    Molten salt reactors have this little problem that they’re digesting themselves. The salt is so aggressive that it eats through the reactor before the building costs amortise. Unless you are a time traveller capable of giving us the material science of 200 years into the future fusion is going to be here first.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
        0·
        6 months ago

        And? Yep, non-radioactive fluoride salt can be somewhat managed with ludicrously expensive materials. The equation is rather different when you add thorium to the equation. Also note that nine years are nowhere near long enough.

        There’s a reason we don’t see those kinds of reactors in the wild: They can’t realistically be built as production-scale power plants. If they did greedy bastards would long-since have invested in the tech and tried to monopolise electricity production with patents and undercutting the competition.

        • n3m37h@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          6 months ago

          You do know that the blankeded reactor only have a 7 year run cycle? Have you seen the costs of a traditional reactor? Ya know with a 9" thick vessel only made in Japan.

          The ONLY reason we don’t have LFTR reactors is because at the time the US was in the middle of a nuclear arms race and you can’t build a bomb that can be hidden (gamma rays) using the decay chain from thorium.

          And it would also risk the capitalistic model y’all love so much.

          If they were able to get a MSR to run for 9 years in the 1960’s we could easily do it now. Stop being a Debbie Downer