Keppel Seghers Pte Ltd, the environmental technology and infrastructure unit of Keppel Infrastructure, and the National Environment Agency (NEA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a joint study on the feasibility of carbon capture (CC) at Singapore’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plants.
This collaboration between Keppel Seghers and NEA reflects Singapore’s continuous efforts in exploring innovative technologies to strengthen its commitments to global sustainable development and climate change efforts. These include the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Agreement, and Singapore’s national plan to achieve net-zero emissions by the middle of the century.
WTE plants play an integral role in meeting Singapore’s solid waste management needs, where incinerable waste is combusted at these plants to reduce the volume of waste for landfilling, and to recover energy for electricity generation. In addition to considerable volume reduction and energy recovery, WTE plants contribute significantly to avoiding methane emissions which would have arisen from direct landfills. To further reduce environmental impact and improve resource recovery, CC technology seeks to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the WTE process for storage and utilisation. This will enable WTE plants to achieve net-zero emissions in their operations, and potentially net negative emissions.
The feasibility study will leverage Keppel Seghers’ experience and expertise in WTE plants and an earlier CC feasibility study that it completed for the Runcorn Energy-from-Waste plant in the United Kingdom. In addition, Keppel Seghers and NEA will collaborate to explore the opportunities for offtake and storage of captured carbon to close the carbon cycle loop. To validate the suitability of CC technologies, the development of a pilot CC facility integrated with selected WTE plants would also be explored.
Cindy Lim, CEO of Keppel Infrastructure, the parent company of Keppel Seghers, says, “As a leading developer, technology solutions provider and operator of energy and environmental infrastructure in Singapore and the region, Keppel Infrastructure is pleased to collaborate with NEA to study the feasibility of carbon capture for selected WTE plants in Singapore as well as the potential development of a pilot carbon capture facility integrated with these plants. The collaboration is in line with Keppel’s Vision 2030, which puts sustainability at the core of the Company’s strategy. It leverages Keppel Seghers’ proprietary WTE know-how and carbon emissions management experience to help Singapore and our customers get to net zero and contributes to the global decarbonisation agenda.”
Luke Goh, CEO of NEA says, “Singapore has adopted a circular economy approach to reducing waste, maximising the reuse of resources and strengthening our resource resilience. Capturing, storing, and utilising or sequestering the carbon from our WTE plants will lead to a reduction in the Singapore waste management sector’s overall carbon footprint. We look forward to working with Keppel Seghers on this joint feasibility study which will advance Singapore’s capabilities and understanding of carbon capture technology.”
