What Is Carbon Capture Technology? Quick Read

Reducing carbon emissions using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) could be crucial in the fight against global warming. It entails transferring and burying the carbon dioxide that is produced by power plants and other industrial operations, like those that make steel or cement. Here, we examine What Is Carbon Capture Technology?

What Is Carbon Capture Technology?

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial operations, such as the manufacture of steel and cement or from the burning of fossil fuels in the creation of electricity, are captured using CCS. Then, after being shipped or piped from the production site, this carbon is taken to be buried deep underground in geological formations.

Technology For Carbon Capture & Storage Is Technically Feasible

CCS is theoretically feasible at the most significant, stationary CO2 point sources, according to the use of technologies in other contexts. CO2 separation technology is already used in natural gas processing (NGP), where removing CO2 from natural gas is necessary to increase its heating value and meet pipeline requirements.

In Salah gas fields in Algeria and the Sleipner gas field in Norway, CO2 storage in conjunction with NGP has been successfully proven. Around the world, there are numerous CCS facilities planned. The Quest CCS Project in Alberta, Canada, is under the industrial category and entails transporting and storing 1.2 MtCO2 annually from an oil sands upgrade. In 2016, the project was anticipated to be operational.

The Kemper County IGCC Project is a newly constructed 600 MW integrated gasification combined cycle power plant in Mississippi that aims to capture 3.5 MtCO2 annually and use it for enhanced oil recovery.

This project is currently being built and should be finished by 2014. The Global CCS Institute lists 12 CCS projects that are active at the moment, with 8 more under construction (Global CCS Institute, 2013).

Regulatory Uncertainty And Public Perception Of Carbon Capture And Storage Technology

Any new technology with dangers must first navigate an uncertain regulatory landscape. These obstacles are now being removed for CCS. International laws, such as the OSPAR Convention (Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic) and the London Protocol (1972 and 1996 Protocol to the Convention on the Protection of Marine Pollution by the Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter), have recently been altered to account for the offshore storage of CO2.

However, there are still a few unanswered legal challenges about the obligation for monitoring, storage, and transboundary CO2 transportation. Given the level of risk involved for project developers, a lack of regulatory frameworks may impede the development of CCS initiatives. Legal frameworks for CCS have been implemented in the EU, Canada, and Australia; discussions about it are still underway in the US.

Environmental NGOs have a split opinion on CCS; some favor the technology, while others are against it. Social scientists have noted that the ordinary populace lacks knowledge and comprehension. Local stakeholders have expressed worry about the risks of CCS and, in some circumstances; have protested in several areas where CO2 storage facilities were planned.

Public perception of CCS is now seen as a significant impediment if CCS demonstration programs are not accompanied by balanced information dissemination and community participation approaches.

Environmental Impact And Risks Of Carbon Capture And Storage Technology

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can significantly lower CO2 emissions from industrial installations and power plants. CCS’s greatest threat is the potential for temporary or permanent leaks from storage facilities and pipeline networks.

Although CO2 is not a poisonous gas, it can cause asphyxiation if the airborne concentration rises to an unsafe level, as might happen if a leak occurs inside a closed structure. Although CO2 is not combustible, the dangers of CO2 escaping from a pipeline are the same as those associated with transferring other gases, such as natural gas.

Regulatory frameworks and standards govern the transportation and long-term storage of CO2 that many nations have set to ensure that both human and environmental safety is not jeopardized.

Due to the energy cost of operating the capture unit and the toxicological effects of using solvents to trap the CO2 chemically, CCS hurts the environment due to increased demand for fossil fuels (Zapp et al., 2012). With CCS, there is a trade-off between the high potential for CO2 reduction and the moderate environmental effects of lower energy efficiency and CO2 capture’s environmental effects.

Status Of The Carbon Capture And Storage & Technology And Its Future Market Potential

There are now just four large-scale CCS projects, all in the industrial sector and not the energy production. Along with Weyburn, which uses CO2 from a coal gasification plant in the United States, Statoil, a Norwegian oil company, has been injecting roughly a million tonnes of CO2, separated from natural gas, annually into deep saline formation beneath the North Sea since 1996. Since 2008, Snohvit, also in Norway, has been using similar technology.

At In Salah in Algeria, a partnership between BP, Statoil, and Sonatrach has begun injecting CO2, also using CO2 from gas production. Pre-combustion capture-like technology is employed in manufacturing fertilizer and hydrogen, where the CO2 caught is either vented or utilized in other industrial processes.

A European electrical firm called Vattenfall is now testing oxy-fuel combustion technology for power generation in Germany. This technology is still in the demonstration stage. With contemporary basin-wide potentials estimated between 8,000 GT and 15,000 Gt, the global capacity to geologically store CO2 is substantial (IEA, 2008b).

However, knowledge of storage potentials differs on a global, regional, and local level (IPCC, 2005). The most recent storage capacity estimates come from Europe, North America, Japan, and Australia. The estimated global storage capacity of depleted oil and gas reservoirs is between 675 and 900 GtCO2.

This storage option appears appropriate due to the knowledge of such places and the opportunity to reuse existing infrastructure from oil and gas extraction activities (IPCC, 2005). Deep saline formations are considered to be present in many of the world’s sedimentary basins and have a storage capacity of at least 1000 GtCO2.

It has been emphasized that additional data on storage capacity are needed in regions where energy use is growing more quickly, such as China, India, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Southern Africa (IPCC, 2005).

Financial Requirements And Costs Of Carbon Capture And Storage Technology

The vast majority of CCS applications are currently not commercially viable. A coal-fired power plant’s fuel requirements rise by 25 and 40 percent due to the additional equipment needed to capture and compress CO2, which also consumes a lot of energy and raises expenses (IPCC, 2005).

In the electricity industry, CCS demonstration projects are anticipated to cost $90-130/tCO2, potentially falling to $50-75/tCO2 for full-scale commercial activity from 2020. (Mckinsey & Company, 2008). These costs estimate an emissions reduction of between 80% and 90% compared to a conventional plant because they account for the energy penalty of CO2 capture but not the upstream emissions.

The potential and expenses of CCS in the industrial sector have recently received attention (UNIDO/IEA, 2011; ZEP, 2013). The sole technology that can further cut emissions is CO2 capture, which is used in many industrial processes such as primary steel manufacture, cement production, and oil refining.

These processes are already running at the limits of their energy efficiency. Applications for CCS in business have very different costs. However, some are considerably less expensive than those in the power sector.

The IEA (2008a) estimated that excluding CCS from the global mitigation portfolio would raise the cost of attaining climate stabilization by 70%, even though CCS applications will increase the costs of energy generation and industrial production. From the perspective of long-term economic efficiency, the inclusion of CCS in the mitigation portfolio can be justified based on this evidence.

To Conclude

Carbon absorption and storage, or CCS, is the main method of cutting CO2 emissions from major industrial sources. Various approaches are being looked into to attempt and reduce overall CO2 emissions. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured at the point of emission, transported, and then either stored or buried in a suitable deep underground location as part of CCS. CCS can also refer to the direct or indirect removal of CO2 from the atmosphere.

In 2010, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels amounted to 32 Gigatonnes. These emissions are produced by fixed emission sources like power plants, cement plants, refineries, and industrial activities. The previous 40 years have created almost 50% of all anthropogenic (human-made) CO2 emissions between 1750 and 2010. I hope you get all your required information related to What Is Carbon Capture Technology?

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