Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology works alongside natural carbon sinks by extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and permanently storing them underground. CCS technology can be implemented both at fossil fuel power plants as well as industrial processes.
CO2 gas can be injected into porous geologic formations, such as depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs or saline aquifers, for enhanced oil recovery purposes and mineralizing basalt rocks. It may also be used in enhanced oil recovery processes and mineralizing basalt rock.
Natural Carbon Sinks
Earth’s natural carbon sinks – oceans and forests – help absorb some of the carbon emissions produced by burning fossil fuels, but we must ensure these natural structures receive protection. Deforestation reduces their capacity to soak up emissions.
The oceans are Earth’s greatest carbon sink, absorbing about half of all CO2 we emit into the atmosphere. This is due to their role as oxygen producers while taking up carbon via biological processes like photosynthesis carried out by plankton, coral reefs, fish and algae that feed off it.
Forests serve as important carbon sinks, absorbing and storing CO2 through photosynthesis. Unfortunately, deforestation for agricultural purposes reduces tree numbers and their capacity to sequester carbon; additionally, soil decomposition stores organic matter in an environment. All of these factors combined contribute to climate change reducing their effectiveness as carbon sinks; however their functionality can be supplemented through new technologies and techniques.
Power Plants
Power plants are one of the main contributors of carbon emissions in the US, but most utilities that control them have yet to adopt carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Instead, they are opting to switch over to natural gas. Southern Company oversees the multimillion-dollar Kemper project in Mississippi that gasified coal and captured CO2, but later dropped plans for CCS so it can operate solely on natural gas.
Post-combustion capture uses chemical solvents to isolate carbon dioxide from flue gas produced during fossil fuel combustion, making it ideal for retrofitting existing coal-powered plants. Oxyfuel capture, on the other hand, requires burning fossil fuel in pure oxygen rather than air – leaving an exhaust gas full of CO2, ready for capture.
Once CO2 has been collected, it can either be permanently stored underground in specific geological formations, or processed into products like synthetic fuel and concrete. To accelerate these technologies, increased R&D funding must be made available so as to maximize cost reductions and efficiency enhancements.
Oil & Gas
Oil and Gas Companies operate globally to extract hydrocarbon resources from beneath Earth’s surface and turn them into fuel for vehicles, heating homes and electricity production. Their activities play a pivotal role in global economies as a source of global energy supply.
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) involves collecting CO2 from large sources like power plants or industrial facilities using fossil fuels or biomass as energy, before either utilising it on-site or injecting it deep geologic formations like saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs for future storage.
CCUS can also be combined with other technologies to reduce CO2 emissions. Some promising techniques include BECCS – adding CCS onto power plants that use biomass – and direct air capture and storage (DACS), which captures carbon directly from the atmosphere. While these technological solutions remain underdeveloped, they could provide the world with energy while significantly decreasing carbon emissions.
Transportation
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) employs various technologies to isolate CO2 from other gases emitted by an emissions source such as a power plant or industrial facility, before either permanently storing it underground or using it to make concrete and other products like chemicals. Climate models indicate that meeting international emissions reduction goals may require collecting and storing billions of tons of CO2 each year – CCS could play a pivotal role here!
Captured carbon dioxide can be transported via pipelines, ships or tanker trucks – usually with pipelining being the least costly option for large volumes. Prior to being compressed for shipping purposes, CO2 must first reach supercritical state – whereby its density equals that of liquid but its viscosity equals that of gas.
Two CCS projects are now operating commercially; both use amine scrubbing to capture emissions from fossil-fueled power plants and inject them into an oilfield for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Other facilities exist that store CO2 geologically.