Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an emerging set of technologies designed to address climate change by reducing CO2 emissions. CCS involves collecting CO2 from fossil fuel power plants and industrial processes before transporting and permanently storing it deep underground.
CCS technology also makes it possible for hard-to-decarbonise sectors like cement and steel production to reduce their emissions, helping them meet their Paris Agreement commitments.
What is CCS?
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) refers to an array of technologies designed to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. CCS works by collecting CO2 produced from fossil fuel power stations and industrial processes and transporting it underground for permanent storage.
There are various strategies available for carbon capture and storage (CCS) applications, including post-combustion capture using chemical solvents to separate CO2 from exhaust gases; pre-combustion capture which involves burning fossil fuels with oxygen in order to produce water and CO2, and direct air capture removing carbon directly from the atmosphere. All three approaches can be combined into CCS plants.
CCS has already been implemented on a small-scale in certain industrial applications, such as enhanced oil recovery. But it hasn’t yet made its way onto large-scale electricity generation grids – although research and development continues apace to perfect the technology, while large-scale demonstration projects demonstrate it works at commercially viable levels.
How does CCS work?
This animation starts off with a three dimensional globe featuring golden circles orbiting it and yellow industrial icons representing facilities across continents. As the globe spins and zooms closer in on carbon capture facilities, more information becomes evident.
At this facility, huge fans channel air into machines that use direct air capture (DAC) technology to chemically remove CO2 before it goes out the smokestack – this process allows CO2 to be compressed into liquid form for transportation through pipeline to an underground CCS storage site.
Once at its storage site, CO2 is injected underground in an engineered geological formation capable of permanently trapping it – typically oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers at least 0.62 miles (1km).
Stored CO2 could also be put to good use; labs and companies are working on using it as building materials such as cement and concrete, plastics, fuels, futuristic materials like graphene and greenhouse gases. With government support these efforts can be expedited quickly by providing policy frameworks and funding incentives to promote CCS usage.
What are the benefits of CCS?
CCS technology can play a critical role in slowing climate change by capturing carbon emissions at their source and limiting how much CO2 enters the atmosphere. When implemented in tandem with fossil fuel power plants, CCS can significantly decrease emission levels required to meet global energy targets and limit warming to 1.5 degC or below.
Industrial processes that use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to reduce their carbon intensity include steel or cement production, as well as biological energy with CCS (BECCS). BECCS involves burning biomass such as wood or grasses that capture CO2 during photosynthesis to produce electricity before burning again later for power production.
Multiple large-scale projects have successfully captured and stored CO2, for various reasons ranging from commercial (such as oil and gas producers) or research purposes (to demonstrate technology at larger scales or across industries). Some are testing out new technologies while others build upon operational experience – all contributing towards improving CCS systems’ technical performance.
What are the challenges of CCS?
CO2 capture can be both energy intensive and expensive, yet could help power plants reduce fossil fuel emissions by producing electricity without producing climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions. CCS could become more cost effective with policies providing financial incentives like carbon pricing mechanisms, investment tax credits or regulatory requirements and penalties designed to incentivize emissions reductions.
At present, there are approximately 77 commercial projects dedicated to capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2). Captured gas is transported through pipelines to storage sites where it’s injected into geological formations such as depleted oil or natural gas reservoirs for permanent underground storage.
Though CCS holds great promise, its adoption remains limited due to high costs and technical hurdles. Capturing and compressing CO2 requires considerable energy use which reduces plant efficiency while producing more emissions than equivalent fossil-based plants; furthermore it raises environmental concerns over transporting and storing CO2. Furthermore, some oppose CCS for its role in increasing ultimate recovery of oil, increasing global crude consumption and emissions.