Carbon capture technology

A Tool Against Climate Change

Considering climate change is the worst threat ecosystems, the economy, and human health could face, the U.S. and any other country seek new ways to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon capture and storage technology were some of the most promising developments that can help in this effort. This technology grabs carbon emissions from industrial sources, like power plants and manufacturing, and stores them safely underground, preventing them from entering the atmosphere to enhance global warming.

What is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?

Carbon capture and storage, more famously known as CCS, comprises three main steps:

1. Capture: Most of the CO2 emitted by those power plants, refineries or factories will be captured before emitting into the atmosphere. This is usually done after a series of chemical processes used to strip out the CO2 from other gases.

2. Transportation: After being captured, it is liquidized at pressure and then transported to another place for storage. It may be carried through pipelines, ships, or trucks, depending on the place and its infrastructure.

3. Storage: The injected CO₂ is distributed in deep geological formations, including depleted oil and gas fields or saline aquifers, where it is kept safely stored for tens of thousands of years. Other experimental approaches also encompass mineralization wherein carbon dioxide reacts with minerals to form stable carbonates locked, which are permanently sequestered.

CCS and Climate Change

While renewable energy sources are gaining momentum, fossil fuels are unlikely to disappear from the global energy mix anytime soon. This means that there will still be enormous amounts of CO₂ being emitted from industrial sectors in the near term. CCS technology is a mitigation technology that can abate these emissions profoundly as part of the transition towards a more sustainable energy system. Here are some reasons why CCS has been considered part of the solution in fighting climate change:

1. Decarbonization of Industry: No industrial sectors, such as cement, steel, and chemical production are fully decarbonizable through renewable sources. On the other hand, these could be highly decarbonized through CCS in their industrial processes without hindering efficiency and thus, economic productivity.

2. CCS for emission abatement from power plants: It is true that the entire range of power plants, especially those that run on coal and natural gas, are emitting huge loads of CO₂. In a transition toward a cleaner energy grid, since winds and solar have only begun to play a big role recently, CCS can abate emissions from existing plants.

3. Negative Emissions: In addition to capturing emissions from existing sources, CCS potentially enables **negative emissions**. That is, CO2 is made to be removed from the atmosphere, both by combining carbon capture with bioenergy, or BECCS (in which this form of energy is generated while simultaneously removing CO2 from the atmosphere), and newer technologies that capture carbon directly out of the air. Net zero by 2050 requires such an important interim step as negative emissions.

US Initiatives in Carbon Capture Technology

The United States has made tremendous strides forward in research and implementation of CCS technology. This is being driven by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through engagement with private companies, research institutions, and international bodies in the development and deployment of CCS technologies.

1. Laws and Incentives: US Federal laws are now being incorporated that make more attractive CCS projects to build. There is probably the most important 45Q tax credit in this category. The tax credit is used to capture and store carbon. The tax credit was extended and broadened under recent climate law and was considered to be the largest promoter of CCS in the next few years.

2. Commercial Projects: Most CCS projects are already under construction or in operation at the U.S. scale. Among the largest is the Petra Nova project in Texas, which, when it temporarily shut down because of a leak was the largest carbon capture facility on a coal-fired power plant. Of course, companies like Occidental Petroleum are looking into CCS and direct air capture as part of their efforts to reduce their footprint and the footprint of other sectors.

3. Research and Development: The US has universities and other research organizations that make substantial contributions to the technological advancement of CCS. Its improvement of efficiency and cost-effectiveness in processes of carbon capture, more efficient materials for CO2 storage, new methods of capture-via mineralization and direct air capture and others, are currently pursued.

Challenges Confronting CCS

Despite its promising prospects, CCS has its main challenges for its full-scale deployment:

1. Cost: CCS is still relatively costly compared to other emission reduction technologies such as the transition to alternative sources of energy. However, experts believe that through further innovation and scale-up, costs will come down with time.

2. Infrastructure: CCS requires significant infrastructural investments, especially in transportation pipelines and storage facilities for CO₂. Creating all this infrastructure at the needed scale to achieve an all-out embrace is a tremendous logistical challenge.

3. Energy Demand: The technology of capturing and storing CO2 requires tremendous amounts of energy, which brings along some inefficiency into the whole process. Developing more energy-efficient capture technologies is still at the forefront of research efforts.

4. Public Acceptability: The public also hates the concept of having a CO2 storage facility within their region. Public education and acceptance of CCS, which comprises safety and environmental benefits, can enable it.

Future Carbon Capture Technology

Despite these challenges, the future of CCS looks relatively bright. Carbon capture is increasingly viewed as an essential component supporting efforts at renewable energy and energy efficiency as the world seems to ratchet up efforts at addressing climate change. Many think it could be nearly impossible to achieve the intent of the Paris Agreement, which is to limit global temperature rise to below 2°C, without deployment of these technologies on industrial scales.

Emerging Innovations: As companies and governments commit a rising number of billions to commit toward carbon capture research, a host of new technologies have began to emerge. These include direct air capture systems (DACs) capturing CO2 directly from the atmosphere, which can potentially be used for abatement of legacy emissions that already are in the atmosphere. Many other carbon utilization technologies are finding ways to make captured CO2 useful for concrete, fuels, and plastics, offering economic incentives for carbon capture.

Global Action: Norway, the UK, and Canada are also well ahead of the game with large-scale CCS projects. The U.S. can be a global leader in this action by continuing to push the development of CCS technology with international partners as the world scales up deployment.

Conclusion: CCS as an Essential Component of the Climate Solution

Next to this, so meeting near and midterm challenges of emissions from industrial processes, along with those emitted in power generation, is carbon capture and storage technology. Commercial-scale challenges are cost and infrastructure, as well as enormous energy demands, but promising research, incentives such as the 45Q tax credit, and public-private collaboration, are stimulating advances.

So, while the United States continues to spend more on carbon capture and other climatic solutions, carbon capture could soon or later fill an important role in this global battle against climate change to guide the country through its promised targets of emission reduction and make the world a safer place for generations to come.