Carbon Capture and Storage
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a collection of technologies that involve trapping CO2 emitted from industrial facilities before it is expulsed into the atmosphere. In CCS, CO2 is compressed and transported to a suitable storage site via pipeline or ship, or a combination of both, where it is injected into underground geological formations. Current technologies are evolving and are claimed to be an option to prevent direct CO2 emissions in production processes where fossil fuels are still used. Up to date, a liquid mixture of varied chemicals is used to chemically remove CO2 from big industrial plants. Other options for carbon capture include bioenergy, due to the capacity of biomass to sequester carbon that can be then burned to produce energy in processes that capture and store CO2 emissions.
Stage of Life Cycle
Recycling / Recirculation / Reuse
GHG Reduction Potential
Available techniques enable a reduction of the CO2 emissions of 90 % and more. Although the technology works, CCS is not used very much. Assuming that multiple other countries worldwide will adopt funding incentives to get projects built at a similar level to the last decade by US DoE, we extrapolate this historic exponential trend of CO2 storage into the future and predict that yearly storage will be only 700 Mt CO2 by 2050.
Solution Maturity Status
Well Established:
This technology has been operating for a number of years and is well-known/ successful in its industry or market.