Carbon Capture Is a No-Brainer Solution for Companies Facing Net-Zero Policy Goals

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July 7, 2021

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by Ian Palmer (Biofuels Digest) … Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an escape hatch, or an offset, to be used if there are “leftover” GHG emissions. If a country is on a pathway to reduce GHG to zero by a certain date, but leftover GHG are still being emitted at that date, an amount equal to the GHG leftover can be buried using CCS. The concept is called “net-zero”.

What is carbon capture and storage?

Carbon capture and storage means collecting GHG (usually CO2, the dominant component) and burying it deep underground. “Bury” means to inject CO2 down a well where it’s contained by a non-leaking rock layer, and eventually merges chemically with the rock. The rock layer can be a depleted oilfield or a saline aquifer.

The process, called EOR for enhanced oil recovery, has been used by the oil and gas industry in the US for decades. CO2 is injected at one well to soften up the residual oil that is then produced from a second well along with some of the CO2.

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Second, bp have predicted in their “Rapid” scenario that oil and gas will still be 36% of total global primary energy by 2050. CCS projects will be needed to offset the CO2 that comes from burning this 36%.

Third, CCS will also be needed for heavy industries that are difficult to decarbonize, such as cement and steel-making plants that produce significant CO2. One reason Microsoft, Apple and Amazon are looking at CCS technology is to offset the emissions of all the products associated with their businesses – concrete, steel, and paper.

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But new pipelines to transport GHG would have to be built or old gas pipelines retrofitted. While 45Q tax credits from the US government exist and will help — $50/ton of CO2 injected by CCS, or $35/ton if it’s used for EOR — cost remains a question and carbon-pricing would probably have to be mandated.

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The advantage of BECCS is the capture of CO2 by living plants is much easier than pulling it out of the air, as in the process called direct-air-capture.

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The only large-scale BECCS facility in the US is the Illinois Industrial CCS plant in Decatur, which received large amounts of DOE funding. The plant produces ethanol from corn and collects CO2 as part of the fermentation process. The CO2 is stored in a saline aquifer 7,000 ft beneath the facility. The facility stores about 0.5 Mt/year of CO2, less than the projected 1 Mt/year. READ MORE

Confronting the Myth of Carbon-Free Fossil Fuels: Why Carbon Capture Is Not a Climate Solution (Center for International Environmental Law) PDF

These companies are sucking carbon out of the atmosphere — and investors are piling in (CNBC)

How a debate over carbon capture derailed California’s landmark climate bill (Grist)

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