"You need to use some kind of chemical to grab that CO2 from everything else," said Julia Attwood, head of sustainable materials at clean energy research firm BloombergNEF. Some bioethanol plants, where the gas stream is pure, already report capturing more than 95% of the carbon emissions.īut when it comes to capturing carbon from dirtier gas streams, like those from factories and power plants, CCS projects have repeatedly overpromised and underdelivered. Still, she said, "I agree with people that say we can probably get away with mainly renewables." How well does CCS work?įor decades, engineers have captured carbon from concentrated streams of gas - pushing it into tanks, scrubbing it clean and using it in industry or storing it underground. In theory, it could play a role in gas plants as a back-up when the sun doesn't shine and wind doesn't blow - particularly in countries that are still building fossil fuel plants today - but it would have to quickly grow cheaper and more effective.Ĭlimate models show a role for some oil and gas outside the rich world, said Margriet Kuijper, a former engineer with oil giant Shell who works as a consultant for environmental groups. Most of their skepticism goes to capturing carbon when making electricity, because there are already cheaper alternatives that work better, like wind turbines and solar panels. Scientists see a bigger role for carbon capture in heavy industry than in making electricity or cooling the planet by drawing CO2 out of the air Image: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP They are split on whether it makes sense to use it to make steel and hydrogen, which have some greener alternatives. Scientists see a big role for CCS in factories that make cement and fertilizer, as well as in plants that burn rubbish. In its latest review of scientific research, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC) found both options will be needed for emissions that are hard to wipe out. For chemical processes that release carbon dioxide, there are few alternatives to capturing CO2 straight away or sucking it out of the air later. The key difference is that CDR brings down the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, cooling the planet, while CCS in fossil fuel plants and factories prevents the gas from getting out in the first place. It is different to carbon dioxide removal (CDR) - where carbon is sucked out of the atmosphere - although some of the technologies overlap. "Some applications can be just a fig leaf for keeping fossil fuel business models alive." Capturing carbon from waste incinerators could be particularly helpful for cities trying to reach net-zero emissions this decade Image: Ida Guldbaek Arentsen/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP What is carbon capture and storage?Ĭarbon capture and storage (CCS) is a way to catch carbon and trap it beneath the earth. There are cases where capturing carbon makes a lot of sense - but we also need to push all the options to avoid CO2 in the first place, said Georg Kobiela, an expert in cleaning up industry at the environmental nonprofit Germanwatch. A key tool to stop climate change is costly and has for decades not worked as well as fossil fuel companies said it would.Įxperts say carbon capture and storage - a way to grab a planet-heating gas and lock it underground - is sorely needed to cut pollution in sectors where other clean technologies are farther behind.
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