Carbon capture and storage: promising solutions for the “Net Zero”
The growth of energy demand worldwide has compelled society and public agents to seek mechanisms that reduce carbon dioxide eviction into the atmosphere since it is the leading cause of anthropogenic climate change. By 2050, the global energy demand should duplicate. Concomitantly, one expects that the energy production of fossil origin gradually decays until a carbonic neutrality scenario, the Net Zero, is achieved.
Coal is one of the main villains of global warming. Even so, some countries rely on it for the resumption of the productive chain, especially in the post-pandemic, may be distant from the commitment of carbon monority. During the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP-26), which takes place this year in Glasgow, Scotland, China, United States, and India, for example, have expressed mild concerns to have a global treaty of carbon elimination.
While the world treks towards a sustainable energy chain, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is currently one of the most promising technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions and, consequently, the greenhouse effect. Such a technique began to circulate in the literature in the 1970s but intensified nearly 20 years later. Its basic principle is to capture co₂ generated by industrial fuel burning, transport it to a suitable location, and inject it into deep geological formations for permanent storage without exhaust to the atmosphere. The 6th analysis report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has considered CCS indispensable for reaching international goals, such as the maintenance of future global warming within the margin of 2 °C.
The injection of co₂ in the subsurface has been implemented primarily by the oil and gas sector since the mid-1990s. However, there are open challenges for CCS to become a commercially viable technology. The storage compartment requires careful assessment. In general, reasonable geological formations are depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs, coal deposits free of extraction activity, and aquifers with extensive long-term storage and safety capacity. The map below presents significant CCS projects scattered around the world that store hundreds of thousands of tons of co₂ per year.
There are numerous sites of carbon dioxide emissions that could adopt CCS technology and reduce their billion tons per year emission. The impact of CCS technologies on carbon neutrality is a research target of TRIL Lab.
Author: José Wilker Silva, professor at State University of Paraíba and Ph.D. student at TRIL Lab.
Reviewer: Gustavo Oliveira
Cover image credits: The Sleipner field in the North Sea, by Harald Pettersen / Equinor ASA. Link: https://bit.ly/3o3mKjx.
License: Creative Commons CC BY SA.