By: Sustainability Fellow Katie Koenig
With atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rising, and the impacts of climate change already affecting populations around the world, there is a greater need not only to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions but also to actually remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. We have to go beyond reducing emissions in order to meet global climate change mitigation goals at this point2.
Recent innovations in carbon capture technology makes it cheaper and easier to do so in energy infrastructure. International organizations are working on global decarbonization, specifically using carbon capture technology to reduce CO2 emissions in industries where it’s difficult to do so any other way, and to remove CO2 already in the atmosphere. These new innovations allow for a diversification of energy supplies for greater energy security, and smooths the switch away from fossil fuels.2
Although it seems like a topic completely divorced from our day to day lives, there are still ways to get involved and push for carbon capture innovation. Beyond political and social activism, volunteer opportunities to restore local ecosystems are plentiful. Even with changes on larger social and industrial levels, there are aspects that are often overlooked but sized down to be specific to local communities.
Carbon Capture from Power Plants
Carbon capture strategies have diversified in recent years, both in removing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing emissions in the energy sector before they reach the atmosphere. A lot of innovation focuses on removing carbon emissions at power plants that support entire cities and energy grids.
There are three main ways to reduce carbon emissions from energy production. The first is post-combustion capture. This process captures CO2, along with other pollutants, from the exhaust after the combustion process at traditional power plants. It is the most technologically mature CO2 separation technique, although it still has high costs to implement. New solvents to separate CO2 from exhaust, the standardization of capture units, and large-scale deployment of this technology would all result in lessened costs for this technology3.
The second strategy is pre-combustion capture, processing fuel with steam or oxygen to turn it into a gas mixture consisting of hydrogen and CO2 before burning just the hydrogen for fuel, resulting in only water as a byproduct2. Further research focuses on a more efficient system to separate the hydrogen and CO23. The U.S. Department of Energy is supporting research to increase efficiency and therefore reduce costs associated with this technology.
The third strategy, oxy-fuel combustion capture, uses pure oxygen instead of air to combust fuel, resulting in a flue gas composed of CO2 and water vapor. The process then separates CO2 before it enters the atmosphere2. Current research works on improving the efficiency of air capture units and other oxygen production units3.
Captured carbon is compressed into a liquid and often stored deep in appropriate geological foundations. It can also be used for further commercial production in the gas and oil industries to more efficiently extract resources, but the climate impacts of using CO2 in this way is still very unclear.2
These strategies capture 90% of CO2 on average and offer the advantage of being added to existing energy infrastructure, but there are currently only two power plants in North America that implement carbon capture. Boundary Dam Carbon Capture project and the Petra Nova Carbon Capture project are these plants, located in Saskatchewan, Canada and Texas, U.S. There are more in development, although they aren’t currently operating. Still, the time it takes to establish combustion carbon capture technology and the continued reliance on combustion fuels presents obvious negative consequences to using this as a major strategy rather than an assistance while transitioning to more eco-friendly energy sources.
Policies
Major leading organizations across the world pushing for change on greenhouse gasses are the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). All of these organizations conduct research and analysis on carbon capture.
The IEA and IRENA work closely together to collect information for a joint database on renewable energy policies for more accurate analysis on different carbon sequestration projects and strategies, renewable energy solutions, strategies, costs, technological innovation, and more. This database allows you to search by topic or region, and looking into more details brings you to comprehensive pages detailing current policies organized by region across the world and forecasts for the next couple decades. They release yearly world energy analyses, and the 2022 release included analysis of the expected effect of the Ukraine crisis.
The IPCC is a UN panel that deals mostly with science related to climate change rather than politics. Their assessments of technologies and environments—including the effects of different carbon sequestration projects—written by leading scientists from around the world, provides a basis for UN members to develop policies and strategies to reach carbon neutrality goals. They provide analyses of current climate preservation efforts, predictions for the future, and risks associated with different long- and short-term strategies.
The BNEF organizes summits across the globe to give lectures and suggestions for climate strategies, similar to the IPCC, except focused on providing information to companies in a variety of industries influencing the climate.
Learn More
PBS has a video called “How Carbon Capture Works” that goes into the basics of carbon capture after it’s been released into the atmosphere, not just within power plants during combustion energy, and the difficulties of storing carbon without leakage. The Financial Times, a British-based news organization, has a short documentary called “Carbon capture: the hopes, challenges and controversies” detailing the most common criticisms of carbon capture technology and highlights its best function as a measure to bridge the gap between the amount the world needs reduce carbon emissions and what we are realistically going to achieve.
Resources