Carbon Capture

 While the world struggles with worsening climate change impacts, new tools and approaches are being developed to reduce its harm. Carbon capture, a technology that captures and stores carbon dioxide produced by industrial sources such as power stations and factories, is a key approach for helping to build climate resilience and a green future. What is carbon capture, what are its advantages the disadvantages, and how can it help build climate resilience? These are some of the questions we are going to answer in this article. Understanding Carbon Capture Carbon capture involves capturing carbon dioxide from industrial operations and power generation before releasing it into the atmosphere. This process, called Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), stores the carbon dioxide underground in geological formations or uses it for other purposes to prevent it from contributing to climate change. There are three primary stages in the carbon capture process: The Benefits of Carbon Capture Carbon capture holds several key benefits for climate resilience and sustainability: Challenges and Considerations  However, despite some encouraging news, carbon capture poses significant challenges that must be overcome to realize its potential:  Carbon Capture in Action: Case Studies  There is a select number of carbon capture projects being rolled out and operationalized across the globe. Some are poised to be larger-scale endeavors. All represent the value that the technology holds, and all indicate the shape that larger-scale carbon capture could take:  Sleipner Project (Norway):  Begun in 1996 as one of the world’s first commercial-scale carbon capture operations, the Sleipner Project captures and stores CO2 produced through natural gas extraction in the North Sea. Annual capture and injection capacities stand at approximately 0.9 million tonnes.  Boundary Dam (Canada):  The Boundary Dam project in Saskatchewan is one of the world’s first scaled power plant retrofits of carbon capture at a coal-fired plant. It captures 1 million tonnes of CO2 per annum, which in turn makes coal power less polluting.  Petra Nova (USA):  This megaproject in Texas is one of the largest post-combustion carbon capture facilities in the world, which captures CO2 from a coal-fired power plant and recovers.  Gorgon Project (Australia):  Photo supplied by CEMIEpaz. A large-scale carbon capture and storage project, linked with a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. It captures and stores up to 4 million tonnes of CO2  annually, reducing emissions. The Future of Carbon Capture and Climate Resilience  Now, under the new administration in the United States, with the threats of climate impact quickly mounting, the prospect of carbon capture might be even more critical to building climate resilience and securing broader sustainability goals of the transition off fossil fuels. The dirty little secret of carbon capture will likely become more of a necessity in our clean energy future. Key areas for future development include:  Technological advances:  Technological progress will strive to improve the efficiency and lower the costs of carbon capture technologies. Advanced solvents, membrane technologies, and direct air capture, for example, are areas of active investigation.  Policy support:  Governments and policymakers can play a vital role in fostering the development and deployment of carbon capture technologies. Specifically, they can achieve this through incentives, regulations, and, furthermore, by funding these activities.  Integration with Other Strategies: Carbon capture must integrate with other strategies to mitigate climate change, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, and changes to consumption patterns. A multifaceted problem requires a multifaceted solution.   Public engagement:  Developing a public-trust relationship and understanding of the nature and use of carbon capture technologies. It’s not some evil force or withholding of technology, but instead, everyone’s best hope for the future. Patience and positive communication, education, and community involvement are fundamental.  Countrywide considerations: Climate change is a global issue that requires global collaboration. Therefore, nations must share sufficient information with one another and, in doing so, work collaboratively with both industry and the research community. This approach will help to exploit carbon capture technologies and reach a consensus on global climate goals. What are the long-term environmental benefits of CCS?? The long-term environmental benefits of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) are significant and multifaceted:  Atmospheric CO2 reduction:  By capturing CO2 emissions from large industrial sources before they enter the atmosphere, CCS effectively reduces atmospheric CO2 concentrations. As a result, this is a key strategy in addressing climate change and, ultimately, essential for meeting global climate targets and avoiding the most serious climate impacts.  Continuing Fossil Fuel Usage: Allowing the continued use of fossil fuels while capturing emissions enables existing industries to operate more sustainably as the world transitions to renewables. This approach maintains energy security and reduces carbon footprints.  Improved Ecosystem Protection:  Lowering CO2 concentrations using CCS helps protect ecosystems from the adverse effects of climate change. As a result, this can support biodiversity and improve air quality, ultimately leading to healthier environments for both humans and wildlife.  Facilitation of Carbon Utilization:  Captured CO2 can, in turn, help produce synthetic fuels and chemicals, thereby reducing fossil fuel use and, consequently, driving the development of a circular economy.  Economic stability:  CCS implementation can promote job creation and economic growth in carbon management technologies, leading to an economically more sustainable economy.   In short, CCS is a key part of a successful climate mitigation strategy, providing long-term environmental benefits and helping to maintain economic and energy stability.   Carbon capture can help us mitigate climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, helping us increase climate resilience. While there are many challenges we need to overcome to make carbon capture technologies viable and widespread, we must continue to research and deploy this technology so that we can build a more sustainable world. By tackling the challenges posed by carbon capture and utilization – the technical, economic, and social aspects of capture – we can build a better future with fewer greenhouse gas emissions and more climate resilience.

 As climate change accelerates, bringing us closer to what the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called a code red for humanity, the need for efficient carbon capture technologies is more urgent than ever. But carbon capture and storage (CCS) innovations could nonetheless help us cut down the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) being pumped into the atmosphere, to mitigate runaway global heating. This Carbon Capture Innovations guide outlines the 10 most promising carbon capture innovations you should be familiar with. 1. Direct Air Capture  It’s the idea that instead of capturing carbon only where it’s emitted from smokestacks or flues, giant machines could be built that would pull CO2 directly out of the air, wherever and whenever… Direct Air Capture, in contrast to most historical carbon capture that focuses on emissions at point sources, targets CO2 in the atmosphere regardless of source. In general, DAC systems transform air via a set of large fans pulling air over chemical solutions or solid sorbents that capture CO2. The captured CO2 can then be buried or sold and used for a range of applications, including the generation of synthetic fuels. 2. Carbon Capture from Industrial Processes A significant portion of industrial CO2 emissions comes from processes like cement and steel production. To address this, innovations in carbon capture focus on capturing emissions before they reach the atmosphere. This includes improving and reducing the cost of technologies such as amine scrubbing and membrane separation. An example is Carbon Clean Solutions’ industrial carbon capture system, designed to capture CO2 emissions from cement plants and other heavy industries. These examples can not only capture the CO2 but at the same time improve the overall energy efficiency of the industrial process, representing a win-win for both the environment and the industry. 3. Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)  Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) is a technology that works through the coupling of biomass energy production with carbon capture and storage. BECCS involves growing biomass (eg, crops or trees) and using this to generate energy, but then capturing the CO2 emitted through combustion and storing this CO2 subsurface, thus removing CO2 from the atmosphere.  BECCS could be a powerful means to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere – in addition to providing renewable energy. Drax Group is leading the BECCS revolution by implementing the technology at its power plants, capturing more CO2 from the atmosphere than it releases to produce negative emissions. 4. Ocean-Based Carbon Capture Oceans absorb much of Earth’s CO2, and ocean-based carbon capture technologies aim to speed up this process, enabling the oceans to store more CO2. Approaches include ocean fertilization, which adds nutrients to boost phytoplankton growth, and ocean alkalinization, which adds alkaline substances to the upper water column to enhance CO2 absorption. 5. Enhanced Weathering  Enhanced weathering refers to the idea of speeding up the natural process of mineral weathering to capture CO2 by spreading fine ground-up minerals (eg, basalt) over large areas of land. Released CO2 in the atmosphere reacts with the minerals to create more stable carbonates. 6. Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU)  This approach of removing CO2 and using it to produce something has been dubbed carbon capture and utilization (CCU). In theory, CCU could achieve a dual goal of mitigating climate change by removing CO2 from the atmosphere and generating economic value from captured carbon.  Additionally, innovative CCU technologies with the potential to convert CO2 into synthetic fuels, such as methanol and ethanol, could serve as alternative fuels to fossil fuels.  7. Solid Sorbent Technologies  Solid sorbent technologies capture CO2 from either flue gases or directly from the atmosphere using materials that adsorb CO2 on their surface. When a sorbent reaches its capacity to capture CO2, outgassing can liberate the CO2 into a stream for storage or use.  Designers and researchers are working on high-capacity, superfast, solid sorbent materials using nano-based adsorbents and kaolinized solvents. New inventions promise to increase the scope and efficiency of solid sorbent technologies, and researchers are working on cost-effective models and innovations that may make solid sorbents a viable avenue for large-scale carbon capture applications. 8. Mineral Carbonation  Mineral carbonation is akin to natural weathering, in which CO2 reacts with naturally occurring minerals to form solid carbonates, by injecting CO2 into environments consisting of mineral matter to react with olivine or serpentine to form solid carbonate compounds. If companies like Carbon Clean Solutions in the UK and the CarbFix project’s lead-carbonation tests succeed, trapping CO2 in Icelandic basalt instead of the Pacific, mineral carbonation could effectively sequester CO2 for centuries in a physically and geologically stable manner. It could even end with useful side products. 9. Membrane Separation Technologies  Membrane separation technologies rely on membranes that vary their permeability to CO2 to increase their separation from other gas streams in industrial emissions. This allows CO2 to pass through while blocking other gases so that they can be captured and concentrated for use or storage.  Membrane separation has seen various modifications, from advanced membrane materials to improved membrane design to induced-gravitation effects, to increase separation efficiency and prevent fouling while keeping costs low. Some firms, such as Membrane Technology and Research, are leading the advancement of this technology into practical large-scale CCS applications. 10. Carbon Capture from Biomass Gasification Biomass gasification converts organic waste, such as agricultural refuse or wood chips, into gases, primarily a carbon-dioxide mix. When paired with carbon capture, this process creates a low-carbon energy source while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What are the benefits of using fluorinated solvents for CO2 capture??  Fluorinated solvents provide some advantages compared with traditional carbon-capture solvents in an advanced and efficient CO2 removal process:  Environmental Compatibility Chemical Stability Efficiency and Performance  These properties have also made fluorinated solvents a strong candidate for innovation in carbon capture technologies, which we desperately need to address the next big challenge to our climate. What are the potential cost implications of using fluorinated solvents for CO2 capture? Using fluorinated solvents for CO2 capture presents several potential