Keeping it grounded – Importance of Carbon Capture Storage

What is Carbon Capture Storage? And, why should we care? 

Last year, a host of nations met in France for the much reported and followed, Paris Climate Accord and deep-dived into global emissions reaching alarming levels. Meeting was as much about the corrective actions that can be taken to contain the damage already done to the climate as it was about preventive measures to leave a breathing planet to future generations.

The agreement outlined a stronger and robust framework for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. But what is it? Why is it so important to talk about it right now? And what is the world doing about it?

Let’s first present a laypersons’ understanding of CCS

Simply put, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is not letting waste carbon dioxide escape into the atmosphere, being transported to an entirely new location and then being embedded deep in a geological formation. The aim is to cut the greenhouse effect has on the climate but not letting it escape it into the atmosphere. Sounds quite heavy-duty, right? If the Paris Agreement is a yardstick to go by, then it is! Participating countries agreed that more aggressive collaboration was needed to ensure a temperature drop target of below 2 degrees Celsius from the current target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. And CCS is slated to play a pivotal role in achieving this target.

Back in ’96, Sleipner Project in Norway began to inject separated from natural gas and started injecting it in sandstone formations about 1000 mts. under the sea. Thanks to this project, nearly 17 million tons of has been safely tucked away, which would have been otherwise released in the atmosphere. Other projects that have significantly contributed towards carbon capture and storage are Weyburn- Midale  Project in 2000, SaskPower Boundary Damn, etc.

What technology advances have been made to better CCS?

It has been more than 20 years since the first time was captured and stored. Quickly realizing its importance and potential, nations poured their coffers to come up with better, more permanent capture, transport and storage ways. Obviously, the conditions have changed dramatically. Not only have the pilferage reduced significantly, but now methods have been contrived to calculate exactly how much has been injected and how much more the place can hold. This has helped in singling out saline formations as a permanent storage option.

Suggested Read: An overview of Fracking 

What’s happening now?

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shook the world by its shoulders about CCS with its report on the topic in 2005. It got everyone talking on the sheer potential of the method. The momentum was maintained till Copenhagen Climate Negotiations in 2009; where G8 leaders pledged in tune of USD 30 million for building 20 more CCS projects. However, up to 2014, only USD 2.8 million was invested in large-scale projects. Major technological advances in the field of CCS aside, it is not even on the path to pledging 2 degrees Celsius, leave alone less than 2 degrees. The number of large-scale CCS projects has gone down from 77 in 2010 to 38 in 2016. But all’s not lost. The Paris Agreement unanimously agreed that CCS is the only solution provider that is capable of effectively lowering emissions caused by burning of fossil fuels in industrial processes. And also that perhaps it is the only solutions that can prove to be pivotal in ensuring negative emissions are attainable in the future.

What will the future hold?

The world has woken up to the crucial need of CCS, thankfully! But a concerted effort is still needed to see focused investment and tech development in this field. A global climate rise to be restricted to well below 2 degrees Celsius cannot be attained without CCS playing a central role in long-term climate goals. However, to see an effective carbon capture and storage plan being implemented, sustained and being used as an effective tool to minimize carbon footprint will require a unified political commitment and a strong policy execution to see this through.

For an introduction to laser drilling and its importance, click here.