Carbon capture and sequestration is a way minimizing carbon emissions leaving industrial processes or electrical generation plants by capturing the CO2 before it can disperse into the atmosphere and use or store it in a variety of ways.

Storage can be done deep in the earth with the protection of cap rocks, in the ocean or stored through chemical reactions creating harmless minerals.

The CO2 can also be used for other processes such as industrial processes or products that require CO2. A process that has been using CO2 to help create energy is Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR). EOR uses the CO2 to let the oil and gas flow more freely allowing for easier retrieval. EOR coupled with CCS has great potential for economical, low carbon electricity production.

CCS is an extremely attractive option for reducing CO2 emissions due to the high efficiency (80%-95%) and the ability to apply it to the energy infrastructure that is already established. Other renewable energies that can be used to reduce CO2 emissions will have a much higher capital cost due to the required changes in infrastructure  and take much more time to be integrated into the grid.

Resources:

(Image) “Quest.” Shell. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014. <http://www.shell.ca/en/aboutshell/our-business-tpkg/upstream/oil-sands/quest.html>.

Metz, Bert Ogunlade Davidson, Heleen de Coninck, Manuela Loos, IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. IPCC, . 2005. Print.

Written by: Michael Duncan