Why is it in the News?

Germany has recently declared its approval for carbon capture and offshore storage for specific industrial sectors.

What is Carbon Capture and Storage?

• CCS refers to a host of different technologies that capture CO2 emissions from large point sources like refineries or power plants and trap them beneath the Earth.
• Notably, CCS is different from carbon dioxide removal (CDR), where CO2 is removed from the atmosphere.
• CCS involves three different techniques of capturing carbon, including: Post-combustion, Pre-combustion, and Oxyfuel combustion.
  • In post-combustion, CO2 is removed after the fossil fuel has been burnt. By using a chemical solvent, CO2 is separated from the exhaust or ‘flue’ gasses and then captured.
  • Pre-combustion involves removing CO2 before burning the fossil fuel. “First, the fossil fuel is partially burned in a ‘gasifier’ to form synthetic gas. CO2 can be captured from this relatively pure exhaust stream,” according to a report by the British Geological Survey. The method also generates hydrogen, which is separated and can be used as fuel.
  • In oxyfuel combustion, the fossil fuel is burnt with almost pure oxygen, which produces CO2 and water vapor. The water is condensed through cooling and CO2 is separated and captured. Out of the three methods, oxyfuel combustion is the most efficient but the oxygen burning process needs a lot of energy.
• Post-combustion and oxyfuel combustion equipment can be retro-fitted in existing plants that were originally built without them. Pre-combustion equipment, however, needs “larger modifications to the operation of the facility and are therefore more suitable to new plants.
• After capture, CO2 is compressed into a liquid state and transported to suitable storage sites.
  • Although CO2 can be transported through ship, rail, or road tanker, pipeline is the cheapest and most reliable method.

Can Carbon Capture Help Save the world?

• Operational CCS projects generally claim to be 90 percent efficient, meaning they can capture 90 per cent of carbon and store it.
• Studies, however, have shown that a number of these projects are not as efficient as they claim to be.
  • For example, a 2022 study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found most of the 13 flagship CCS projects worldwide that it analyzed have either underperformed or failed entirely.
• Moreover, CCS technologies are quite expensive.
  • When CCS is attached to coal and gas power stations it is likely to be at least six times more expensive than electricity generated from wind power backed by battery storage.
  • It is far cheaper and more efficient to avoid CO2 emissions in the first place.
• There are also only a few operational CCS projects across the world even though the technology has been pushed for decades.
• According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there were 40 operational CCS projects in 2023, which captured more than 45 metric tonnes (Mt) of CO2 annually.
• To ensure the planet doesn’t breach the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature increase limit, it would take an “inconceivable” amount of carbon capture “if oil and natural gas consumption were to evolve as projected under today’s policy settings.
• It added that the electricity required to capture that level of carbon as of 2050 would be more than the entire planet’s use of electricity in 2022.
• Therefore, there couldn’t be an overreliance on carbon capture as a solution to tackle climate change.