Carbon Capture and Sequestration

This chapter is about carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), or the capture of CO2 at large stationary points such as coal or gas fired power plants, oil refineries, cement plants, etc. This technology requires a high concentration of CO2 in exhaust gases. There are two types of CCS technology, pre-combustion and post-combustion; while in post-combustion technology, CO2 is captured after combustion through a chemical process that separates CO2 from other gases, in pre-combustion, CO2 is removed from the fuel itself. The CO2 is then transported by pipeline to an appropriate geological site for storage underground. There are three options for geological sequestration: mineable coal beds, depleted oil or gas reserves, and deep saline aquifers. CCS has not been proved as a while systems at a large scale but all the individual components are pretty well established technologies. The challenge going forward are costs, scale, whether or not the carbon is really sequestered under the ground, what the optimal power plant design is to facilitate carbon capture at low costs, what is the best choice of a geological site, what design is best to transport CO2, and how do we ensure that CO2 remains permanently out of the atmosphere? This video is part of the module The Key Technological Challenges of Deep Decarbonization.

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