Role of Carbon Capture and Storage in Meeting the Climate Mitigation Target

Abstract

Scientific studies over the years have clearly indicated warming of global climate due to rising concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Continued emissions are certain to lead to catastrophic consequence. Deliberating on this very important issue of sustainability of the entire earth for a long period, the global community finally reached consensus during the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 to limit the temperature rise to 2 °C by 2050 and even try to achieve a lower temperature rise. Amongst other options like adoption of renewables on a much larger scale, fuel switching, and increasing power system efficiency; carbon capture and storage is perceived to be another feasible option for meeting this global climate mitigation target. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) essentially means chemically capturing CO₂ from power plants running on fossil fuels, especially coal, transport and then store it permanently in some geological formation beneath the earth. As per the estimate of International Energy Agency, 12% of the total greenhouse gas emissions totaling about 94 Gt of cumulative CO₂ emissions have to be stored into the subsurface geological formations up to 2050. Considerable research and development work backed by experience gained through demonstration and commercial projects, the technology is mature now. Although the first CCS project commenced operation more than twenty years back, the progress has been slow over the years due to many techno-economical factors and other policy issues. However, in the recent years, there has been significant progress in actual deployment of the technology with more than 21 large-scale running projects and projects under advanced construction. Furthermore, a number of projects are in the pipeline. The total installed capacity of all these projects is approximately 70 Mt of CO₂ per year. Although CCS is a proven technology now, notwithstanding the recent growth in deployment, the rate of adoption is still not in track to meet the global target set for 2050.