Carbon capture

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) (or carbon capture and sequestration) is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO₂) from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation. The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO₂ into the atmosphere (from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries). It is a potential means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming and ocean acidification. Although CO₂ has been injected into geological formations for several decades for various purposes, including enhanced oil recovery, the long term storage of CO₂ is a relatively new concept. The first commercial example was the Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project in 2000. Other examples include SaskPower's Boundary Dam and Mississippi Power's Kemper Project. 'CCS' can also be used to describe the scrubbing of CO₂ from ambient air as a climate engineering technique.

An integrated pilot-scale CCS power plant was to begin operating in September 2008 in the eastern German power plant Schwarze Pumpe run by utility Vattenfall, to test the technological feasibility and economic efficiency. CCS applied to a modern conventional power plant could reduce CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere by approximately 80–90% compared to a plant without CCS. The IPCC estimates that the economic potential of CCS could be between 10% and 55% of the total carbon mitigation effort until year 2100.

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