Carbon Capture: Possible Solutions, Pt. II

Carbon capture and sequestration have been about research and very little about actually putting the technology to real use. In this four-part series, we'll examine some of the issues and possible solutions.

According to Sally Benson, Director of the Global Climate & Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford, setting a price tag on carbon emissions will do the job. "If there were a price on CO2 today and it was known that it would increase over time, people would be much more aggressive to employ the new technology," she said.

For the utility companies it's going to be more costly and with lower reliability. On the other hand, oil companies, accustomed to high risk with high reward kind of projects, will need to shift to a business model with long-term utility systems. Policymakers need to really figure out how to stimulate this market since it's not reasonable to think that the oil companies or utilities will do it themselves. Expect high taxes on fossil fuels and CO2 pollution before any major changes are made.

Early Experiments
One of the most common arguments against CCS technologies is that there is a the lack of full scale testing and evaluation. There are pilot projects, like the Schwarze Pumpe, a 1,600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Germany. It will capture up to 100,000 tons of CO2 and bury it under a nearby gas field, 3,000 meters below ground level. It's one of the first projects that actually puts the technology to use in a full-scale demonstration.

The Schwarze Pumpe

Source: Vattenfall

Comments [5]

  • Jeff Berlin 06/23/09 1:51 PM

    question remains though what about the surplus of carbon already emitted?

    Reply
  • russ 06/24/09 6:20 AM

    Jeff - do you mean nothing should be done until the whole package can be started together?

    Reply
  • Kelvin Koo 06/25/09 12:47 AM

    Anybody has figure out how much CO2 is emitted from the energy used to compress and liquify the CO2?

    Reply
  • James Everett 06/28/09 12:57 AM

    Jeff is right - capturing carbon to reduce emissions is important, but we already have too much CO2 in the atmosphere.  Tools are needed to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.  Two of the biggies:  higher productivity tree stock for forest plantations, and ways of fixing carbon in useful solid forms - eg converting CO2 to plastics or specialty chemicals.  Many greens hate forest plantations, and therefore shun the former.  I believe that’s silly.  Forest plantations exist.  Why not have them be as productive as possible?  CellFor is doing important work on this.  Besides, durable wood products = long-term carbon sequestration.  As to the latter, it seems to be all about more energy-efficient catalysts.  Novomer is working on that. Check em out.  Skyonic also interesting, but finding a workable business model is tough.  Would love to know of other good companies, if people have suggestions.

    Reply
  • douglas puckett 08/11/09 3:51 PM

    the other design i built is a center fuge in or on top the stacks in the centerfuge ther is a 3 part seperation useing water as a mix then 3 valves to do there objecttive   one valve takes the coatint of tree sap in the center fuge to extract dioxide and water for sulfur the exhaust from stacks spins the centerfuge the 3 valves will have enought force to make the extractions this way the plant stays open while the center fuge is installed the inside of the center fuge looks like a jet fan motor for capture and thurst for rotation a generator devise for extra electric.

    Reply
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