Carbon capture has been a debated method with some scientists cautioning against its ineffectivity. As such, this method is still believed by many with the UK government planning its implementation as part of its £20 billion carbon footprint reduction investment.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Innovation
According to Mail Online, carbon capture has been described as an innovative approach to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Some of its beliefs involve UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who announced the government's plan to move forward with this approach.
As announced by PM Sunak, the government will be building two facilities to capture and store carbon. This would be part of the total £20 billion budget to reduce the total carbon footprint, which remains one of the top priorities of the government.
Despite the PM's conviction, others remain unconvinced with Mail Online reporting that the science remains in its infancy stage. The approach was described as not yet having reached a scale where it can prove the quantity of carbon it prevents from entering the atmosphere.
Carbon Capture and Storage
The carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered relatively new; according to the National Grid Group, it's a three-tep process that involves capturing, transporting, and storing carbon dioxide. As for storage, this approach involves leaving it underground permanently instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
The government estimates that 78 billion tonnes of carbon can be potentially stored by plants alone. As such, this could help the government get closer to its goal of being able to reduce its total carbon footprint.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that in order to reach the Paris Agreement, more efforts should be placed into reducing emissions. It also highlighted how technologies should be deployed to remove atmospheric carbon.
CSS Explained
For CSS to work, CO2 gases need to be separated from different industrially produced gases. They can come from plants that produce or process things like coal or steal or other machine-heavy businesses like cement factories.
After capturing the CO2 gases, they need to be compressed and transported through a pipeline. Other alternatives for their transportation also involve ships or road transport, depending on the complexity of the location.
Lastly, CO2 needs to be injected deep into rock formations found underground for them to be permanently stored. These could be done in a depleted oil or gas reservoir.
Pushback Against CSS
Not everyone is a fan of the CSS method, including personalities like Friends of the Earth's Mike Childs, head of policy, who said that this would just result in more expensive and dirty fossil fuels being championed.
Childs highlights how despite it potentially working in the future, it would be able to capture all the climate pollution resulting from fossil fuel burning. Other concerns highlighted include safety issues with regard to storage since the CO2 could leak and contaminate nearby water supplies.
However, this method has already been used in the US in certain places for around 50 years. For example, Texas had natural gas plants since 1972 that stored over 200 million tons of CO2 underground.
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