Context:
Germany recently announced that it would allow carbon capture and off-shore storage for certain industrial sectors.
Relevance:
Facts for Prelims
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Mitigating CO2 Emissions
- CCS encompasses diverse technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from major sources like power plants and refineries, storing them underground.
- It differs from carbon dioxide removal (CDR), which involves extracting CO2 from the atmosphere.
- The three-step CCS process involves capturing CO2 from industrial activities, transporting it, and securely storing it underground.
- Three techniques for capturing carbon in CCS are post-combustion, pre-combustion, and oxyfuel combustion.
- In post-combustion, CO2 is separated from exhaust gases after burning fossil fuels.
- Pre-combustion involves removing CO2 before burning fossil fuels, generating hydrogen as a byproduct.
- Oxyfuel combustion burns fossil fuels with pure oxygen, producing CO2 and water vapor.
- Oxyfuel combustion is the most efficient method, although it requires substantial energy for the oxygen-burning process.
- After capture, CO2 is compressed into a liquid and transported to suitable storage sites like saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas reservoirs.
- Despite decades of promotion, there are few operational CCS projects globally.
- As of 2023, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported 40 operational CCS projects, capturing over 45 metric tonnes (Mt) of CO2 annually.
-Source: Indian Express
