A significant proportion of carbon dioxide emissions come from power generation from fossil fuels. While nuclear and renewable energy sources could reduce emissions, neither are currently able to meet world energy demand and carbon capture and storage (CCS) is required as the transition is
A significant proportion of carbon dioxide emissions come from power generation from fossil fuels. While nuclear and renewable energy sources could reduce emissions, neither are currently able to meet world energy demand and carbon capture and storage (CCS) is required as the transition is made.
Status of CCS
There are a number of CCS demonstration projects planned, which aim to advance the technologies and prove technical viability at a realistic scale. The high cost of CCS coupled with the technical risks of the developing technology makes investment in such demonstration projects unattractive without government funding or incentives.
The UK government is to provide funding for up to four CCS demonstration projects for coal fired power stations each with a capture capability of 300 MW or greater net capacity and has currently budgeted £ 90 million for design and development work for the first project in 2009 – 2010. Similar government support is being given for projects worldwide, including Australia, Canada, Europe and the USA.
Post combustion capture
Power generation with post combustion carbon capture involves fuel being burned in air with carbon dioxide captured from the resultant flue gas. This method h