Geological Carbon Storage

Background

Carbon capture and storage must play a central part of the decarbonisation of the energy system, performing two main roles…

(1) Firstly, during the transition it provides a means to decarbonise gas fired power generation by capturing and removing the CO₂ emissions from the combustion. Gas will continue to be required, even with a renewable energy system, until an effective long-term energy storage system is developed and in place.

(2) Secondly, there is a continuing need to remove carbon from the atmosphere. One very effective approach for this, advocated by the IPCC and the IEA, involves the use of biofuels with carbon capture and storage. The concept here is that photosynthesis removes CO₂ from the environment during the growth of the biofuels, and following their combustion the CO₂ produced can be captured and then stored, hence leading to a net negative emission while also generating power. The challenge in this process lies in the detail of the whole system, with a careful carbon audit of the production, processing and power generation process to ensure that the overall system is indeed one with negative carbon emissions.