Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a proposed strategy to separate carbon dioxide from industrial gases and store that carbon on a geological timescale. This is a response to the perceived threat industrial carbon dioxide emissions have in producing anthropogenic climate change (IPCC 2007). CCS is divided into three distinct stages, the capture of the carbon dioxide from the emission source, the compression and transportation of CO₂ to the storage site, and the final storage of CO₂ for long periods of time (IPCC 2005).

The capturing of CO₂ is predominately associated with large stationary point sources and in particular coal-fired power stations. The strategies to capture carbon emissions from these sources can be classified into three distinct approaches: post-combustion capture, oxy-fuel combustion, and precombustion capture (Table 1).

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Table 1 Carbon capture strategy conditions and gas compositions