Industrial Carbon Capture

By Mark Brown, WKC Group

What is Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage?

Industrial carbon emissions come from industrial processes and stationary emission sources, such as power stations, cement production and refineries.

Industrial carbon capture and storage involves capturing CO₂at emission sources, transporting, and then storing or burying it in a deep, underground location.

How is Industrial Carbon Dioxide Captured?

CO₂ is captured in industrial settings using the following techniques.

Post-combustion – in this technique CO₂is removed after burning fuel

Pre-combustion – in this technique CO₂is trapped before burning fuel

Oxyfuel combustion – in this technique the fuel is burned in oxygen instead of air. This results in almost pure CO₂ that can be transported and stored.

How is Industrial Carbon Dioxide Transported?

Pipelines are the primary means of CO₂ transport. Ships and road tankers are used for small scale and specialist applications.

How is Industrial Carbon Dioxide Stored?

Industrial CO₂ is commonly stored in deep geological formations.

CO₂ is converted into a high pressure, liquid-like form known as ‘supercritical CO₂’ before being injected directly into deep geological formations. These are commonly sedimentary rocks in old oil or gas fields, but volcanic rocks and saline aquifers are also used. Physical structures prevent CO₂ from escaping to the surface. These include impermeable ‘caprocks’ and geochemical trapping mechanisms.

Recent technological advances in industrial carbon capture include graphene production and engineered molecules. Graphene production uses CO₂ as a raw material. It is heavily used in the production of tech devices such as smartphones and computer processors. Engineered molecules involve changing the shape of molecules to form new compounds by capturing carbon from the air. It is envisioned that this will be an efficient way of creating raw materials while reducing atmospheric carbon.