(22a) Progress and New Developments in CO2 Capture and Storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an approach aimed at mitigating the effects of global climate change by capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from large point sources and subsequently storing it instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. As the nation's energy demand continues to increase, so will the use of fossil fuels. Despite gains in overall energy efficiency and increased use of low- or no-carbon fuels, CCS technologies will likely be essential in the effort to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG).

There has been a dramatic expansion of interest, both nationally and worldwide, in the CCS program and the potential to meet our energy and environmental challenges. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the Carbon Sequestration Program in 1997 upon recognizing the importance of CCS for global climate change mitigation. DOE's Carbon Sequestration Program is using applied research with field demonstration to assess the technical and economic viability of CCS to reduce GHG concentrations in the atmosphere. The objective of CO₂ capture research is to cost-effectively produce a CO₂-rich stream at pressure for the three possible capture pathways: post-combustion (recovery of CO₂ from flue gas), pre-combustion (recovery of CO₂ from fuel gas), and oxyfuel (combustion in pure O₂ to produce flue gas that is nearly pure CO₂). Advances in CO₂ capture and separation technology will be discussed. The DOE Program has a variety of projects testing geologic carbon sequestration focusing on safe and cost-effective storage of captured CO₂. Field projects are investigating sequestration in oil and gas reservoirs, saline formations, and deep coal seams. DOE's seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships are currently moving forward with priority sequestration technology field validation tests by implementing large-scale CO₂ injections coupled with monitoring efforts to ensure stable geologic and surface conditions and modeling to predict the fate and transport of injected CO₂ far into the future.