On 15 December 2021, the Commission published the Communication ”Sustainable Carbon Cycles” [add a new link], which sets out the long-term objective of restoring sustainable and climate-resilient carbon cycles. Captured and stored CO2 is not considered ”emitted” under the ETS. C2ES and the Great Plains Institute are joining forces to bring together a diverse coalition of industry, labour and environmental groups to support the expansion of carbon capture. Other proponents of carbon capture incentives include the Western Governors Association, the Southern States Energy Board, and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioner 2020: The Boundary Dam 3 plant in Saskatchewan, Canada, surpassed more than 4 million tons of captured and stored carbon dioxide. 1986: Exxon Shute Creek Gas Processing Plant in Wyoming. This natural gas processing plant supplies the carbon dioxide pipeline systems of ExxonMobil, Chevron and Anadarko Petroleum to the Wyoming and Colorado oil fields and is the world`s largest commercial carbon capture plant with a capacity of 7 million tons per year. On the other hand, CCU depends solely on private and public funds. The Commission is currently exploring the possibility of developing an EU carbon degradation certification scheme that can also cover certain ccs and CCU applications that are not currently supported by existing legislation, such as CCS in combination with biomass, direct air capture or CCU building materials. Carbon capture technology has been used in several industrial projects in North America since the 1970s, but its application to electricity generation is relatively new. 2013: Antrim Gas Plant in Michigan. Carbon dioxide from a DTE Energy gas processing plant is captured at a rate of about 1,000 tons per day and injected into a nearby oil field operated by Core Energy in the Northern Reef Trend of the Michigan Basin.
The Commission is determined to address the CCU in the broader context of creating an EU legal framework for carbon depletion, which it will propose by the end of 2022. The Commission will examine the development of a legal framework for the certification of carbon removals based on sound and transparent carbon accounting to monitor and verify the authenticity of carbon degradation in order to provide incentives for carbon absorption and a strengthened circular carbon economy in full compliance with biodiversity targets. 2015: Uthmaniyah CO2-EOR protest in Saudi Arabia. This project captures carbon dioxide from hawiyah`s natural gas liquid recovery plant. The captured carbon dioxide is used to improve oil extraction in the Ghawar oil field. Storage of CO2 in geological formations, including oil and gas deposits, non-perishable coal seams and deep saline deposits, is safe. The 2005 special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on CCS concluded that properly selected and managed geological reservoirs are ”very likely” to retain more than 99% of bound CO2 for more than 100 years and ”probably” 99% of it for more than 1,000 years. Site selection and safety assessment are ensured by the CCS Directive, which provides the legal framework for the safe geological storage of carbon dioxide in EU and EEA countries. One way to capture CO2 is to remove it directly from the air, which is called direct air capture (DAC). The biggest challenge in this process is that the concentration of CO2 in the ambient air is rather low (about 400 ppm). The advantage of direct air capture is that it allows CO2 to be captured when and where there are no point sources. DAC uses technical processes based on chemical capture to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere in a release agent that is regenerated with heat, water or both.
The CO2 is then desorbed from the agent and released as high-purity electricity. The combination of DAC and CCS is called DACCS and has the potential to remove carbon. Nevertheless, much remains to be done politically. In its 2019 status report, the GCCSI noted how specific projects were supported by policy levers, including subsidies, tax incentives, and carbon-dioxide-supported oil production. The GCCSI has also identified ”carbon credits” as a valuable policy tool; in fact, carbon credits have played a role in seven projects around the world. 2015: Shell Quest project in Alberta, Canada.Shell begins operations on a bitumen upgrader complex that intercepts approximately one million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year from hydrogen production units and injects it into a deep salt formation. It is up to each operator to decide whether it makes economic sense to use CCS or CCU, depending on the carbon price, the price of green products and the cost of the technology. The CCS Directive enables carbon capture and storage by providing a framework for managing environmental risks and removing existing legal barriers. There is no specific EU legislation for the CCU. 2013: Petrobras Santos Basin Pre-Salt Oil Field CCS off the coast of Brazil. This project involves the capture of carbon dioxide from natural gas processing for increased oil extraction in the Lula and Sapinho oil fields. The use and storage of carbon capture is not economical due to high costs and lack of a business model.
The additional climate protection potential of CCU products depends on the substitution of similar products on the market from fossil raw materials. Otherwise, CCU products would simply produce a rebound effect with more material inputs and CO2 emissions. New CCU applications are being studied, such as .B. the use of CO2 as a raw material and its conversion into polymers, building materials, chemicals and synthetic fuels. The market for all possible CO2 use options is several orders of magnitude lower than the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere each year from anthropogenic sources, see the figure below of the European Commission`s Senior Scientific Advisors on New Carbon Capture and Use Technologies. To this end, the Commission will propose, by the end of 2022, an EU legal framework for carbon removal certification [link to roadmap or call for evidence]. The certification framework should ensure the transparent identification of carbon agriculture and industrial solutions that clearly remove carbon from the atmosphere. To avoid a rebound effect in which the CO2 captured in the products is released into the atmosphere, CCU products should replace similar products on the market from fossil raw materials. The different elements of CO2 capture, transport and storage have all been demonstrated, but integrating them into a complete process and reducing costs remains a challenge. Most of the new CCU technologies are not yet commercialized.
The cost of CCS and UCC includes, in part, capital investments in CO2 capture, use, transport or storage equipment and in part the cost of operating such equipment to use or store CO2 in practice, for example. B the amount of energy required to capture, transport and convert or inject CO2. At current technology prices, the investment and operating costs in advance are around 30-70% (i.B s several hundred million euros per installation) higher than standard systems. The large variation is due to the cost dependence on the carbon source, location and mode of transport. Carbon capture and utilization costs are even higher due to complex conversion processes. The capture and use of CO2 and other carbon monoxides emitted by power and industrial power plants has been technologically feasible for generations and has attracted more attention in recent years as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. .
