Understanding CCUS: A Cornerstone in Climate Change Mitigation
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) is a set of technologies crucial to reducing climate change impacts. It focuses on carbon dioxide removal from major sources, such as power plants and industrial sites, which are significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions.
The CCUS process has three main stages:
- Capture: This is the process of trapping CO2 before it escapes into the air. There are different ways to do this. For example, post-combustion capture involves taking CO2 out of the exhaust gases; pre-combustion capture transforms fossil fuels into a gas mix, making CO2 removal easier; and oxy-fuel combustion burns fuel in pure oxygen to produce mainly water vapor and CO2, which are then easy to separate.
- Utilization: Once we have captured CO2, we can reuse it. It can go into making things like concrete and plastic, or it can be used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This process involves injecting CO2 into oil fields to get more oil out. Using CO2 this way stops it from going into the atmosphere and makes it valuable, which encourages more capture.
- Storage: The last step is about keeping captured CO2 out of the air for good. We do this by injecting it deep into the ground, into places like empty oil and gas fields or deep saline aquifers, where it stays put.
With these steps, CCUS technologies are a big part of moving towards a future with less carbon. They let industries keep running while cutting down on how much they affect the environment. This supports other clean energy and sustainability efforts, all working together to address climate change.
