Carbon Capture: Still A Climate Mystery

Three energy experts say making carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects happen needs economic and technological success. It also needs risk management, truthful dialogues, and aligned goals among government agencies.

It's tough for CCUS to get ahead due to funding, politics and permits. These things are always a problem when it comes to energy.

An expert said at the SUPER DUG conference: "CO2 is new, but it's not new."

We need CCUS technologies to help decrease emissions. They can take carbon from power plants and put it underground. Or we can use them with blue hydrogen production. CCUS will be very important.

Siddharth Misra is a professor of petroleum engineering. He works at Texas A&M University. This information comes from Hart Energy.

Projects need to manage technical risks to succeed. The risks include injectivity performance, potential seismic activity, plume monitoring, and containment of CO2. It is necessary to prevent groundwater contamination. A conference panelist, Siddharth Misra from Texas A&M University, stated these necessary actions. He is an associate professor of petroleum engineering.

We need to monitor four risks well. This needs good geophysical monitoring. We monitor the plume, reservoir, wellbore, seal, and above zone formation. If we do this, we can be sure there's no risk. Then, all projects will have a good outcome. Misra said this.

America has the ability to store 3,000 gigatons. The issue is the lack of places where this can happen. This is the opinion of Misra.

There are only seven active carbon storage sites in the U.S. They use deep saline aquifers and store 10 megatons of carbon annually. However, they need to store almost 1 gigaton of carbon per year. There are 11 sites being built and 130 more in development for 200 megatons of storage per year.

He said we need to make one megaton scale project a week until 2040 which is a hard task. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, oil and gas companies and storage companies are helping to develop technology to achieve this.

People are interested in putting CO2 into old oil and gas reservoirs. This is so it can be stored safely.

Gas and oil reserves are running out. They have stored gas for over a million years. Misra says that since they store gas, they can also store CO2. This area is new and not many sites focus on it. Misra thinks there will be lots of new ideas in this area.

James Powell, COO of Summit Carbon Solutions, said we need alignment between federal agencies, state, and local governments. This is important when looking aboveground.

The COO of Summit Carbon Solutions is James Powell. This information comes from Hart Energy.

Many states are competing for control over CO2 storage, which is beneficial. However, there is confusion among federal, state, and local governments.

Summit Carbon Solutions is doing a big project. They want to capture emissions from 32 ethanol plants. The project costs $5.5 billion. They want to build over 2,000 miles of CO2 pipeline. The pipeline will take the emissions to North Dakota. They will store the emissions there.

We've got 80% of the transportation infrastructure paths, and we leased 130,000 acres for sequestration.

Summit Carbon Solutions is taking a risky approach to the Midwest Carbon Express CCS project.

Powell said that projects require backing from governments at different levels and should be appealing to each of them.

He said, "You need to persuade them that the project is beneficial for them." The trouble is trying to match aims and objectives in a growing industry. Some people don't comprehend the importance.

Summit's project, the Midwest Carbon Express, covers 82 counties. It's a big challenge.

The political climate for speaking to a public official in Minnesota is different from South Dakota, Nebraska or North Dakota.

Powell says our message should fit politics and how we say things is important. The facts are still the same.

Some counties have blocked laws that stop the building of pipelines. Summit educates these officials.

Lots of people who own land say they have a gas pipe on it for ages. They don't care about that, but they're scared about something else. We need to teach people what CO2 is.

Nikhil Ati, a partner at McKinsey & Co., thinks we should talk openly about CCUS and decarbonization. It's important because things have been happening in energy markets.

Ati said we need to invest in all types of energy due to changing energy markets. Infrastructure investment is also necessary. We need an honest conversation based on facts to make real choices.

Nikhil Ati is a partner at McKinsey & Co. This is per a report from Hart Energy.

Ati spoke about decarbonization economics. He thinks balancing energy security and affordability is important. Some companies set targets of 30-50% decarbonization, but others are looking at it from an investor and shareholder angle.

Some projects to reduce carbon emissions are not making money yet.

Around 20-30% of emissions can be reduced by taking simple steps, like improving efficiency and preventing leaks. These actions have a good financial return. However, more significant changes like carbon capture, using hydrogen as fuel or large electrification projects are not as easy or as profitable to implement.

Ati said that we can reduce 20% of emissions from petrochemical sector for a low cost. But for the remaining 80% emissions, we need a high carbon price of $130. Sadly, we are not close to that price yet.

According to him, government incentives such as 45V hydrogen and 45Q CO2 credits are somewhat helpful, but not enough to make the economic equation work.

To make things happen, we need bigger incentives in the use cases.