Even as nations diversify their energy portfolios, fossil fuels are expected to meet a majority of the world’s energy demand for several decades. Accelerating the deployment of carbon capture technology is essential to reduce emissions from these power plants, and industrial plants like cement and steel manufacturing.

More than half of the models cited in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fifth Assessment Report required carbon capture for a goal of staying within 2 degrees Celsius of warming from pre-industrial days. For models without carbon capture, emissions reduction costs rose 138 per cent.

Carbon capture and storage technologies can capture more than 90% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power plants and industrial facilities. Captured carbon dioxide can be put to productive use in enhanced oil recovery and the manufacture of fuels, building materials, and more, or be stored in underground geologic formations. Carbon capture can achieve 14 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed by 2050 and is viewed as the only practical way to achieve deep decarbonization in the industrial sector.

As many experts see hydrogen as a clean fuel of the future and expect it to play a major role in decarbonizing the industrial sector, a process such as natural gas reforming with carbon capture technology presents itself as the lowest cost option for producing clean hydrogen. This process produces “blue hydrogen” by reforming natural gas into hydrogen and carbon dioxide; the carbon dioxide by-product will be captured, transported, and stored in deep geologic formations.

What is carbon capture?

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the capture and storing of carbon dioxide (CO₂) before it is released into the atmosphere. The technology is able to capture up to 90% of CO₂ emissions that are released by burning fossil fuels during electricity generation and industrial processes such as steel or cement production.

Carbon capture involves trapping the carbon dioxide at its emission source, transporting it to a storage location (usually deep underground) and isolating it . This means we could potentially block excess CO₂ from entering the atmosphere.

There are three main steps to carbon capture and storage (CCS):

1. Trapping and separating the CO₂ from other gases
2. Transporting this captured CO₂ to a storage location
3. Storing CO₂ far away from the atmosphere (underground or deep in the ocean)

 Why is carbon capture so important?

Meeting climate goals also means creating an extremely flexible power system that can manage high shares of variable renewable power sources. Carbon capture technologies play an important role in providing dispatchable, low-carbon electricity – in 2040, plants with these technologies generate 5% of global power. Coal- and gas-fired power plants have been a major source of system flexibility, providing benefits essential to the operation of the electricity grid, such as inertia and frequency control.

CCUS-equipped coal and gas plants become increasingly important for secure, sustainable and affordable power systems in the IEA Sustainable Development Scenario.

An emphasis on supporting system flexibility could see some CCUS-equipped coal and gas plants operating at relatively low load factors. However, the unique ability to achieve negative emissions through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage may mean that these plants run at high capacity factors, even in a power system with high renewable shares. This could come at the expense of a reduced contribution to system flexibility but would support the economics of scale in CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure and maximise climate benefits.

Including carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the portfolio of technology options can reduce the total cost of power system transformation. Carbon capture technologies become more competitive in the power system when their flexibility, reliability and carbon intensity are fully valued.

Top carbon capture technology companies making an impact 

Carbon capture has been attracting more and more interest from investors and governments lately, as concerns over climate change become stronger. The technology has been around for decades but it hasn’t been able to deliver on its promise. Now, a new breed of carbon capture companies is emerging and hopes to bridge the gap between the ongoing energy transition and the world’s reliance on hard-to-abate industries like oil and gas.

Carbon Engineering

Carbon Engineering is a Canadian direct air capture company that takes out CO2 from ambient air. Its technology is industrial direct air capture machines that pull air from fans and push it through a plastic mesh coated with a potassium hydroxide solution that binds with the CO2. The gas goes through a series of chemical processes that concentrate and compress it into tiny white pellets, which are then heated to 900 °C to release the gas. 

It is one of the carbon capture companies that focus on the commercialization and large-scale adoption of the direct air capture technology. It is building a large-scale facility in Texas with partner 1PointFive – a joint venture of Occidental Petroleum. When the plant starts operations in 2024, it is expected to take away 1 million tons of CO2 per year.

Company’s Website – https://carbonengineering.com/

Carbfix

Carbfix is a carbon storage company that has developed an entirely novel approach to CO₂ sequestration. The company’s technology stores CO₂ and other gasses from emissions permanently as rocks. CO₂ charged water is injected into the basalts to promote the carbonization of CO₂. The dissolution of CO₂ into the aqueous phase facilitates the mineralization of CO₂. It has been demonstrated that over 95% of CO₂ captured and injected was turned into a rock in the subsurface in less than two years.

Companies Website -:  carbfix.com

LanzaTech

LanzaTech is one of the innovative carbon capture companies that focuses on CO2 recycling. It is using a gas fermentation process, in which CO2 is used as food for bacteria that produce fuels and chemicals. The company uses captured emissions from the source to make different products. Since the fermentation process is flexible, it enables LanzaTech to take different gas streams and make different products. 

In contrast, other technologies typically focus on one gas stream, which usually has to be very pure, and that limits them in the number of products they can make. The company is working with partners like Unilever, Mibelle, L’Oréal, Lululemon, Zara and COTY to bring packaging, clothing, perfume, laundry detergent and household cleaners into customers’ homes. 

CarbonBuilt

CarbonBuilt technology enables concrete product manufacturers to make ultra low-carbon concrete products, reducing their carbon footprint by 70-100%+. They first replace concrete’s CO2-intensive cement ingredient with locally-available, mostly waste materials. They then use dilute streams of CO2 from flue gas, biomass waste, or direct air capture (DAC) to “cure” or harden the products at low temperature and ambient pressure, locking the CO2 away permanently. Uniquely, their process can be done profitably; without compromising product price, performance, or plant operations.  

CarbonBuilt won the 2021 NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE and is currently retrofitting its first plant at Blair Block in Alabama. CarbonBuilt concrete masonry will be commercially available in Q1, 2023.

FuelCell Energy

FuelCell Energy delivers efficient, affordable and clean solutions for the supply, recovery and storage of energy. They manufacture large-scale fuel cell systems for industries and municipalities that include both utility-scale and on-site power generation, carbon capture, local hydrogen production for transportation and industry, and long duration energy storage.

With SureSource installations on three continents and millions of megawatt hours of ultra-clean power produced, FuelCell Energy is a global leader with environmentally responsible power solutions.

Climeworks 

Climeworks is a Swiss company, providing a solution for tackling historic emissions called direct air capture. The company uses a technology that consists of modular CO₂ collectors stacked to build machines of any size. The industrial machine’s fans draw air into the plant, where a highly selective new filter material is known as sorbent binds the CO₂ in conjunction with the moisture in the air. 

Companies Website -: climeworks.com

Aker Carbon Capture

Aker Carbon Capture is one of the few and largest publicly traded pure-play carbon capture companies. It is headquartered in Norway with representation in several Northern European countries and a global reach through the Aker group. Aker Carbon Capture ACC was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in August 2020. 

Companies Website -: alexcarboncapture.com

Conclusion

The world is faced with one of the biggest challenges it has ever had – the need to urgently remove around 1300 gigatons of historically built emissions in the atmosphere and transition to a net zero economy. Replacing fossil fuel energy generation with renewables and hydrogen energy seems like the ideal solution, however, it will take decades for the infrastructure and power capacities to be made available worldwide.

While the world is transitioning towards clean energies, carbon capture technologies could facilitate the process and take their key role in reducing the flow of current emissions.