Critical Carbon Capture Technology Stalled

Technology to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel is too slow
In 2015, the oil company Shell International begin to capture more than one million tonnes of odorless and colorless gas known as carbon dioxide. CO2 emissions come from three huge machines near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, which produce hydrogen to convert the bitumen into marketable oil. Once captured, the CO2 is pumped through a pipeline to a site where he will be buried more than two kilometers underground in a porous sandstone formation. This project capture and storage, Quest name will be the first in the world in charge of the oil production industry and join a short list of working demonstrations of technology that can be vital if humanity is to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) "is the fastest way to obtain substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions," says Len Heckel, Shell Canada's Quest to lead business project. Heckel suggests that Shell and its partners have undertaken a project to reduce the carbon footprint of the business, technological and government funds leveraged.

But the Quest is a rare example of a technology that seems stuck, as CO2 is pumped underground. The 2012 survey of the industry Global CCS Institute found that while nine new projects were announced this year, eight have not previously announced, bringing the total number of CCS projects around the world 75 years. Of the 75, eight are running, storing about 23 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, or slightly more than the annual emissions of Bahrain most of them natural gas processing to eliminate CO2 so that the fuel is ready for burning.

Despite the slow start, "CCS is an existing technology, real today," says CEO Brad Page institute, adding that it is necessary to comply with any global target to halt global warming cheap . Agency International Energy believes the world needs more than 100 projects operational CCS storage of approximately 270 million tonnes of CO2 per year, at the end of this decade to keep global warming does not exceed 2 degrees increase in global average temperature since more than 80 percent of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels. Or, as the page says, is about the economy: "The challenge This is a bill for large energy consumers of energy in the world if we do not get CCS operational in 2050. "

China, the price
The United States was once the world leader in CCS experiences, from the injection of CO2 into the ground to explore oil in old wells to run carbon capture combined first storage unit of the Central Mountaineer , West Virginia. Mountaineer But the experiment ended in 2011, due to the impossibility of obtaining customer funding source approved by local regulators, given the absence of national legislation to limit emissions of greenhouse gases . "The material is untapped," says Gary Spitznogle chemical engineer, director of new technology development and political support of the American Electric Power, the company that owns and operates Mountaineer coal power plant. "We stop and put in case someone wanted to use it. "

It is not likely to occur in the short term or Spitznogle said. "It should not be a reason more than just a deep fascination with science it" New projects are underway in the United States, Barry Plant project in Alabama is CO2 capture and bury it in old oil field and a new coal-fired power with CCS under construction in Kemper County, Mississippi But progress on CCS for coal in the U.S. has slowed for one main reason: natural gas.