As global efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions heat up, the race to capture, store, and re-use carbon dioxide is on. Heralded by some as one of the most promising technologies in the fight against climate change, carbon capture has caught the attention of industry, government, and academics across the globe. Here are just a few ways it is impacting or could impact a range of industries.
Oil and Gas
There are currently 21 large-scale carbon capture and storage facilities that are in operation or are being built around the world. One Canadian example putting the country at the forefront of the technology is Shell Canada’s Quest Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in the Alberta oil sands. In less than two years after becoming operational, the project captured over 2 million tons of carbon dioxide underground. That is roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of about 500,000 cars. The Quest project captures CO2 emissions from a facility that processes crude bitumen from oil sands into a wide range of synthetic crude oils. The recovered CO2 is then compressed into a liquid form and moved through a special pipeline 65 km north, where it is injected into deep underground storage wells.
Power Generation
The burning of fossil fuels continues to be one of the most affordable ways to produce electricity. Unfortunately, it also is a major source of carbon dioxide emission because of a heavy reliance on coal. Electricity and heat generation accounted for 42 percent of global CO2 emissions as of 2013. Until recently, technologies to capture carbon at power plants were estimated to increase electricity costs by more than 75 per cent. A new process called pressurized oxy-combustion changes the way fossil fuels are burned for power generation and makes it easier and much more affordable for the resulting CO2 to be separated for storage than current technologies. The Gas Technology Institute recently launched an Oxy-PFBC pilot plant at CanmetENERGY in Ottawa. In addition to reducing the cost of the carbon capture process at power plants, the equipment is a third of the size and less than half the cost of current solutions, which could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for commercial-scale power plants. This new approach could result in electricity production from coal with near-zero emissions, and biomass-coal blends could actually achieve negative CO2 emissions.
Concrete
Concrete is made using Portland cement, the production process for which currently accounts for one fifth of the world’s C02 emissions. Canadian researchers may be on the cusp of transforming concrete from a greenhouse gas maker to a greenhouse gas taker. A Canadian company called Carbicrete has developed a way to make concrete using steel slag instead of cement and then injecting the product with C02, where it is then safely and permanently stored within the construction product. The innovative product meets all industry requirements, has lower material costs and is more durable than its traditional cement-based counterparts.
Another Canadian company, CarbonCure, has developed a bolt-on technology that allows concrete plants to store waste carbon dioxide in the concrete they produce, resulting in a product that is greener, stronger, and less expensive to manufacture. The technology has already been installed in over 40 concrete plants.
Carbicrete and CarbonCure are two of the 23 teams that have advanced to the second round of the Carbon XPrize Competition, a global challenge to develop new technologies that convert CO2 emissions into new products. The competition has two tracks: one focused on testing technologies at a coal power plant and the second focused on testing technologies at a natural gas power plant. The winner for each track will be awarded a $7.5 million grand prize.
As countries, cities, and companies set their sights on the Paris Climate Agreement targets for a low-carbon future, expect even more technologies focused on capturing, storing, and re-using carbon. It’s a shift that is sure to spur innovative new technical occupations in the clean tech sector.
If you’re a job seeker interested in a career in clean tech, take a look at our current opportunities in the power and nuclear sectors. If you’d like to learn more about finding the right talent to help your organization reduce its carbon footprint, connect with a Raise recruiter.
