CCS: Carbon Capture and Storage Technology

Today I searched for information of policy act in Department of Environmental Protection, WV State of Government. I found idea of CCS technology that this department will comprise it to be one of the projects in “Clean Coal Plan”. This project funds from the state government budget about $37 million of dollar. However, only the CCS development plan is approximately 40% of the whole project budget.

Therefore, I think that CCS technology in WV energy industries such as coal industry, oil industry, and other renewable energy industries is more vital importance. Studying of CCS technology is necessary for entrepreneur related to those sectors to prepare themselves with changing circumstances.

First of all, I will explain concept of CCS technology. Actually CCS technology has been a role in energy sector for two decades. Since people around the world have paid attention to aftermath of a climate change and a global warming problem, intellectuals have tried to devise new technology to militate this problem continuously. One of the important technologies is CCS model. CCS technology is a mean of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emission to global warming, based on capturing carbon dioxide from large point sources such as fossil fuel power plants, and storing it away from the atmosphere by different means.(World Coal Institute)
CCS technology is directly relevant to geo-engineering. I didn’t study in this field at all. However, this paper would like to explain the concept of CCS. The key point of this technology is the method to capture carbon dioxide during production process. At this time we have three methods to capture it and one methods operating to develop. First method is post-combustion capture, the method that carbon dioxide is removed after combustion of the fossil-fuel and this method is well understood and is currently used in other kinds of energy industrial applications even though not the same scale as might be required in a commercial scale power station.

Second, pre-combustion capture applied in fertilizer, chemical, gas fuel, and power production. Its result of this method is that carbon dioxide can be captured from a relatively pure exhaust stream. The hydrogen dioxide can now be used as fuel and the carbon dioxide is removed before combustion takes place. Third, oxy-fuel combustion is burned in oxygen instead of in air. The carbon dioxide stored is not a fraction removed from the flue gas steam but the flue gas stream itself. Moreover, a certain fraction of the carbon dioxide generated during combustion will inevitably end up in the condensed water called zero emission. However, this method has to use advanced knowledge of chemical elements for understanding and studying it. Another method that is operating and developing called chemical-looping combustion, this method uses a metal oxide as a solid oxygen carrier to support burning fuel production. All of them are the fundamental concept of CCS technology. Next time I will explain the importance of this technology in term of energy economics.