About Carbon Capture and Storage

CCS is a low-carbon technology which captures CO₂ released from coal and gas for power generation and from other industrial processes and transports it offshore for safe and permanent underground storage. In GB storage of CO₂ will only take place offshore.

CO2 Capture

Currently there are three different capture technologies available to capture CO₂:

• Post-combustion capture of CO₂ occurs after the burning of fossil fuels. CO₂ is separated from flue gas when it is passed through a liquid which causes a chemical reaction. This is also called scrubbing.
• Pre-combustion capture is where CO₂ is separated or removed prior to the burning of fossil fuels. The pre-combustion technology converts fossil fuels into a gas made up of CO₂ and Hydrogen (H₂). These gases are then separated, with H₂ used to fuel the power plant.
• Oxyfuel combustion burns fossil fuels with nearly pure oxygen. The flue gas produced only contains CO2 and steam. These are separated by a cooling process with the water condensing leaving a flue gas of almost pure CO₂.

CO2 Transport

CO₂ is likely to be transported by pipeline from the capture site to an offshore installation located near a suitable underground reservoir. However, in some cases, tankers may be used to transport CO₂ to offshore installations.

CO2 Storage

The final stage of the CCS process involves injecting CO₂ at high pressure from an offshore installation into a deep geological formation such as depleted oil or gas reservoirs, or a saline aquifer. Potential storage sites will be chosen on the basis of their ability to safely contain stored CO₂ without leakage.