The race to carbon capture tech, the new Industrial Revolution

Carbon capture technology - CCS Carbon Capture and Storage or CCU Carbon Capture and Utilisation - operates a bit like a giant vacuum, sucking planet-warming CO₂ before they enter the atmosphere. Difficult-to-decarbonize large-scale industrial processes, such as refineries, biofuel production, iron making, cement making, ammonia production, and chemical pulp production would be the first interested in this technology, which can also involve geology.

It is something new, still under development and many groups are already investing heavily on this approach to reduce the climate impact. Wide-scale adoption of CCS has so far been stymied by the size and expense of most capture systems, which can cost up to $500 million and typically require bespoke equipment and installation. But there are groups investing in scaling this technology down.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. is developing a small to medium-sized carbon capture system, to sequester up to 95% of CO₂ emitted from small polluters like municipal waste incinerators, cement plants or ships. A testing installation in southern Japan consists of a module with about 10 square meters of space.

Despite some criticism from activists (click here for an example) governments are increasingly looking to this CCS / CCU technologies to help meet climate targets, as a transition mean to a New Industry.

Japan estimates that by 2050 the market for the sequestering, transporting and storing CO₂ will expand to 10 trillion yen a year, nearly $70 billion.

Click on the image below to see the complete plan by the Japanese government titled “Green Growth Strategy through Achieving Carbon Neutrality in 2050” , consisting of strategies and action plans for 14 promising fields that are expected to grow, both from industrial and energy point of views. And here you can go directly to the part “Carbon recycling”

In the coming days, we will post more about CCS, Carbon Capture and Storage. Here is the link of what is posted so far