GHG Monitor
5/8/2015
IN THE INDUSTRY
Advancement in the field of carbon capture and storage in 2014 was significant, but further support is needed for the technology to reach its full potential as a climate change mitigation technology, according to the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology Perspectives 2015 report released this week. CCS innovation hit its largest milestone to date last year with the opening of the world’s first post-combustion coal-fired carbon capture and storage project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3. CCS is still progressing very slowly, however, particularly in the private sector. “The ability of CCS to enable fossil resources use while still contributing to CO2 emissions reduction goals requires governments to shape markets that stimulate private investment in CCS and provide vital early commercial experience,” the report says.
Carbon dioxide captured and stored underground could be used to develop a huge battery for energy storage, according to researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota and ETH-Zurich. The researchers presented their findings to the European Geosciences Union general assembly last month. According to the researchers, energy can be stored in the supercritical stored CO2 through pressure and heat. “Concentric rings of injection and production wells create a hydraulic divide to store pressure, CO2, and thermal energy. The system is pressurized and/or heated when power supply exceeds demand and depressurized when demand exceeds supply. Time-shifting the parasitic loads from pressurizing and injecting brine and CO2 provides bulk energy storage over days to months, whereas time-shifting thermal-energy supply provides dispatchable power and addresses seasonal mismatches between supply and demand,” according to an abstract of the researchers’ findings.
