Carbon capture and storage

Submitted to:
Miss Rimsha

By:
Group 6
Ramla Shafia (43/M)
Nawal Iqbal (45/M)
Alvina Tahir (28/E)
Naveed Arshad (37/E)
Noor Ul Ain (18/E)
Hasna Riaz (32/E)
Syeda Zoha Zahra (6/E)
Muneeb Ahmad (14/M)
Hassan Raza (17/E)
Taha Alvi (1/E)
Semester 7

BAHAUDDIN ZAKARIYA UNIVERSITY, MULTAN

PAKISTAN
Even as nations diversify their energy portfolios, fossil fuels are expected to meet a majority of
the world’s energy demand for several decades. Accelerating deployment of carbon capture
technology is essential to reduce emissions from these power plants, and from industrial plants
like cement and steel manufacturing.

More than half of the models cited in the

required carbon capture for a goal of staying within 2 degrees Celsius of
warming from pre-industrial days. For models without carbon capture, emissions reduction costs
rose 138 percent

Carbon capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2)
before it is released into the atmosphere. The technology can capture up to 90% of CO2 released
by burning fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes such as cement
production.

How does CCS actually work?

There are three steps to the CCS process:

1. Capturing the carbon dioxide for storage

The CO 2 is separated from other gases produced in industrial processes, such as those at
coal and natural-gas-fired power generation plants or steel or cement factories.

2. Transport
The CO 2 is then compressed and transported via pipelines, road transport or ships to a site
for storage.

3. Storage
Finally, the CO 2 is injected into rock formations deep underground for permanent storage.

Methods

CO2 can be captured using different methods. The main ones are: post-combustion, pre-
combustion and oxyfuel.

Post-combustion technology Post-combustion capture typically uses chemical solvents to

separate carbon dioxide out of the flue gas from fossil fuel combustion. Retrofits of existing
power plants for carbon capture are likely to use this method.

Pre-combustion methods – Fuel is gasified (rather than combusted) to produce a synthesis

gas, or syngas, consisting mainly of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2). A subsequent
shift reaction converts the CO to CO2, and then a physical solvent typically separates the
CO2from H2. For power generation, pre-combustion carbon capture can be combined with an
integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant that burns the H2 in a combustion
turbine and uses the exhaust heat to power a steam turbine.
Oxyfuel technology produces CO2 and steam by burning fossil fuels with almost pure
oxygen. Post-combustion and oxyfuel equipment can be fitted to new plants or retrofitted – in
other words, added to existing power stations that were originally built without it. Pre-
combustion methods require large modifications to existing plans to be retrofitted, and are
therefore more suitable to new built.

CCS’s in Pakistan

In an attempt to boost our power supply, Pakistan is seeing coal as a solution and so, it has
invested heavily in thermal power plants in recent years which makes sense, seeing as how coal
is locally available in abundance, but it will result in increased levels of greenhouse gasesOne
technology which offers this solutions is called Carbon Capture and Storage or CCS.

CCS technology has proven to be expensive, both in terms of money and energy wastage. CCS
system requires steam and electricity to operate, hence the overall efficiency of the power plant
goes down.

Different social and political issues are also preventing this technology from flourishing.
Pakistan has large reservoirs of coal in Thar and so, is intending to utilise that coal to generate
power. Various public-private partnerships have been formed to set up power plants near coal
extraction sites. Even if these power plants are equipped with carbon capture technology, there
appears to be no option of storing the captured CO2.

Thar is a desert with a shortage of water. Local people fulfil their daily water requirement by
drilling underground wells. Any attempt to inject the captured CO2 underground will have
dangerous consequences for the local community since it cannot be assured that the injected CO2
will not leak into the aqueous reservoirs and contaminate their solitary water source.

What is CCS’s potential for tackling climate change?

At the moment, CCS is the only technology that can help reduce emissions from large industrial
installations. It could be an essential technology for tackling global climate change. When
combined with bioenergy technologies for power generation (so-called BECCS – bioenergy with
carbon capture and storage), CCS has the potential to generate ‘negative emissions’, removing
CO2 from the atmosphere. Many scientists and policymakers argue that this is crucial if the
world is to limit temperature rise to under 2°C, the goal of the Paris Agreement.

Are there any drawbacks to carbon capture and

storage?

 Overall, the capture process is expensive due to high deployment and energy costs.

 Possible environmental and climate change damages could be caused by CO2 leakages
from storage sites if they are not adequately selected, managed and monitored.