CO₂ capture

Capturing and storing CO₂ is necessary to reach climate targets.

The electricity demand in the world is still growing, especially in China and India. At the moment, this demand is largely being delivered by building of hundreds of new coal-fired power plants. Also in Europe and The Netherlands, coal-fired power plants are being planned to cover growing electricity demands and to replace old power plants. This will lead to an increase in CO₂ emissions, while a sharp decrease is needed to prevent widespread climate change.

In fact, several climate scientists argue that to limit the global temperature rise to 2°C, the CO₂ emissions should be decreased to zero in 2050, especially in the industrialized world. To achieve zero CO₂ emissions combined with a growing electricity demand, all low-carbon electricity generation options need to be deployed. So solar, wind, biomass, hydro, nuclear, will all need to grow rapidly in the coming decades. But also capturing the CO₂ from power plants fueled by coal, natural gas or biomass is absolutely necessary. See the IEA CCS Roadmap.

More information can be found on the ECN  pre-combustion and oxyfuel combustion R&D pages.

CO₂ storage should be safe

CO₂ can be stored in depleted oil and gas fields or in so-called saline aquifers. All these formations consist of porous rock and are located at a depth of 700 m to 5 km below ground level or below the seabed. ECN does not work on CO₂ storage. In the Netherlands, CO₂ storage research is carried out by TNO. Some more info on CO₂ storage can be found on the website of the Zero-Emissions Platform.

CO₂ Capture should be cheap

In the whole CCS chain, the capture of the CO₂ is the most expensive part. The costs are made up of extra fuel needed to capture the CO₂ and of the capital costs of the CO₂ capture installation. ECNs R&D program aims at reducing both the items with 50%.

There are three forms of CO₂ capture. ECN focuses on pre-combustion CO₂ capture, but also has activities in post-combustion and oxyfuel.