What is Carbon Capture and Storage?

What is Carbon Capture and Storage?

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a suite of technologies that capture CO2 emissions at their source—typically power plants or industrial facilities—transport the captured gas via pipeline or ship, and inject it into deep geological formations for permanent storage. CCS prevents CO2 from reaching the atmosphere while allowing continued use of fossil fuel or carbon-intensive industrial processes during the energy transition.

Why It Matters

Certain industrial sectors cannot be fully decarbonized through electrification or fuel switching alone. Cement production releases CO2 as a chemical byproduct of calcination—no amount of renewable electricity eliminates this process emission. Steel, chemicals, and refining face similar challenges. The International Energy Agency's net-zero pathway assigns CCS the task of capturing approximately 6 gigatonnes of CO2 annually by 2050, up from roughly 45 million tonnes captured in 2024.

The economics of CCS have improved substantially but remain challenging. Capture costs vary from $15-25 per tonne for high-concentration streams (natural gas processing, ethanol production) to $60-120 per tonne for dilute streams (power plant flue gas, cement kilns). The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act's enhanced 45Q tax credit—$85 per tonne for geological storage—has transformed project economics in North America, triggering a wave of project announcements across the Gulf Coast and Midwest.

CCS also enables blue hydrogen production, where natural gas is reformed into hydrogen with the resulting CO2 captured rather than vented. This pathway offers a lower-cost route to hydrogen supply than green hydrogen (electrolysis powered by renewables) in many markets, though lifecycle emissions depend heavily on capture rates and upstream methane leakage.

Political and stakeholder dynamics around CCS are complex. Environmental groups often characterize it as a lifeline for the fossil fuel industry, while industry and many climate modelers view it as an indispensable tool for meeting mid-century targets. The pragmatic view recognizes that CCS is neither a silver bullet nor a distraction—it is one of several necessary tools, particularly for hard-to-abate sectors where alternatives are decades from commercial viability.

How It Works / Key Components

Carbon capture technologies fall into three categories. Post-combustion capture scrubs CO2 from flue gas after fuel is burned, typically using amine-based solvents that absorb CO2 and release it when heated. Pre-combustion capture converts fuel into hydrogen and CO2 before combustion, capturing the CO2 stream. Oxy-fuel combustion burns fuel in pure oxygen rather than air, producing a concentrated CO2 exhaust stream that requires minimal separation.

Transport infrastructure connects capture facilities to storage sites. Dedicated CO2 pipelines are the primary transport mode for large volumes; the U.S. already operates over 5,000 miles of CO2 pipeline, primarily serving enhanced oil recovery operations. Ship transport is emerging for cross-border applications, particularly in Northern Europe where the Northern Lights project is developing shared infrastructure to receive CO2 from multiple countries for storage beneath the Norwegian continental shelf.

Geological storage involves injecting supercritical CO2 into porous rock formations at depths exceeding 800 meters, where temperature and pressure keep it in a dense liquid-like state. Saline aquifers offer the largest storage potential—estimated at thousands of gigatonnes globally. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs provide well-characterized storage with existing infrastructure. Monitoring systems using seismic surveys, wellbore sensors, and surface detection equipment verify containment integrity over time.

The full CCS value chain requires coordination among emitters, infrastructure developers, and storage operators. Hub-and-cluster models—where multiple emitters share transport and storage infrastructure—are emerging as the preferred development approach. The U.K.'s Hynet and East Coast clusters, the Port of Rotterdam's Porthos project, and the Houston CCS hub exemplify this shared-infrastructure strategy, reducing per-project costs and investment risk.

Council Fire's Approach

Council Fire evaluates CCS feasibility for industrial clients across technical, economic, and regulatory dimensions. We assess capture technology options, model project economics under current and anticipated policy frameworks, map storage access and transport logistics, and support engagement with regulators and community stakeholders. Our focus is on helping clients determine where CCS fits within a broader decarbonization portfolio rather than pursuing it in isolation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is carbon capture and storage proven at scale?

Yes, though scale remains limited relative to the need. The Sleipner project in Norway has safely stored over 20 million tonnes of CO2 since 1996. Quest in Alberta captures approximately 1 million tonnes per year from oil sands upgrading. However, the total global CCS capacity as of 2024 is roughly 45 million tonnes per year—less than 0.1% of annual global emissions. Scaling to the gigatonnes per year envisioned in net-zero scenarios requires a dramatic acceleration of deployment.

How long does stored CO2 remain underground?

Geological storage is designed for permanent containment over thousands of years. Well-selected and properly managed storage sites trap CO2 through multiple mechanisms: structural trapping beneath impermeable cap rock, residual trapping in rock pore spaces, dissolution into formation water, and mineral trapping through chemical reactions with reservoir rock. Natural CO2 accumulations that have remained stable for millions of years provide analogues for engineered storage permanence.

What are the risks of CCS?

The primary technical risk is CO2 leakage from storage sites, though decades of monitoring at operational projects show no evidence of significant leakage. Pipeline ruptures pose localized safety risks—CO2 is an asphyxiant at high concentrations—requiring rigorous pipeline integrity management. Financial risks include cost overruns, policy uncertainty affecting project economics, and technology underperformance. Public opposition, particularly around pipeline routing, has delayed or cancelled several proposed projects.