CCTS can already avoid CO2 emissions: An overview of the environmental impacts of carbon capture, transport, and storage
On 26.04.2024 by Johannes BurgerNet zero economies will need carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCTS) to decarbonize CO2-intensive industries, like cement production, and compensate for residual emissions from agriculture or aviation. Achieving the magnitudes of CCTS needed for net zero requires an infrastructure capable of capturing, transporting, and storing several megatonnes of CO2 per year as soon as possible. Pipelines are best suited for transporting large amounts of CO2 but do not exist in Europe yet and take several years to plan and build. Therefore, infrastructure for immediately capturing, transporting, and storing CO2 will rely on currently available technologies. As no experience in applying these technologies to CCTS exists, their climate impact on a CCTS system is unknown. As we show in a recent study, a CCTS system with available technologies can avoid more than half of the emissions produced at an industry plant in Switzerland.