What is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)?
CCS is a technology that captures CO₂ emissions from industrial sources or the atmosphere, compresses them, and injects them permanently underground. It is a critical but underdeployed climate technology: the IEA NZE 2050 scenario requires 7.6 Gtonne/year of CO₂ captured by 2050 — versus approximately 45 million tonnes captured globally in 2023. The gap is enormous.
(1) Capture: CO₂ is separated from flue gas (post-combustion capture) or from hydrogen/fuel gas streams (pre-combustion capture) using chemical solvents (MEA — monoethanolamine), physical solvents, solid sorbents, or membranes. (2) Compression: CO₂ is compressed to supercritical state (~100 bar) — a dense fluid that is easier to transport and inject. (3) Transport: Via pipeline or ship to the storage site. (4) Injection: Pumped into geological formations — depleted oil/gas reservoirs, saline aquifers, basalt formations — at depths of 1,000–3,000m where pressure and temperature keep CO₂ in supercritical state permanently.
Sleipner (Norway) — 58.37°N 1.85°E — world's first offshore CCS, operating since . Statoil/Equinor injects ~1 MT/year CO₂ into the Utsira sandstone formation under the North Sea. Quest (Canada) — 57.36°N 112.04°W — Shell, captures 1 MT/year from oil sands upgrader in Alberta. Boundary Dam (Canada) — 49.24°N 103.04°W — SaskPower, world's first CCS on a coal power plant. Illinois Industrial CCS — 40.07°N 88.37°W — ADM, ethanol plant, 1 MT/year. Northern Lights (Norway) — 60.52°N 5.02°E — Equinor+Shell+TotalEnergies, offshore CO₂ terminal, operational .
Direct Air Capture (DAC) — pulling CO₂ from ambient air
DAC captures CO₂ directly from ambient air (approximately 420 ppm CO₂) — not from concentrated industrial flue gas. Because air is only 0.042% CO₂ (vs 10–15% in flue gas), DAC requires approximately 100× more energy and is 3–5× more expensive per tonne. But DAC can be deployed anywhere, enabling removal of historical emissions. Named plants: Orca Iceland (64.00°N 21.00°W, 4,000 tonnes/yr, Climeworks — world's first commercial DAC, opened 2021), Mammoth Iceland (64.08°N 22.69°W, 36,000 tonnes/yr, Climeworks, opened 2024 — world's largest), Stratos Texas (31.50°N 103.50°W, 500,000 tonnes/yr target, Occidental 1PointFive, operational 2024 — world's largest in USA). Current DAC cost: ~$300–1,000/tonne. Target with scale: $100–150/tonne by 2035. Source: IEA CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions 2024.
India's CCS position
India has significant CO₂ storage potential (Department of Science and Technology estimates approximately 572 Gt in geological formations) but essentially no CCS deployment as of 2024. India's Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) does not include CCS as a tool — India views CCS as expensive technology that rich nations should deploy. The cost of CCS ($50–100/tonne) is economically prohibitive for Indian industry where energy margins are thin. India is more focused on green hydrogen and fuel switching than CCS for industrial decarbonisation. Source: NITI Aayog Energy Outlook 2023 · DST India geological storage assessment.
Questions about CCS
Attribution and citation
- Sources
- IEA CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions 2024 · Global CCS Institute Status Report 2023 · Climeworks · Equinor Northern Lights · DST India geological storage
- Cite as
- "Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) — The Energy Codex", The Energy Codex, https://thecodex.expert/energy/ccs/, last updated .