Challenges

There are considerable challenges related to CCS that must be addressed and solved before CCS can become a standard part of fossil fuel power plants. The technology must be improved, the costs must be reduced, and safe storage must be ensured.

CCS technology is available for small-scale applications, but a large-scale CO₂ capture plant on the scale of a large commercial coal power plant has not been built yet. Scientists and industry agree that the next logical step for further development of CCS is to build large-scale demonstration projects including CO₂ capture, transport and storage.

Research activities on CCS have been ongoing for many years and new improvements are continuously reported. The technology has been proven to work in small pilot plants, and scientists and industry are now eager to build large-scale CO₂ capture plants and connect them to large storage sites. This will give experience with full-scale operation and lead to new knowledge that is necessary to progress beyond the state-of-the-art of CCS technology.

Building large-scale CCS demonstration projects are challenging because there are large technological risks involved. Furthermore, the first large-scale projects are expected to be very expensive, and industry is not willing to make the investment without additional public funding. The additional CCS cost of building a full-scale coal power plant with CCS will be in the range of 1 billion euro [1].

There are several different CCS technologies, and it is not possible to predict which of them will be the best option for future CCS plants. Most likely, there will be a market for several different technologies with different applications. For example, it is highly likely that an existing coal power plant and a newly planned coal power plant will end up with different CO₂ capture technologies. As a consequence, there is a need for several CCS demonstration projects.

Politicians are positive to the recommendations from scientists and industry to build large-scale demonstration projects. The G8 leaders have recommended building 20 CCS demonstration projects worldwide, and the EU has planned to build 10-12 CCS demonstration plants by 2015.

However, no large-scale CCS demonstration plants have been built yet, and the biggest challenge for CCS is to ensure that we can progress beyond the pilot phase and start building so that we can have several CCS demonstration projects in operation by 2015.

Read more about plans for CCS demonstration projects.
Read more about how to deploy CCS.

One of the main challenges for CCS is to reduce the cost of the technology. No one will build a coal power plant with CCS if there are more cost-effective alternatives.

Today, coal power plants without CCS are the most common source for power production globally. The reason is simple; it is cheap, and coal is easily available in most places of the world. However, regulations to limit CO₂ emissions could place an additional cost on fossil fuel power plants. This has already happen in the EU where the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is established to regulate emissions from the power sectors. Energy companies in the EU have to buy emissions allowances for their coal power plants at the EU ETS. If the international climate negotiations hosted by the UN in Copenhagen in 2009 end successfully, regulations like EU ETS could be implemented worldwide.

The challenge for CCS is to reduce its costs so that it becomes cheaper to invest in CCS than to buy emission allowances.

Building a full-scale CCS plant today would be extremely expensive. The planned CCS project at the Norwegian gas power plant at Kårstø can be the first full-scale CCS plant if it is put into operation in 2012 as planned. This project has reported a cost of ~70 euro per ton CO₂ abated, which is considerably higher than the emission allowance price at the EU ETS which varies between 15 to 20 euros per ton CO₂.

When introducing new technology, the initial prototypes will always be expensive, while further research and development results in a learning effect that reduces the costs considerably. That has happened for many new technologies, ranging from solar cells to mobile phones.

McKinsey has performed a comprehensive study to estimate how the costs of CCS could develop. They conclude that CCS costs could be reduced to 35 to 50 euro per ton CO₂ abated by 2020 and 30 to 45 euro per ton CO2 in 2030 [1]. The cost of emission allowances on the EU ETS is expected to increase to between 30 and 48 euros in this period, and that means that CCS could be cheaper than buying CO₂ emission allowances by 2020. When that happens, there will be a market for CCS, and CCS will become a standard feature of fossil fuel power production.

Forecast of development of CCS cost and Carbon Price.

The obvious question is then: How can we ensure that CCS develops as indicated in the figure above?

The answer is to build large-scale CCS demonstration projects. Scientists and industry believe that experience and knowledge from building and operating CCS demonstrations, together with continued research activities, is the optimal way to reduce CCS costs.

The EU has established a forum for CCS experts called ZEP. These experts have established a roadmap for how to build CCS demonstrations. They recommend building 10 to 12 European CCS demonstration projects by 2015. The EU parliament has also established mechanisms for funding the CCS demonstration projects. Initiatives are ongoing other places as well. Australia has established a global CCS institute that will facilitate the building of 20 CCS demonstration projects worldwide.

Reducing energy penalty
If a coal power plant were built today with CCS, the power production would probably be one-third lower than a similar power plant without CCS. The reason is that a CO₂ capture plant based on amine solvents needs lots of energy to regenerate the amine after it has reacted with the CO₂. This is one of the main reasons for the high costs of CCS.

This reduction of power production when a CO₂ capture plant is added is often referred to as an energy penalty, and scientists says that it can be considerably reduced by carrying out research activities and building large-scale demonstration plants for CO₂ capture.

According to the McKinsey report mentioned above, the total energy penalty for CCS will probably be reduced to 10 percent when the first commercial CCS plants are put into operation around 2020. When CCS becomes a mature commercial technology after 2030, the energy penalty is estimated to be 9 percent.

However, reducing the energy penalty to such low levels will require continued research activities and successful construction of CCS demonstration plants.

Developing new CO₂ capture concepts
Inventing new solvents for CO₂ capture is not the only alternative to reduce the energy penalty. Developing new CO₂ capture concepts, like Oxyfuel, adsorption, membranes or chemical looping might turn out to be a better alternative to reduce the energy penalty.

CO₂ has been safely stored in the Utsira formation at the Norwegian continental shelf since 1996, and so far more than 10 million tons of CO₂ has been stored safely without any indications of leakages. This is strong evidence that CO₂ storage can be performed safely without leaks.

But safe CO₂ storage at the Utsira project and a few other storage projects is not sufficient to conclude that CO₂ can be safely injected all over the world. Several challenges related to CO₂ storage need to be addressed.

Standards for characterization and selection of storage sites
There are possible storage sites located all over the world, but there is a long way to go before a possible storage site can be classified as a safe storage site. Geological surveys must be performed to verify that there are no cracks in the ground into which CO₂ can leak. Surveys are needed to test if the sediments overlaying the CO₂ storage sites are impermeable and stop CO₂ from migrating upwards. Furthermore, the actual storage capacity of potential storage sites must be determined.

Today there are no standards for how to characterize and select CO₂ storage sites, and establishing such standards is the first challenge that must be addressed to ensure safe storage.

Development of monitoring systems
Once CO₂ has been injected into a storage site we need to be sure that it stays stored and does not leak out again. That means that good monitoring systems are required. There is equipment available today for CO₂ monitoring, like seismic and pressure sensors, but it has yet to be proven whether existing equipment can monitor injected CO₂ adequately under all conditions.

Improved or new systems for monitoring injected CO₂ must be developed and standards for monitoring, measurement and verification (MMV) of stored CO₂ must be established.

Establishment of remediation alternatives
As soon as standards and methods for characterizing, selecting and monitoring storage sites are established it should be possible to ensure safe CO₂ storage. According to scientists more than 99 percent of the injected CO₂ will stay stored after thousands of years.

But what do we do if there should be a leak? How can we stop it? Today there are no good standards or methods established for handling leaks if they should occur. Scientists, industry and policy makers must focus attention on this knowledge gap in order to solve the challenge.

Establishment of models
One prerequisite for safe CO₂ storage is that we are able to predict what will happen with the CO₂ before we start injecting it. Therefore, good models and simulation tools for CO₂ injection and storage must be established. Models exist already, but there is a huge potential for improvements. The models must also be calibrated against real life data from storing CO₂ underground in demonstration projects.

Demonstration of safe CO₂ storage
The best way to solve the challenges for CO₂ storage is to build CO₂ storage field laboratories as well as the above-mentioned CCS demonstration projects and include large-scale CO₂ storage in these projects.

We must start to inject CO₂ in large-scale storage sites to gain experience and build up knowledge. We need to test storage in different geologies, investigate different mechanisms for trapping CO₂ underground and find out how CO₂ will move once it is injected. By doing so it should be possible to solve the challenges related to CO₂ storage.

Transporting CO₂ is possible in pipelines and ships, but there are some challenges related to transport that must be addressed.

The biggest challenge is to establish the optimal infrastructure for connecting all the CO₂ sources with the storage locations. The main issue in question is whether there should be many smaller pipelines, each connecting one CO₂ source with one storage site, or whether there should be large pipelines connecting many sources and many storage locations in large regional infrastructures.

Pipelines for CO₂ storage will be fabricated primarily from carbon steel. That raises one challenge: CO₂ combined with water will corrode carbon steel. The solution is to dry the CO₂ and remove the water prior to transport, but more research is required to be sure that corrosion will not be a problem.

There are several environmental challenges related to CCS that need to be addressed and solved.

The biggest challenges are to limit emissions of amines and ammonia from CO₂ capture plants based on absorption and to ensure that there are no leakages from storage sites that have negative environmental effects on oceans and local ecosystems.

There should not be any negative environmental impacts from CCS provided impact studies are performed to determine all possible consequences, and standards are established to specify how to operate CCS projects.

Read more about environmental effects.

Only technological challenges are listed above, but there are also political and social challenges related to CCS. In fact, the political challenges are often regarded as larger barriers for CCS than the technological ones.

More information about non-technical challenges can be found in the section how to deploy CCS, and only the main challenges are briefly listed below:

Copenhagen 2009
The UN will host an international climate conference for negotiators in Copenhagen December 2009 where the aim is to establish a post-Kyoto global agreement on greenhouse gas emission reduction. The biggest challenge is to agree on ambitious emission reduction targets that are legally binding for all nations.

The existing Kyoto Protocol does not include CCS in its emission reduction mechanisms. Given the potential for large emission reductions which is possible utilizing CCS, it is imperative that CCS is included as an emission reduction strategy in the new agreement.

Regulatory framework
Successful deployment of CCS worldwide will require a long-term and transparent regulatory framework. Legislation for how CO₂ storage should be performed has been established in some regions, like Australia and the EU, but consistent regulations are required worldwide.

Financing CCS
The first full-scale CCS demonstration projects will probably be very expensive, and industry is reluctant to pay the entire bill for the first projects. Therefore, public funding for the demonstrations projects is required and funding mechanisms need to be established.

Public communication
The concept of CCS is not well known to the general public. When asked how they regard CCS, people tend to be sceptical because they have never heard of it before. Many also raise concerns about the safety of CO₂ storage.

When people are provided with objective information about CCS they tend to be more positive to the technology as a tool to combat global warming. Consequently, it is important to establish information campaigns to inform the public about CCS.

1. Carbon Capture & Storage: Assessing the Economics McKinsey & Company. 2008

• How to deploy CCS
• Plans for CCS demonstration programs
• Safe CO2 storage
• Environmental effects

The EU technology platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) has performed a study on research needs for CCS.
Download PDF report from the study