New report – Carbon Dioxide Utilization Markets and Infrastructure

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Haroun Mahgerefteh, a member of our Advisory Council, is one of the authors of the Carbon Dioxide Utilization Markets and Infrastructure report which has recently been published. The study was mandated by the U.S. Congress in the Energy Act of 2020, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, and is administered by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The two-part report, authored by invited global experts, is intended to inform the U.S. Department of Energy and private sector investments in research, demonstration and deployment.

The first report has been briefed to the US congressional staff and leadership at the Department of Energy, who are using it for drafting future legislation and research and funding plans for Carbon Utilization Infrastructure deployment in the US. Haroun’s’ contribution dealt with the CO2 transportation aspects. The report is publicly available for free at the National Academies Press website.

The UKCCSRC’s Stuart Haszeldine, Stuart Gilfillan, Julia Race and David Reiner have recently taken part in a Royal Society working group exploring the options for geological carbon dioxide (CO2) storage, with the aim of permanently removing CO2 from the atmosphere, and an emphasis on injecting CO2 offshore into either deep saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields.

Whilst a significant decrease in fossil fuel usage is necessary to achieve the reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5°C or less, there will be some industries which will struggle to decarbonise by 2050 targets. The deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be vital to capture emissions from residual point sources and for CO2 removal from the atmosphere, to be stored underground.

The report looks at:

• the geological storage system
• existing carbon storage projects and experience
• surface infrastructure for storage
• monitoring and assurance
• new approaches: carbon storage through reactions with rocks
• scaling up
• policy

Read the full report here