The problem with carbon capture and storage (CCS)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/the-problem-with-carbon-capture-and-storage-ccs-20080103

The problem with carbon capture and storage (CCS)

Posted by bex on 3 January 2008.

E.ON is arguing for its new coal plant on the basis that it will include carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. So, is CCS is a silver bullet? Or is it just another false solution, touted by an industry desperately trying to stay relevant in a carbon constrained world?

CCS is a means of separating out carbon dioxide when burning fossil fuels, and then dumping it - underground, at the sea bed or under the seabed.

CCS isn't commercially viable; there are no commercially operating CCS plants in the world. And for all the industry's obfuscation, the new plant at Kingsnorth won't be able to capture and store carbon; it will just be ready to incorporate CCS should the technology ever become viable in the future.

Whether this will ever happen is unknowable. A UN report predicts that CCS won't be able to play any significant role for decades, and the bulk of its deployment would take place in the second half of this century - and even then only if the appropriate subsidy mechanisms and policy drivers are put in place.

...

[losthills]

1. Carbon sequestration is more smoke and mirrors....

Carbon storage schemmes just point out one of the many similarities between coal power and nuclear power. Both are inappropriate ways of boiling water that wreak environmental havoc on our planet and leave behind waste that will be hazardous on future generations.

[DCKit]

2. Yay, we can run all the power plants just to power the compressors to sequester the CO2. n/t