Is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) a Viable Procedure to Mitigate Global Warming? (May 18, 2012)

The following item in today's Science may give pause to those promoting carbon capture and storage as a viable approach to significantly mitigate anthropogenic contributions to global warming.

Mongstad, Norway

Norway Unveils Carbon Capture Plant

Norway opened the doors to the world's largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) test facility on 7 May. The project, called the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), is a joint venture between the Norwegian government, Norwegian energy company Statoil, South Africa's Sasol, and Shell. At $1 billion, TCM's price tag is 10 times the original cost estimate.

TCM's aim is to test, verify, and demonstrate carbon-capture technologies, which currently are expensive and consume a lot of power. The center will test two different liquid-based post-combustion technologies, each designed to filter out as much as 85% of the carbon dioxide in flue gas. One uses chilled ammonia and the other uses an amine solvent to trap the gas. The plant's operators will experiment with different concentrations of carbon dioxide and different flow rates, using the center's more than 4000 instruments to monitor the tests.

The TCM test center can't yet store the carbon that it captures, however. The fullscale carbon capture center, including storage, was originally scheduled to be online in 2014. It has been delayed to 2018.