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carbon capture & storage

While scientists continue to develop and improve clean energy sources, humans have already pumped incredible quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. We need more techniques to stop adding to atmospheric carbon dioxide. One is to capture this greenhouse gas before it enters the atmosphere, then store it as a liquid. This process is called carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Stats

Definition: the capture of carbon dioxide gas released from fossil fuel-burning power plants and industries like concrete production
Carbon Dioxide Emissions: carbon capture uses energy, releasing some carbon dioxide itself
Cost: expensive, but the only way some industries can lower carbon emissions
Location: could be used anywhere that coal or natural gas is used, like U.S., Brazil, Canada, Australia, and China
Current Use: more than 64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide is being stored every year
Cool Fact: 90% of carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants could be stored

Stumper

Today, liquid carbon dioxide is already being injected into the Utsira formation, a thick layer of rock:

in an enormous canyon in France

below the sea near Norway

under a volcano in the Pacific Northwest

Correct!

This vast layer of sandstone in the North Sea is very porous (it has many holes, like a sponge). It can hold large amounts of liquid carbon dioxide. It's also covered with a thick layer of solid shale to keep the carbon dioxide from escaping.

Stumper

In CCS, carbon dioxide is captured when coal or natural gas are burned. Then the gas is turned into a fluid and may be stored:

deep underground

in Arctic glaciers

inside thick-walled warehouses

Correct!

But scientists must choose sites carefully to safely store large quantities of liquid carbon dioxide underground.

Fact or Fiction

For the foreseeable future, people will need some industries that create carbon pollution.

Fact

Fiction

Fact

Many industries can switch to green energy. But some, like cement, steel, and chemical manufacturing, release carbon dioxide as a byproduct. Or they use fossil fuels as part of the manufacturing process. That's where CCS can help.

Fact or Fiction

Burning fossil fuels still hurts people's health, even with carbon capture and storage.

Fact

Fiction

Fact

CCS helps reduce carbon emissions. But burning fossil fuels like coal and oil produces other kinds of deadly pollution. Converting to clean energy sources will keep more people healthy.

Image credits: main image, courtesy of Dag Myrestrand / StatoilHydro.

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Card 298: carbon dioxide