ENERGY INPUT AND PROCESS FLOW FOR CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is a primary contributor to global climate change. Efforts to curb climate change include the capture and storage from this carbon, as well as the conversion of carbon gas into clean fuels. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a commercially developing technology to capture CO₂ from power generation plants, compress it, and store it in a geologic reservoir. The three main CCS systems (post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture, and oxyfuel technologies) were compared in terms of carbon capture ability and process flow diagrams were created. From analysis all methods have similar capturing abilities, but oxyfuel technology requires the lowest energy to capture CO₂ and has the lowest CO₂ cost breakeven point. Additionally, other developing carbon capture and utilization methods were discussed, including a gas fermentation process to produce ethanol and direct air carbon capture.