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Global learning needed for carbon capture, storage: Cambridge researcher

Xinhua, January 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

A University of Cambridge researcher argues that governments worldwide should invest in global approaches to learn how carbon capture and storage (CCS) works, which is a realistic way of reducing carbon emissions, according to a commentary published online Monday by the journal Nature Energy.

Like many new technologies, it is only possible to learn what works and what doesn't by building and testing demonstration projects at scale, and that by giving up on CCS instead of working together to develop a global "portfolio" of projects, countries are turning their backs on a key part of a low-carbon future, argues David Reiner, author of the commentary.

CCS works by separating the carbon dioxide emitted by coal and gas power plants, transporting it and then storing it underground so that the CO2 cannot escape into the atmosphere.

However, the technologies have fallen out of favor with private and public sector funders in recent years. Corporations and governments worldwide, including most recently the UK, are abandoning the same technology they championed just a few years ago.

There are several reasons that CCS seems to have fallen out of favor with both private and public sector funders, including costs, commercial pressures and timescales, lack of international cooperation, according to Reiner, a researcher at the University of Cambridge.

Building a global portfolio, where countries learn from each other's projects, will assist in learning through diversity and replication, "de-risking" the technology and determining whether it ever emerges from the demonstration phase, according to Reiner.

"If we're not going to get CCS to happen, it's hard to imagine getting the dramatic emissions reductions we need to limit global warming to two degrees or three degrees, for that matter," he said.

"However, there's an inherent tension in developing CCS - it is not a single technology, but a whole suite and if there are six CCS paths we can go down, it's almost impossible to know sitting where we are now which is the right path. Somewhat ironically, we have to be willing to invest in these high-cost gambles or we will never be able to deliver an affordable, low-carbon energy system," he also said. Endit