knowledge center

Carbon capture

State of Play:

The federal government is investing heavily in the development of carbon capture and storage (or sequestration), which offers the enticing prospect of preventing carbon dioxide emissions produced during combustion from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. But the technologies involved, while proven, remain expensive, an obstacle to widespread adoption. 

What is carbon capture?

Carbon capture is the removal and storage of carbon dioxide from industrial processes — typically power plants. The processes involved can either remove the carbon before combustion or capture carbon dioxide after combustion before it is emitted into the atmosphere.

What is done with carbon after it has been captured?

Captured carbon is typically compressed into a liquid form, then stored — often injected into underground geologic formations such as used up oil and gas reservoirs.

However, in some cases the captured carbon can be used: in enhanced oil recovery, the carbon dioxide is injected into active oil reservoirs to extract more of the oil.

CRS report: Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) in the United States

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