The CLEAN project in the context of CO₂ storage and enhanced gas recovery

Excerpt

Anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere have a significant impact on the Earth’s carbon cycle. While efforts are made to reduce the release of greenhouse gases via reduced energy consumption, more efficient energy production, and a shift to renewable energy supplies, it is generally expected that fossil fuels will continue to provide a major part of the world’s energy portfolio during the twenty-first century (IPCC 2005). This is particularly true for coal which is relatively inexpensive and abundantly available in existing or emerging industrial power houses such as the United States, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been developed as an interim measure to allow energy production from coal without CO₂ emissions. This currently available technology entails capturing CO₂ from large-scale industrial sources such as coal-fired power plants or cement, steel and petrochemical factories. The captured CO₂ gas is then compressed to a smaller volume, hence higher density, transported in pipelines, and eventually injected for long-term storage into deep geologic formations, such as deep saltwater-bearing aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields (IPCC 2005). …