New approach to carbon storage could shift emissions battle

The UK’s Energy Technologies Institute ( ETI ) has announced it will fund a major new study to investigate and develop techniques for CCS ( carbon capture and storage ) based on mineralisation.

The group has allocated £1 million pounds for the project which will be led by Caterpillar and including Shell, the British Geological Survey, and the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage ( CICCS ) at the University of Nottingham.

CCS mineralisation is a promising new area of carbon sequestration whereby CO2 is converted into usable materials or forced to react with and bind to certain minerals. It is seen as a practical alternative to the more common approach of capturing CO2 gas for storage underground in oil and gas reservoirs and other porous areas, which are in worryingly short supply in the UK.

Certain minerals can react with CO2 to produce a solid carbonate product, which can either be stored safely, used as an aggregate or turned into products such as bricks or filler for concrete. The study will provide a detailed assessment of the availability of suitable materials together with an estimate of how much of these could practically be used and ultimately provide an indication of the economics of CO2 capture by mineralisation. It will also examine the possibility of sequestering carbon in existing waste repositories.

With the failure of last year’s Copenhagen Summit to achieve a global accord for the reduction of carbon, CCS is seen as the key line of immediate defence against rising emissions.