The sources of man-made CO₂ are:

• Electricity and heat production (35%)
• Other energy industries, like refineries (5%)
• Manufacturing industries and construction (22%)
• Transport (24%)
• Other sectors (14%)

Beside capturing the CO₂, it must be kept away from the atmosphere for a very long time; probably more than 1000 years. This means that CO₂ capture rely on long-term storage in order to make sense.

CO₂ is one of several greenhouse gases. It is believed that it’s importance is about 2/3 of the total greenhouse effect from man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The development of the global emissions are predicted to increase significantly over the next 30 years. A main reason for this is the economic growth and increased energy consumption in countries like China and India.

The challenges we face with CO₂ capture and storage are:

• Added cost – electricity production cost will increase by 15-20 øre/kWh
• We need safe long-term storage of CO₂
• Global acting – it does not matter where you emit CO₂
• Impact on way of living

The main application of CO₂ capture is likely to be at large point sources: fossil fuel power plants, oil refineries, and industrial plants, particularly for the manufacture of iron, steel, cement and chemicals. Such plants emit large quantities of CO₂, for example a coal fired power plant with an output of 1000 MW emits at full load about 20,000 tons of CO₂ per day.

Capturing CO₂ directly from small and mobile sources in the transportation and residential and commercial building sectors is expected to be more difficult and expensive than from large point sources, so small scale capture is not so relevant.