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Project

ACCSESS - Providing access to cost-efficient, replicable, safe and flexible CCUS

Results

ACCSESS deliverables, open publications and other public material are made available on the Zenodo repository, while results and reports are published on the Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS).

Explaining CCS

Pulp and paper
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are used to capture CO2 emissions from industrial processes and store them safely and permanently underground, instead of releasing them into the atmosphere. However, plants capture and store CO2 naturally – and have done for millennia.
 
Trees, like many other plants, need CO2, water and sunlight in order to grow. This process is known as photosynthesis. The carbon from the absorbed CO2 stays in the trees, and any products made from trees, for their entire lifetime. When the wood finally decays or is burned, the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere – unless we capture and store it.

CCS on processes that use fossil resources can prevent additional CO2 emissions. But CCS on processes that use biomass – like trees – will actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere. This process of removing atmospheric CO2 is known as “negative emissions” or “Carbon Dioxide Removal” (CDR), when more CO2 is taken out of the atmosphere than is put into it.

One industry with significant potential for CDR is pulp and paper. Pulp mills use woody biomass, to produce a wide range of products, from cardboard and other packaging materials to napkins and nappy fluff. After most of the biomass has been used to create the product, the leftover biomass is used as fuel to generate heat and electricity for the production process in the mill. When this fuel is burned, the carbon contained in the biomass is released as CO2, which we can then capture and permanently store.

But this is just one piece of the puzzle. While biomass is a renewable resource, we must remember that its potential for CDR is limited. We will still need to drastically cut fossil CO2 emissions in order to meet climate goals. In addition, forests play a crucial role in maintaining the health of our planet and protecting biodiversity. Therefore, we must also protect and cultivate our forests through practices such as sustainable forest management, reforestation and afforestation.

These measures together can be part of a future that both contributes to CDR and supports the health of the Earth’s natural lungs.

Cement

Water is the most used substance in the world. The second one is concrete.

Concrete is used in a lot of structures, from towering skyscrapers to bungalows, bridges, pavements, and even flowerpots.

One of the main components of concrete is cement, and cement production alone is responsible for around 7% of global, man-made CO₂ emissions. Too much CO₂ in our atmosphere is the main driver of climate change.

For many objects, cement can be replaced with other materials. However, cement is necessary for making concrete.

We could use wood as a construction material instead, but even if we drastically increased our use of wood, there would still be a great need for concrete in buildings and infrastructure, particularly as urbanisation is increasing around the world.

Therefore, we need a way to reduce CO₂ emissions from cement – and quickly.

CCS can decarbonise industries with hard-to-avoid CO₂ emissions
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) means capturing CO₂ from industrial processes and storing it deep underground where it can’t escape back into the atmosphere.

Since 1996, CO₂ separated from natural gas at the Sleipner field has been captured and safely injected into the ground under the North Sea. A lot of work has been done since then to make this technology better, most cost effective, and capable of being implemented at a large scale.

In many industries, it would be better to avoid producing CO₂ altogether. However, two thirds of the CO₂ produced from making cement are released during the calcination of the key ingredient: limestone, and cannot be avoided.

Therefore, the only way to decarbonise cement production is to capture the CO₂ emissions and store them.

CCS is one of many solutions needed to create a sustainable future
In 2015, the UN set a goal of limiting the increase in global temperatures to well below 2°C, compared to pre-industrial temperatures.

CCS is crucial for meeting this target, as it enables us to reduce CO₂ emissions from industries like cement, which society depends on but are difficult to decarbonise.

However, it is important to remember that CCS is not the solution, but one of many solutions needed to create a sustainable future.