Frequently Asked Questions

• What is Carbon Capture and Storage or CCS?
• Where do you store the CO2? Are there big spaces underground?
• How much CO2 can be stored?
• What would happen if the CO2 leaked?
• How many Carbon Capture power stations are there?
• Why can't we just make electricity from renewable sources?
• What are 'capture ready' power stations?
• What is ocean acidification?
• Why is it important to stop CO2 from entering the atmosphere?
• What are other options for reducing emissions?
• Is CCS expensive?

• What is Carbon Capture and Storage or CCS?

  CCS is a process for trapping the carbon dioxide (CO2) formed by the burning of fossil fuel before it enters the atmosphere and storing it underground in rock formations.

• Where do you store the CO2? Are there big spaces underground?

  No, there aren't big spaces underground, nor can we simply build big enough containers to hold it all. We must use natural storage facilities. Old or disused oil and gas reservoirs are perfect storage facilities. If they have held fossil fuels for millions of years, then logic dictates that could store CO2. The CO2 would be stored within the pore spaces of the rock grains. To the naked eye, it doesn't look like there is a lot of space between the grains of the rock, but this is where fossil fuels were extracted from - there is a lot of room! Hopefully these sites can act as storage facilities again.

• How much CO2 can be stored?

  There is enough UK storage capacity to store the current emissions from UK power stations for 'many decades'.

• What would happen if the CO2 leaked?

  CO2 is not toxic, flammable, or explosive so local health, safety, and environmental risks of geological storage would be less than the risks of activities such as natural gas storage. For offshore storage, the risk to sea life is lower than the risks from increased CO2 in the atmosphere which becomes dissolved in sea water.

• How many Carbon Capture power stations are there?

  Well, actually, right now, none. All the component pieces of CCS are working in other uses around the world – in oil refineries, in ammonia making chemical plants, or in the hydrocarbon extraction industry. Large tests are going on from 2008, to collect, transport, and inject CO2 from power plants. The first large power plants with CCS are likely to start producing electricity before 2013. But these first examples will be the most expensive, so power companies are asking governments to help them pay the very large costs, and designers will learn from experience to make larger plants more efficient and cheaper.

• Why can’t we just make electricity from renewable sources?

  Two reasons. Firstly, is that we could, but at present there is not nearly enough equipment built to produce the amount of electricity we use in the UK. Second is that these renewable sources are still in most cases, more expensive than traditional coal or gas burning. During the years to 2050, it is expected that renewable power from waves, tides and solar sources will become much cheaper. By the time you are 60 years old, then it’s possible that coal and gas will be used to make chemicals, and not burned at all. You are living at the start of an energy revolution.

• What are 'capture ready' power stations?

  The term 'capture ready' refers to power stations that are designed so that they can have CO2 capture technology added to them in the future. This way, the power plants will be 'ready' to capture CO2 when the technology has been further developed and is available for use. The location of the plant must also be chosen so that it is not impossible to find a route to transport the CO2 from the power plant to a suitable storage location.

  The purpose of this is to avoid a situation where power stations that are built today can not have capture technology added at a future date, and so could end up emitting CO2 for their entire lifespan. It has been proposed to make capture readiness mandatory through regulation. As CCS technology is still at early stages of development, we don’t know exactly what it will look like when it is eventually fitted onto power stations. Therefore, we also don’t know exactly how to design power plants to be ready for capture. The term 'capture ready' is a somewhat ambiguous term. There is work going on now to decide what the term should mean, in case the Government decides to require that power plant developers make new power plants ‘capture ready’.

• What is ocean acidification?

  One underestimated effect of increased atmospheric CO2 is ocean acidification. According to the carbon cycle, increasing atmospheric concentration of CO2 has the knock of effect of increasing the amount of dissolved CO2 in the oceans. This dissolved CO2 then reacts with the ocean water to produce carbonic acid, decreasing the pH and acidifying the water. The threat of ocean acidification is vastly underestimated - it threatens all sea life and ecosystems which would have an impact on human systems.

• Why is it important to stop CO2 from entering the atmosphere?

  CO2 is the principal cause to climate change, which poses potentially devastating threats to people, wildlife and habitats worldwide.

• What are other options for reducing emissions?

  Other options include energy efficiency improvements and demand reduction; the shift to lower carbon fuels such as nuclear power and renewable energy sources; and reduction of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. No single technology will provide all of the emission reductions needed.

• Is CCS expensive?

  The costs of CCS are comparable with those of other low carbon generation options such as nuclear power or offshore wind.