BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Carbon capture requires additional cost and therefore does not sit well with many smaller operators who prioritize free cash flow and minimize capital spending, especially without an incentive or a penalty applicable to the whole sector, Trend reports citing GlobalData.
“These companies do not have the same infrastructure advantages as major companies and are generally not incentivised to introduce a carbon capture scheme into their operation solely based on having environmental related targets. There is a lack of regulation to the larger industry which discourages many producers, especially smaller producers, to implement a more comprehensive approach to reduce carbon rather than just to commit to, for instance, reduced natural gas flaring,” said the company.
GlobalData believes that even if clean alternative energy overtakes fossil fuel as main source for power generation or clean vehicles, CCS can become a prominent technology to remove the carbon emitted and deliver a net-zero carbon energy system.
The international Energy Agency (IEA) says that CCUS technologies are critical for putting energy systems around the world on a sustainable path.
“Despite the importance of CCUS for achieving clean energy transitions, deployment has been slow to take off – there are only around 20 commercial CCUS operations worldwide. But momentum is building. Plans for more than 30 commercial CCUS facilities have been announced in recent years, and despite the Covid‑19 crisis, in 2020 governments and industry committed more than USD 4.5 billion to CCUS.
CCUS applications do not all have the same cost. Looking specifically at carbon capture, the cost can vary greatly by CO2 source, from a range of USD 15-25/t CO2 for industrial processes producing “pure” or highly concentrated CO2 streams (such as ethanol production or natural gas processing) to USD 40-120/t CO2 for processes with “dilute” gas streams, such as cement production and power generation. Capturing CO2 directly from the air is currently the most expensive approach, but could nonetheless play a unique role in carbon removal. Some CO2 capture technologies are commercially available now, while others are still in development, and this further contributes to the large range in costs,” says the IEA.
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