Carbon Capture and Sequestration
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) has been shown to reduce fossil fuel production by up to 90%. It is hailed by industry and government as one of the most important technologies for the future, but currently it is prohibitively expensive and may actually increase overall emissions. New innovations are needed to make CCS more affordable and environmentally friendly.
CCS takes carbon produced by power generation and industrial process, prevents it from entering the atmosphere and stores it safely underground or in depleted oil and gas fields. With growing pressure to reduce CO2 production, the next few years could see massive growth. The market surpassed $3 billion in 2019 and is estimated to cross $6 billion by 2026.
The political and economic landscape is set perfectly for carbon capture. According to the International Committee on Climate Change (ICCC), the world will have to reduce carbon emissions by 45% on 2010 levels by 2030 if it is to restrict global warming to 1.5%.
The UK government recently confirmed its commitment to achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050 and announced its first CCS projects to be up and running by 2020.
The problems of carbon capture
In principle, the potential of carbon capture technology seems to be enormous, but so far it has failed to take off.
Plants looking to update to CCS technologies typically require 15% to 25% more energy, making them commercially impractical. Additional energy required also leads to more pollution, cancelling out the intended gain through carbon capture. Storing CO2 is also challenging, expensive and, in some cases, controversial.
CCS has also been linked to the leakage of CO2 from pipes which can reduce plant growth, and the feasibility of storing carbon in rock has been questioned. It may need to be stored for hundreds of years, perhaps even indefinitely, and even then, the steady increase in pressure over time could lead to seismic events.
The HERO® Solution
Fortunately, a solution is in sight. The Hydrogen Energy Release Optimizer (HERO®) from Star Scientific can do more than make carbon capture systems commercially viable. It can help them turn a healthy profit, while generating zero carbon emissions in the process. Best of all, it is ready to deploy now.
HERO® is the world’s first commercially scalable hydrogen catalysis solution. It can provide the necessary heat energy for even the largest power plants through catalysis rather than combustion, making them far more efficient with no harmful byproducts.
At Planet Power Systems, we’ve been working on ways to retrofit existing power plants with HERO® technology, dramatically improving their outlooks. When fitted to these legacy systems, HERO® reduces the energy required without producing carbon emissions, completely negating the need for expensive CCS technologies that are difficult and costly to implement.
With HERO®, commercial power plants can continue to operate profitability, transforming them from their polluting past to being at the forefront of the transition toward a zero carbon economy.
“The race is now on between the technoscientific and scientific forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it. . . . If the race is won, humanity can emerge in far better condition than when it entered, and with most of the diversity of life still intact.”
The Future Of Life