Carbon Capture Doesn’t Capture Much Carbon
Study casts doubt on carbon capture
Taylor Kubota, October 25, 2019 (Stanford University via PhysOrg)
“…[New research showed carbon capture] reduces only a small fraction of carbon emissions, and it usually increases air pollution…[It is] worse, from a social cost perspective, than replacing a coal or gas plant with a wind farm because carbon capture never reduces air pollution and always has a capture equipment cost. Wind replacing fossil fuels always reduces air pollution and never has a capture equipment cost…[The study] examined public data from a coal with carbon capture electric power plant and a plant that removes carbon from the air directly. In both cases, electricity to run the carbon capture came from natural gas.
He calculated the net CO2 reduction and total cost of the carbon capture process in each case, accounting for the electricity needed to run the carbon capture equipment, the combustion and upstream emissions resulting from that electricity, and, in the case of the coal plant, its upstream emissions….including from leaks and combustion, from mining and transporting a fuel such as coal or natural gas…[It] found that in both cases the equipment captured the equivalent of only 10-11 percent of the emissions they produced, averaged over 20 years…[Considering social costs, including air pollution, potential health problems, economic costs and overall contributions to climate change,] it is always better to use the renewable electricity instead to replace coal or natural gas electricity or to do nothing…[The study did not consider what happens to carbon dioxide after it is captured, but most applications] result in additional leakage of carbon dioxide back into the air…” click here for more
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