Carbon Capture And Storage – The Questions And Opportunity

SMUD wants to be carbon-free by 2030. Should it capture carbon and store it underground?

Ari Plachta, April 10, 2023 (Sacramento Bee)

“In a project that would be the first of its kind in the country, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District is considering a proposal to capture carbon emissions from a natural gas power plant and deposit them deep underground. Calpine Corporation, one of the nation’s largest producers of natural gas and geothermal electricity, is appealing to SMUD to develop carbon capture and storage technology at the Sutter Energy Center, a gas plant outside Yuba City.

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The project involves taking carbon dioxide generated by burning fossil fuels and transporting it half a mile into the earth for permanent storage, with a goal to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases that trap heat and cause climate change…[T]he relatively new technological process has yet to win wide acceptance, particularly in the electricity sector where carbon-free alternatives like solar and battery storage are abundant. Critics, meanwhile, warn of unknown environmental consequences and argue that carbon capture merely prolongs the life of fossil fuel facilities…

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New machinery would include a tall tower that, through a chemical process, separates carbon from the facility’s exhaust. Carbon is then compressed and sent more than half a mile underground by pipeline into layers of porous rock for permanent storage…SMUD plans to hold a public workshop to discuss carbon capture and sequestration in April. A project update and final decision on the project by the board is expected in May.” click here for more

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