A significant CO2 reduction of emissions from fossil fuel utilization in large industrial emitters (mainly power generation, but also refineries, cement work and steel production plants) down to acceptable levels can be achieved through different options, such as:
■ increasing the efficiency. As an example some new power plants in Germany managed to reduce the CO2 emissions by 40%,
■ moving to another fuel with less carbon content, or to biofuels which is a renewable source,
■ through CCS Carbon Capture and Storage of CO2.
The Carbon Capture Transportation and Sequestration (CCTS) solution appears to be one of the most promising technologies under investigation in several Joint Industrial Projects sponsored by Energy Companies.
The optimal set up of all this technology has to be found very timely. Energy penalties associated to each part of it (Capture, Transport and Underground Storage) should be carefully evaluated to launch promptly pilot projects with the aim to get know how and accumulate experience from "the in field exercise"; at the same time all the aspects related to safety and reliability of CCTS chain are of paramount importance for the industrial deployment of the technology in "full scale" applications. The European Union Renewable Energy Directive and European Commission (2012), have in fact drawn the road map to cope with a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. As a matter of fact, in the latest years a lot of studies and funds have been devoted to reduce the energy penalty for the CO2 capture at concentrated emitters as well as to evaluate the most proper monitoring systems for the storage sites, but no effort has been done to fill the gap in the transportation.
