There are hundreds of projects, and reducing CO₂ emissions, capturing it from the air, transporting, storing, or utilising it is one of them. But how promising are these ideas, and above all — is it all happening fast enough? 

Carbon Capture (CC) is already available at large industrial scale in the field of chemical absorption technologies and is currently the most widely used technology.

Key findings at a glance:

• All CC processes have a significant energy demand (chemical absorption with MEA: 3.0 – 4.5 GJ/t_CO2, newer technologies up to 2.0 GJ/t_CO2).
• Effort and costs increase as the CO₂ content in the gas decreases and as requirements for CO₂ purity increase.
• In order to operate CC effectively at large scale, energy demand and costs still need to decrease significantly.
• For Austria, a potential of ~14.8 Mt_CO2 emerges in the most progressive scenario for the year 2040, depending on the technologies implemented.

The authors Philipp Wolf-Zöllner, Markus Lehner, Helena Langitz, all from Montanuniversität Leoben, discuss the current status and potential of Carbon Capture in the new CCCA Fact Sheet!