麻豆传媒

As more countries turn their attention to achieving net-zero goals, carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) and related decarbonisation technologies will play a larger role in helping hard-to-abate sectors reduce emissions.

Hard-to-abate sectors include heavy emitters, such as cement, pulp-and-paper and steel manufacturers where alternative energy use is not yet feasible from a technology or economic standpoint. The cement industry alone accounts for about a quarter of all industry CO₂ emissions, yet is the second-most-consumed product globally, after potable water.¹ Heavy emitters such as cement manufacturers are seeking pathways to reduce their CO₂ emissions in alignment with societal energy transition goals.²

CCUS technologies will be crucial for heavy emitters looking to reduce carbon and other emissions. In fact, some of the CCUS technologies offered by Shell Catalysts & Technologies 鈥� CANSOLV CO₂ Capture and ADIP-ULTRA 鈥� are based on the same science that has helped refineries to significantly reduce air pollutants like sulphur dioxide (SO₂).

In this article, we鈥檒l look at the decarbonisation potential of CCUS technologies for heavy emitters and the current and future applications of Shell Catalysts & Technologies鈥� CCUS solutions.

Discover: Four energy transition pathways

What is carbon capture utilisation and storage?

Currently, CCUS facilities around the world have the capacity to capture more than 40 million metric tons of CO₂ each year.⁴ According to the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Report to Congress, carbon capture technologies already play a significant role in the United States economy, with 45 CCUS facilities operating or in development around the U.S. as of 2021. For the United States to reach its climate goals, the report estimates it will have to increase CCUS deployment tenfold over the next decade.⁵

Adoption will continue to increase as CCUS incentives and tax credits become more commonand as projects mature to improve the financial cost-benefit case behind CCUS.⁶ While immediate action to reach net-zero goals may be currently focused on carbon capture, a future carbon economy may also necessitate the utilisation of that captured carbon, which can help make CCUS solutions more financially feasible to private industries when government incentives subside.

Read insights into the scale-up of a low-carbon economy

Uncovering air quality benefits from CCUS technologies

Since carbon storage technologies remove CO₂ emissions from the air, they can play a part in improving overall air quality. On a wide-scale level, CO₂ and methane emissions are contributing to the greenhouse effect, where gases are trapping heat in the atmosphere and resulting in a gradual rise of global temperatures.

The most direct benefit of wide-scale carbon capture is to stop climate change and rising global temperatures, which would also reduce the impact of air pollutants.

Research has shown that temperature increases driven by CO₂ emissions can directly impact human respiratory health in a similar way as traditional forms of air pollution.⁷ Experts generally believe that climate change is expected to increase air pollution concentrations in the future, which can adversely impact health and mortality.⁸

In addition, early studies suggest that carbon capture technologies can potentially reduce pollutants aside from CO₂, such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides. The European Economic Area (EEA) released a report stating that carbon capture and storage will have an overall positive effect on air pollution and can reduce emissions such as SO₂.⁹

An overview of Shell Catalysts & Technologies鈥� CCUS offerings

Shell Catalysts & Technologies provides carbon capture and storage technologies, including CANSOLV and ADIP-ULTRA. These amine-based absorbents capture pollutants from either low-pressure or high-pressure gas streams to produce extremely pure CO₂ (99.9%+ on a dry basis) as by-products that can be sold, reused or stored.

The CANSOLV capture system removes CO₂, SO₂ and NO₂ from a wide range of low-pressure applications. The technology is currently operating on or being deployed on a variety of applications including natural gas combustion, natural gas combined cycle, coal-fired power, fluid catalytic cracker (FCC), cement, steel manufacturing, hydrogen manufacturing and many other industrial and chemical applications.

ADIP-ULTRA is a gas-treating process for CO₂ removal that can be an ideal solution for meeting emissions requirements in both greenfield and brownfield applications. This regenerative-amine-based process is suitable for bulk and deep removal of hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) and CO₂ from natural gas, refinery gases, synthesis gas and other process gases, with the main application area being for gases with no requirement for organic sulphur components removal. CO₂ can either be removed or slipped when selective removal of H₂S is desired.

Over the last few years, Shell Catalysts & Technologies 鈥� in collaboration with its alliance partner Technip Energies 鈥� has been actively working with CCUS projects around the globe.

Discover how these developments respond to the needs of emitters of different sizes and in different sectors, and how they can make carbon capture easier and cheaper to implement 鈥� with the assurance that these benefits will be realised on real-world projects.

Watch the webinar on-demand

1 _{Thomas Czigler et al., 鈥淟aying the foundation for zero-carbon cement鈥�, McKinsey & Company, 14 May 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/chemicals/our-insights/laying-the-foundation-for-zero-carbon-cement.}
2 _{Krysta Biniek et al., 鈥淒riving CO鈧� emissions to zero (and beyond) with carbon capture, use, and storage鈥�, McKinsey Sustainability, 30 June 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/driving-co2-emissions-to-zero-and-beyond-with-carbon-capture-use-and-storage.}
3 _{Krysta Biniek et al., 鈥淒riving CO鈧� emissions to zero (and beyond) with carbon capture, use, and storage鈥�, McKinsey Sustainability, 30 June 2020, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/driving-co2-emissions-to-zero-and-beyond-with-carbon-capture-use-and-storage.}
4 _{鈥淎bout CCUS鈥�, International Energy Agency, April 2021, https://www.iea.org/reports/about-ccus.}
5 _{鈥淐ouncil on Environmental Quality Report to Congress on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration鈥�, Executive Office of the President of the United States Council on Environmental Quality鈥�, 16 Februrary 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CEQ-CCUS-Permitting-Report.pdf.}
6 _Ibid.
7 _{Marina Somma, 鈥淭he Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Air Pollution鈥�, Sciencing, 20 October 2021, https://sciencing.com/list-5921485-effects-carbon-dioxide-air-pollution.html.}
8 _{鈥淚nteraction Effects of Air Pollution and Climatic Factors on Circulatory and Respiratory Mortality in Xi鈥檃n, China between 2014 and 2016鈥�, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17 December 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7729743/.}
9 _{鈥淐arbon capture and storage could also impact air pollution鈥�, European Environment Agency, 23 November 2020, https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/carbon-capture-and-storage-could#:~:text=Carbon%20capture%20and%20storage%20(CCS,trade%2Doffs%20for%20air%20pollution}