Back where it belongs

Abstract

Capturing the harmful carbon that is produced during generation of electricity and burying it underground is not a new idea but, since its appearance in the UK Energy Review, it has again come into the spotlight. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers technological solutions to the production of harmful emissions from power generation. The review accepts as inevitable a long-term future for coal, and, according to the government, this new technology could cut carbon emissions form fossil fuels by between 80-90%, leading to the saving of several million tonnes of carbon by 2020. Basically CCS involves capturing the carbon dioxide (CO2) released by burning fossil fuels and injecting it underground.