Carbon Capture and Storage
Market Situation
It is now widely accepted that increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and in particular carbon dioxide emissions, are the major contributor to global warming. While energy conservation, improving efficiency, alternate fuels, and renewable energy are all options for lowering GHG emissions, fossil fuels will continue to be the dominant energy source for the global economy.
In this fossil fuel-dominated economy, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies have the potential to allow us to use fossil fuels with reduced CO2 emissions. Most of the component technologies of CCS like carbon capture and sequestration, pipeline transportation, and injection into geologic formations are well-proven but the scale and number of the current CCS projects is very small compared to what is required to achieve significant CO2 emission reductions.
The table below illustrates that the power industry is the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions but, if a climate policy were to be implemented, most industries including refining and petrochemicals would also have to reduce their emissions.
Large Sources (>100,000 tons/yr) of CO2 Emissions
| Process |
Number of Sources |
Emisions (Million tons CO2/yr) |
| Power |
4,942 |
10,539 |
| Cement Production |
1,178 |
923 |
| Refineries |
638 |
798 |
| Iron & Steel Industry |
269 |
646 |
| Petrochemicals Industry |
470 |
379 |
| Oil & Gas Processing |
N/A |
50 |
| Other Fossil Fuel Sources |
90 |
33 |
| Bioethanol / Bioenergy |
303 |
91 |
| Total (Large Sources) |
7,887 |
13,466 |
| Total (Global) |
N/A |
26,000 |
Commercial Applications
This schematic diagram illustrates the primary routes for carbon capture. While post-combustion and pre-combustion capture processes are proven at a smaller scale, oxyfuel processes are currently in development. Industrial processes have inherent CO2 capture and are thus, in some sense, the most proven in commercial operation.
KBR Capabilities
In response to environmental concerns over greenhouse gas emissions, KBR offers comprehensive CO2 capture and storage solutions including cleaning CO2 from flue gas, CO2 compression and drying for transportation and sequestration or for enhanced oil recovery. With over 60 years experience matching CO2 removal systems with untreated gas, we offer leading expertise designing, constructing and optimizing CO2 facilities worldwide.
KBR conducts carbon capture technology comparisons, design studies, and FEED for CO2 capture pilot plants and designs full-scale units. We also optimize carbon capture flowsheets for minimum energy consumption. KBR has extensive experience in both post-combustion and pre-combustion capture processes. For post-combustion applications, we have conducted several design studies with the traditional amine-based carbon capture technologies. Our experts also offer pre-combustion schemes based on KBR’s gasification technology (TRIG™) as well as auto-thermal reforming (ATR) technology. The decarbonization of gas turbine fuel in this way offers greater thermal efficiency.
For specific information on KBR capabilities, click on the following links:
For more information, please visit our KBR Carbon Capture and Storage publications.