Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the technologies that the government is looking at seriously for mitigating emissions into the atmosphere according to Don Lawton who spoke at a recent SACPA meeting.
“This can be a safe technology”, says Lawton.
There are select sites where we are certain the geological horizons are fully impermeable to C02. “We will monitor wells for seepage over time” says speaker Lawton.
Capturing C02 gases and separating them from a nitrogen rich stream is relatively expensive. There is lots of research focused on how to make that cheaper.
Coal zones in and around Lethbridge could store a significant amount of C02 as well as old oil and gas reservoirs and deep saline aquifers in southern Alberta. The holes in the rocks that held the oil could now hold C02. It was safe there before so there is no reason to think C02 wouldn’t be safe there now.
This will reduce c02 emissions into the atmosphere.
“We live in a very fossil fuel based economy”, says Lawton. Burning of fossil fuels releases C02 into the atmosphere.
1000 barrels of oil are burned every second which creates 35 million tons of carbon dioxide per day in whole world.
There is an increase in emissions as a result of the development of oil sands.
By 2050 there will be 1.3 billion tons of C02 emitted a year in Canada, they are looking to reduce emissions to the way it was in the early 1990’s.
Technologies are also looking to stop burning fossil fuels all together to reduce emissions.
CCS will happen in underground geological formations.
This is just one thing being done to reduce emissions; there also is wind and solar energy.
CCS can be implemented quickly, five to ten years, as opposed to a 20-25 year time frame with wind and solar energy.