What will it take to make carbon capture pervasive? Part of the solution, writes Wind Ventures' Brian Walsh, is the increasing use of CCUS, or carbon capture, utilization and sequestration.
1 Share Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn By Brian Walsh Addressing climate change is one of the most urgent challenges of our lifetime. One way to curb global temperature rise is through CCUS, or carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. The technology, which removes carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and either stores or repurposes it into products, has been around since the 1970s. Until recently, however, it has been limited to large-scale projects involving plants with massive air contactor systems and a series of giant fans. Search less. Close more. Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data. Start Your Search Most regular people know little about these plants. The technology is also expensive, and until the penalty cost of releasing carbon into the air increases, there is little economic incentive to use it. Because of this, CCUS has been an overlooked technology mostly relegated to niche corners of the energy community. Only 21 large-scale CCUS commercial projects around the globe exist. A flourishing CCUS ecosystem That's changing, and the momentum for CCUS has reached a pivotal moment in 2022. First, there is increased clarity that carbon capture is crucial to mitigating climate change by 2050. There is now a collective understanding that there will be countries, industrial sectors and so on, that will not or cannot meet the carbon reduction goals. Carbon capture will be the way to make up for those shortfalls, and this is spurring innovation. The aspirations…