Up to now, most of the CCS RD&D focus has been on coal use, which is appropriate
because of its carbon intensity and its dominant role in the U.S. power sector (and
widespread use in China and India — both expanding energy consumers). The work
spans both post-combustion and pre-combustion (mainly gasification) capture.
However, to date, activity around CCS worldwide has been slow to reach the level
of demonstration needed to establish utility-scale sequestration in a timely fashion.
And as carbon emissions constraints grow tighter, natural gas combustion will also
need CCS (as indicated in Section 3 of this report).
Clearly, much of the CCS research is applicable to any fossil fuel source, especially
for post-combustion capture. For pre-combustion capture, there are technical
simplicities
in starting with natural gas, since the conversion to synthesis gas is much
simpler than for solid fuels. Consequently, consideration should be given to natural
gas CCS demonstration as part of the portfolio of demonstration projects needed
to establish this important technology for a very low carbon future.
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