Scope for future CO2 emission reductions from electricity generation through the deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies

Abstract

Ongoing work on the potential for carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) from fossil fuel power stations in the UK suggests that this technology may be capable of supplying significant amounts of low-emission electricity within one or two decades. Renewable generation is also planned to increase over similar time scales and there is the additional possibility of nuclear replacements being built. If the political justification for significant UK CO{sub 2} emission reductions emerges from global post-Kyoto negotiations, it is therefore possible that large ({approximately}45%) reductions in CO{sub 2} emissions from UK electricity generation could be achieved by as early as 2020. Both the technical and the political aspects are, however, changing rapidly, with perhaps the conclusion of the post-Kyoto negotiations in 2007 as the first clear pointer for the future. CCS technologies also have considerable potential for future emission reductions world wide, especially in regions where large numbers of new fossil fuel power plants are being built within {approximately}500 km of sedimentary basins. 10 refs., 2 figs., 2 tabs.