Controlling Carbon emissions - Essay Example

Carbon sequestration is a component of CCS (carbon capture and storage). CCS aims at capturing carbon dioxide, transporting it to the place of storage and finally ensuring it is safely stored. Of all the available storage options, carbon geosequestration may be the most viable. This is because the process of geosequestration is characterized by ability to handle large volumes of gases at long periods of time. The process of geosequestration has not been commercially proven to be viable. However, it has been applied in processes of extraction oil.

Carbon dioxide gas is injected into oil reservoirs. It pushes the oil up due to pressure improving the rate at which oil is flowing out. Carbon dioxide remains in the reservoirs hence, it is stored (Metz, B., Davidson, O., Swart, R., and Pan, J. 153). The process of carbon sequestration is being investigated in several parts of the world. Demonstrations are being undertaken to determine how safe and feasible this process is. The oldest demonstration has been operation since 1996 (Goulder. and Mathai, 36-37).

This is the Sleipner project which store approximately 1 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. Canada has the largest project (Weyburn project) of carbon sequestration which stores about 1.5 million tons of carbon every year in its process of oil extraction. . and Mathai, 38). Cost of Carbon Sequestration High costs pose a great challenge to carbon sequestration. It is estimated that a ton of carbon dioxide costs more than 30 dollars to sequestrate (Grubler, Nakicenovic, and Nordhaus, eds. 112). There are great technical difficulties in reducing these costs given current levels of technology.

There is technological knowhow and mechanisms of separating carbon dioxide and hydrogen. However, the capital and costs of operations are quite high. This is mainly because these technologies are preferably applied in fossil fuel combustion. There are is need for more research and development in this field in order to reduce the costs of carbon sequestration. Costs of mitigating leakages of carbon dioxide form the ground are also very high. If this gas’ concentration is stabilized at double preindustrial levels, a 1% leakage is tantamount to around 850 billion dollars annually up to 2095 (Kauppi 98).

therefore, a leakage of around 1 percent or less poses an intolerable transfer of cost to future generations. However, there is no empirical evidence that 1 % or less carbon dioxide is leaked from reservoirs. This further increases the uncertainty of costs meaning that the economic burden of carbon sequestration might even be higher than anticipated (Kauppi 105). Potential problems of carbon sequestration There are three main problems of carbon sequestration. These are; Storage security, heightened energy consumption and lack of large-scale practicality.

Storage security involves the potential danger of storing carbon dioxide at very high pressure levels. Any technology used in injecting carbon dioxide is susceptible to human errors. Such an error would cause loses in property worth millions and thousands of