CO Capture and Storage - Energy and Climate: How to Achieve a Successful Energy Transition - page 107

very large areas of land which, generally, are not available in a populated
area.
Furthermore, it is necessary to ensure a rigorous management of
the planted area, in order to achieve a positive carbon balance. Forests
act as carbon sinks only during their growth period. A lack of maintenance
or, even worse, deforestation at a later stage leads to a negative
balance.
Biomass production has not only positive effects: agriculture and cattle
breeding have a negative impact on the greenhouse effect due to CO 2
emissions resulting from the use of agricultural machinery, and also as a
result of methane released by ruminants and NO x emissions resulting
from the use of nitrate fertilisers.

CO 2 capture and transport

Carbon dioxide capture and geological storage is a way to implement
artificial carbon sinks as it consists of storing large amounts of CO 2
underground.
This pathway has been extensively investigated worldwide during
recent years, particularly in Europe, the USA and Japan. The basic
principle is the following: CO 2 released from a large stationary source
(industrial flue gases, CO 2 rich rawnatural gas) is captured, concentrated,
compressed and transported to an adequate geological formation inwhich
it can be stored [90-92].
Carbon dioxide capture from combustion flue gases can be implemen-
ted through the use of technologies already available.
In most cases, solvent scrubbing processes are used, involving amines
such asMEA (monoethanolamine), which are already used for natural gas
processing.
The solvent absorbs CO 2 contained in flue gases by contacting the gases
in an industrial column. Captured CO 2 is then released and separated
from the solvent by heating in an industrial column. The solvent is then
recycled and CO 2 is processed and sent to the storage location.
In the case of existing installations, flue gas scrubbing is preferably done
at the 'post-combustion' stage,

i.e. following energy production by

combustion.
This option has the advantage of being readily applicable and does not
require a full transformation of the existing installation if there is enough
space area available, taking into account the area required by the equip-
ment to be installed.