Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The additional cost of installing CCS on CO
2
-emitting facilities is a
primary challenge to the adoption and deployment of CCS in the United
States.
Major increases in CO
2
capture technology efficiency will likely produce
the greatest relative cost savings for CCS systems, but challenges also face the
transport and storage components of CCS. Ideally, storage reservoirs for CO
2
would be located close to sources, obviating the need to build a large pipeline
infrastructure to deliver captured CO
2
for underground sequestration. If CCS
moves to widespread implementation, however, some areas of the country may
not have adequate reservoir capacity nearby, and may need to construct
pipelines from sources to reservoirs. Identifying and validating sequestration
sites would need to account for CO
2
pipeline costs, for example, if the
economics of the sites are to be fully understood. If this is the case, there
would be questions to be resolved regarding pipeline network requirements,
economic regulation, utility cost recovery, regulatory classification of CO
2
itself, and pipeline safety. In addition, Congress may be called upon to address
federal jurisdictional authority over CO
2
pipelines under existing law, and
whether additional legislation may be necessary if a CO
2
pipeline network
grows and crosses state lines.
Although DOE has identified substantial potential storage capacity for
CO
2
, particularly in deep saline formations, large-scale injection experiments
are only beginning in the United States to test how different types of reservoirs
perform during CO
2
injection. Data from the experiments will undoubtedly be
crucial to future permitting and site approval regulations.
In addition, liability, ownership, and long-term stewardship for CO
2
sequestered underground are issues that would need to be resolved before CCS
is deployed commercially.
Some states are moving ahead with state-level geological sequestration
regulations for CO
2
, so federal efforts to resolve these issues at a national level
would likely involve negotiations with the states. Acceptance by the general
public of large-scale deployment of CCS may be a significant challenge if the
majority of CCS projects involve private land. Some of the large-scale
injection tests could garner information about public acceptance, as local
communities become familiar with the concept, process, and results of CO
2
injection tests. Apart from the question of how the public would accept the
likely higher cost for electricity generated from plants with CCS, how a
growing CCS infrastructure of pipelines, injection wells, underground
reservoirs, and other facilities would be accepted by the public is as yet
unknown.
