Along with improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of non–carbon energy, carbon capture is likely the key to stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations within the atmosphere to prevent dangerous interference with Earth’s climate system.

As the climate crisis becomes increasingly dire and talk of what can be done picks up throughout politics and industry, the terms “carbon capture” and “carbon sequestration” have begun appearing more and more.

Both refer to a means of greenhouse gas reduction, a potential piece of the puzzle of at least slowing disastrous climate effects and meeting the objectives laid out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Along with improving energy efficiency and increasing the use of non–carbon energy, carbon capture is likely to play a large role in the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations within the atmosphere to prevent dangerous interference with Earth’s climate system.

There are two main types of carbon capture. First, capture at a source such as a power plant or industrial process, followed by storage in non–atmospheric reservoirs. Projects like MIT’s Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies Program, which ran until 2016, have sought to do exactly that—store CO2 in places like saltwater aquifers deep beneath the sea floor, taking advantage of existing offshore infrastructure in a method found to be generally safe and permanent.

10/17-19 EAC