Public Interest

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What is the International Test Centre for Carbon Dioxide Capture?

The International Test Centre for Carbon Dioxide Capture (ITC) is one of only three major research centers in the world devoted to developing technologies for carbon capture. The ITC’s focus is on developing technologies for application in the energy industries, such as electricity generation. Capture technologies are used to extract carbon dioxide (CO₂) from gas streams produced during a variety of industrial processes. The most obvious example is flue gas, which is the smoke coming out of the smoke stacks of industrial plants that use combustion or oxidation. A prime example is coal-fired power generation plants that burn coal to produce steam used to propel electricity-generating turbines. The ITC’s mission is to research and develop affordable capture technologies. Currently, many of the proposed technologies are prohibitively expensive, but the ITC is finding ways to reduce costs so that we can begin using these technologies in industry and take major steps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
What are the Greenhouse Gas Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change?
The Greenhouse Gas Effect refers to the warming of the earth’s temperature due to the accumulation of certain gases in the atmosphere. The most common and naturally occurring GHG’s are water vapour, ozone, carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O). These gases in the atmosphere act like the glass of a greenhouse. They allow radiation (heat) from the sun to pass through the atmosphere to the earth’s surface but they do not allow the radiation to pass back out into space. To a certain extent, this is a natural process. Without it, the earth would be too cold to support life. However, many of the Greenhouses Gases (GHGs) are also produced in tremendous volumes by human activities. Scientists have observed a dramatic increase in the amount of certain GHGs in the atmosphere in the past two centuries since the beginning of industrialization, when large-scale burning of fossil fuels (a major source of GHGs) first began. It is believe that so much man-made GHG could have a serious effect on the earth’s temperature, resulting in Global Warming.

Global Warming refers to the increase in the earth’s temperature that is believed to be caused by the anthropogenic (man-made) Greenhouse Gas Effect. Even slight changes in the average overall temperature of the earth are thought to have noticeable effects on the earth’s climate.

Climate Change refers the effects on the earth’s climate of the increase in the earth’s temperature due to Global Warming. Climate is the prevailing weather (temperature, wind, and precipitation) of a particular geographical area across its seasons. Climate Change means that, throughout the globe, the climate typical of many geographical areas is changing. Scientists predict that such changes could result in prolonged unusual weather in certain areas and unusually severe storms, and, eventually, earth’s climate zones could change, turning temperate prairie grasslands to dryer, desert-like areas, for example.
How do scientists know that Greenhouse Gases produced by human activities are contributing to Global

Scientists are able to reliably estimate the temperature, whether, and atmospheric content of different parts of the earth in different time periods throughout the past from a variety of geological and biological clues. Scientist can examine tree rings that result from the annual growth of trees to determine climate changes over the lifetimes of forests. They can examine core samples of the earth and ice preserved in the cold arctic regions. They can examine the content of lake sediments and the growth patterns of coral in the oceans. From these clues, they can create models of the climate over the recent and ancient past to evaluate how the climate changes over long time periods. They can also measure gas concentrations in the atmosphere at all time periods. The scientists can compare the climate models to knowledge of gas concentrations and major events that have occurred, such as major volcano and earthquake activity, massive and wide-spread flooding, major changes in precipitation, mass extinctions, etc., to determine what links exist between changes in climate and atmospheric concentrations and major events in the world. In addition, historical records give more recent clues about the earth’s climate and technologies throughout the last few decades have allowed extremely accurate climate data to be collected. Through all of this evidence, scientists have observed drastic increases in atmospheric and ocean temperatures, notable increase in ocean levels, and significant changes in certain weather patterns over the past two hundred years, since the industrialization of the western nations. This is strongly correlated with dramatic increases in GHGs and GHG-producing activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels. From all of this, scientists can make certain cautious predictions about the consequences of global warming and climate change.
What are the consequences of Global Warming and Climate Change?

Data shows that the earth’s average air temperature is increasing. Some of the potential consequences of an increase in global temperature are severe storms (caused by changes to the normal balance of the temperature and moisture in the atmosphere above affected geographical locations), rising sea levels (caused by the melting of the polar icecaps due to increased overall temperature), and regional droughts (reduced precipitation).

Which gases are Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and how abundant and potent are they?

What are the sources of CO₂ emissions?

CO₂ is emitted from many anthropogenic (man-made) sources but are most particularly produced from the combustion of fossil fuels. The most abundant sources of CO₂ are electric power generation and the oil and gas industry. CO₂ capture and storage technologies are being developed to aid these industries in drastically reducing their GHG emissions.

Industrial CO₂ emissions sources
What can be done about Climate Change and Global Warming?

The largest contributor to Global Warming is the Greenhouse Gas Effect. To reduce Global Warming, we must reduce the amount of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) in the atmosphere. Some Greenhouse Gas is natural and essential to maintaining the earth’s ideal temperature. It is the anthropogenic (man-made) GHGs that must be reduced.

There are two types of anthropogenic sources of GHGs, large-point sources such as industrial facilities and operations, and small-point sources such as homes and automobiles. Scientists throughout the world are working on technologies to reduce and even eliminate the production of GHGs from all types of sources. One of the most significant technologies is GHG capture technology.
What does Greenhouse Gas capture mean?

Greenhouse gas capture is any technology that is used to divert and collect a greenhouse gas before it is released to the atmosphere. This technology is usually applied to capturing CO₂ since CO₂ is by far the most abundant man-made Greenhouse Gas.
What happens to the CO₂ after it is captured?
After CO₂ is captured it has to be stored or used in a secondary process.
How and where can captured CO₂ be stored?

Since the quantities of CO₂ that need to be captured and stored to make any sort of impact on Greenhouse Gas reductions are vast, there are really only two options large enough to contain the CO₂ – the ocean and underground geological formations.

Storage in the ocean involves either dropping the CO₂ into the ocean as solid blocks of dry ice that sink and are slowly dissolved or injecting the CO₂ into pockets or ‘lakes’ near the ocean floor or into deep waters. The CO₂ deposited in the ocean will eventually disperse throughout the water.

Storage in underground geological formations involves injecting the CO₂ directly into formations that are first screened to identify necessary characteristics that will allow them to securely contain the CO₂. Once of the most promising options for geological storage is to combine it with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).

For years, CO₂ has been used in the oil production industry as an agent for extracting additional oil after conventional production methods are no longer productive. The CO₂ is injected into the reservoir where it dissolves into the oil, causing it to swell and making it less viscous (thick and stick). Some of the CO₂ remains trapped in the fluids in the reservoir while some is produced with the oil. This CO₂ is separated from the oil and recirculated into the reservoir. At the end of the enhanced oil recovery process, the CO₂ is sealed in the reservoir where it will gradually disperse and, over centuries, become absorbed by the rocks and fluids of the reservoir.

This is proving to be the most viable option for major CO₂ reductions in Saskatchewan. The process is currently being used and demonstrated on an oil field near Weyburn, Saskatchewan in the IEA GHG Weyburn CO₂ Monitoring and Storage Project. Unfortunately, the CO₂ being stored at Weyburn is from a coal gasification plant in Beulah, North Dakota. However, the efforts of the ITC are providing technologies that will allow Saskatchewan to begin capturing CO₂ to be used in geological storage projects in Saskatchewan.
How can captured CO₂ be used in secondary processes?
- CO₂, as a liquid or a solid, is used as a refrigerant. The food industry uses it to transport frozen goods such as ice cream.
- Captured CO₂ can be used in carbonated beverages such as soda, and it is even used for artificial carbonation of beers and wines.
- CO₂ is often used as a pressurized gas because it is inexpensive and non-flammable. It can be used in floatation products such as lifejackets and gas propulsion producets such as airguns.
- Rapid vapourization of liquid CO₂ can be used as an explosive, such as blasting in coal mines.
- CO₂ extinguishes flame so it is often used in fire extinguishers, especially for use on electrical fires.
- CO₂ is often used as an organic solvent.
- It is used to extract caffeine from coffee.
- Since plants use CO₂ in photosynthesis, it can be used to promote plant growth.
- Greenhouses use it to create a temporary CO₂-rich atmosphere to kill off pests such as spider mites.
- CO₂ is used as an agent for gas lasers.
- CO₂ is mixed with oxygen given to patients in hospitals to stimulate breathing and maintain the CO₂/O₂ balance in the blood.
- Solid CO₂ is known as dry ice, which has many uses. It is used to freeze and cool perishables. It is used to create ‘fog’ in special effects. As tiny pellets is can be used as a grinding or etching agent similar to sand in sandblasting. It is not as effective as sand but has the advantage of being cleaner, because it evaporates, and less dangerous, because sand can be very harmful if inhaled. Metallic objects that need to be inserted into small holes are packed in dry ice to cool them, which shrinks them so that they can be inserted through the small hole. The objects then expand to fit as the ice evaporates and they warm.
- Ironically, CO₂ is also used deliberately to influence the weather by increasing precipitation and reducing cloud thickness (cloud seeding).
The purity of the CO₂ is what determines the use to which it can be put. Used in foods and medicines, the CO₂ is captured and then purified to acceptable levels of purity for consumption. One aspect of capture technology is controlling the purity of the captured CO₂. Other technologies are being developed to further purify the CO₂ after it has been captured.
What technologies are the ITC developing for carbon capture?

ITC is developing technologies specifically targeted to the energy industry, with a focus on industries using gas processing and producing flue gas streams, such as gas- and coal-fired power plants. See CO ₂ Research Activities

Greenhouse Gas	Description	Global Warming Potential ^*	Contribution to Global Warming
Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)	Produced by living organisms and human activities, especially fossil fuel combustion.	1	76 %
Methane (CH₄)	Produced by plant and animal material decay; the main constituent in natural gas.	21	12 %
Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)	Produced during fossil fuel combustion, the production / application of nitrogen fertilizers, and from natural sources.	310	11
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)	Developed to replace chlorofuorocarbons (CFCs); used in refrigeration as well as the manufacture of semi-conductors.	140 – 11,700	< 1 %
Per-fluorocarbons (PFCs)	Released during the aluminium refining process.	7,400	< 1 %
Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF₆)	Used in heavy industry to insulate high-voltage equipment and released in the production of magnesium.	25,000	< 1 %