The Fossil Fuel industry has played a pioneering role in advancing Carbon capture research. This includes the process of extracting carbon from the burning of fossil fuels known as enhanced oil recovery or EOR. Captured carbon to make fuel is at best carbon neutral and we need to focus on technologies that draw down carbon. Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) for fuel and EOR will not enable us to meet the targets laid out in the Paris Agreement (ie keeping temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius). Converting captured carbon into liquid fuels releases CO2 into the atmosphere when they are burned and thus they do not contribute to the CO2 mitigation challenge (Mac Dowell, Fennell, Shah, and Maitland, 2017). Turning captured carbon into burnable fuel may prove to be a costly distraction both financially and politically. As stated by Dan Lashof of the World Resources Institute, this could be used as a justification to extend the life of the fossil fuel era (Rathi, 2019).

However, some of the technologies associated with extracting carbon from the burning of fossil fuels have contributed to approaches that can be repurposed for non-fuel-based sequestration. Similarly, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can draw down carbon and sequester all the carbon it generates. I will also consider CCU and DACCS that can use captured carbon to make other things besides fuels (e.g.: construction materials or carbon fiber).

It is also important to understand that the fossil fuel industry’s investment in EOR has advanced our knowledge of carbon capture. EOR can also be a financing mechanism to hone technological proficiency as an interim step towards a post fossil fuel world. Having markets for captured carbon reduces the cost of carbon dioxide reduction (CDR) and this can lower a barrier that impedes their development. As explained by Wurbuch, “It has to be for business; CO2 capture can’t work for free” (McGrath, 2017). EOR may offer a useful short-term economic incentive for some CDR projects but free markets on their own are unlikely to attract all the needed investment capital.

At present, there is a symbiotic relationship between the fossil fuel industry, CCS, CCU and DAC. In 2018, 90 percent of captured CO2 was used for EOR (Jones, 2020) and this provides a much-needed economic incentive for CDR technologies. This is also an important source of revenue to finance CDR research. CCS is most often used in fossil fuel powered energy plants, and captured carbon in CCU applications are commonly used to make fuel. Direct air capture (DAC) is also in also funded by the fossil fuel industry. As explained by Susan Hovorka, a geologist with the University of Texas at Austin, oil and DAC should mix. “It’s a perfectly reasonable step toward getting the NETs portfolio commercialized,” Hovorka said.

“If we want to do something like DAC on a Gt scale, we can’t do it without the help of the energy companies, ” said one NAS committee member (Kramer, 2020). The cost of CDR would be up to 70 percent higher without the fossil fuel industry’s support for CCS (EIA, n.d.). EOR is also a source of human resources. According to Christopher W. Jones, associate vice president for research at Georgia Institute of Technology, CCS used in conjunction with fossil fuels involve “transferable” know-how that could benefit DACCS (Welch, 2020). Scaling CDR requires an immense workforce and EOR workers have the exact skill sets required (Kramer, 2018).

CDR has benefited from the fossil fuel industry’s investments, however, if the goal is to draw down atmospheric carbon, we cannot afford to focus on applications of CCU for fuel.

For references and more information go to CDR Resources. See also Glossary of Terminology Related to CDR.

Related

• What we Should and Should Not Do with Captured Carbon
• Companies Leading Carbon Capture Technology
• Assessment of the Leading Carbon Capture Companies
• Assessment of Geological Carbon Sequestration
• The Economic Opportunities Associated with Carbon Removal
• Assessment of Carbon Capture Technologies (DACCS, CCU, and CCS)
• The Costs and Scalability of Carbon Capture Technologies
• Natural Climate Solutions for Carbon Sequestration
• Short Brief on the State of Carbon Capture Research
• Why We Need Carbon Capture and Sequestration
• Negative Emission Technologies are our Last Hope
• Examples of Carbon Capture Technology
• Carbon Capture and Storage is Essential Post Paris
• Carbon Capture and Storage (Videos)
• Canada is Banking on Carbon Capture to Offset Tar Sands
• The Farce of Canada’s Carbon Capture

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