FECM Explains: Scales and Capture Rates for Carbon Capture Technology Development

Carbon capture is a decades old process that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from industrial facilities and power plants. This technology can be used in diverse applications, including ethanol, natural gas processing, gasification, fertilizer, hydrogen, cement, steel, and pulp and paper production. Widespread commercial deployment of carbon capture will require a concerted effort to build out the infrastructure to transport large amounts of CO₂ from these sources  for permanent geologic storage or for conversion to useful, durable products.

Advancing carbon capture technologies is crucial for establishing a successful carbon management industry in the United States and meeting the ambitious climate goals set forth by the Biden-Harris Administration, including net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by 2050. 

While a first generation of amine-based carbon capture technologies have already been widely and successfully deployed at commercial scale, next-generation carbon capture technologies with the potential for reduced costs and improved performance are at varying stages of development and commercialization. To prepare emerging carbon capture technologies for commercial, widescale deployment, a series of research, development, and demonstration projects must be completed. Typically, small-scale projects are first completed in the laboratory, followed by mid-scale pilot projects in controlled environments, and finally full-scale demonstration projects in an actual commercial operational environment.

Given the constraints of limited funding for research, development, and demonstration, it is imperative to design projects that achieve research objectives at the lowest possible cost and scale. Accordingly, the scale of a pilot or demonstration project is frequently less than what would be required to capture carbon from all of the host facility’s emission sources.

The Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery process, which was developed over a series of key projects, serves as an example of how projects can be scaled to ensure that funding is spent most efficiently by reducing project risks—beginning in the laboratory, moving on to small-scale pilot projects, and finally to deployment and demonstration at commercial plants.

Before a technology becomes commercially viable, the following steps must be taken to test and validate the reductions in CO₂ emissions resulting from the carbon capture process:

1. Laboratory and Bench-Scale Development,
2. Small-Scale Pilot Testing,
3. Large-Scale Pilot Testing, and
4. Commercial Demonstration.

Measurements are taken during every phase of the development process to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of the technologies. The extent to which a carbon capture system removes CO₂ can be expressed in many ways. The calculation can be made on a gross or net basis, and the scope can be limited to the capture system itself or be broadened to encompass the entire host facility. Additionally, data on non-CO₂ emissions data are collected. 

For more information on these phases, the Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery process, and carbon capture technology development, download this fact sheet from the National Energy Technology Laboratory: Understanding Scales and Capture Rates for Point-Source Carbon Capture Technology Development. 

To learn more about how the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is supporting the development of a carbon management industry, sign up to receive email updates and follow us on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.