We are witnessing an amplified momentum for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). International Energy Agency and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections show a dramatic increase in carbon capture across all industries and geographies.
Technically, the concept of capturing and storing CO2 underground is well understood; the challenge lies in balancing project framework and economic returns. This is where government incentives and regulations become critical to attracting investment.
In some industries—such as bioethanol applications, ammonia production, and gas processing—emissions are relatively easy to capture. Additionally, certain geological regions are excellent candidates for industrial-scale CO2 storage. These factors, together with policy and regulatory regime, will create early winners and regional hubs.
There are dozens of existing steam methane reformers (SMRs) in chemical complexes and refineries; the key is to modify the SMR process to capture the CO2 instead of venting it, thus enabling carbon-free production of H2.
Another usage for carbon-negative technology has generated considerable interest for its market potential and its government tax incentives—biomass energy production combined with CCS, known as bio-CCS or BECCS. BECCS has enormous potential to remove significant amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere while producing useful products, such as renewable fuels, hydrogen, or electricity. It also has significant market potential to capitalize on existing government-based credit incentive programs.
The cement industry generates 7% of human-made CO2 emissions and has no alternative to reducing its footprint but to capture CO2 from the calcination process and dispose of it at large scale. CCS is poised to play a leading role in decarbonizing the industry. Some steel plants generate a high-concentration CO2 stream (from direct reduced iron processing) and are a viable candidate to retrofit with CCS because of their low capture cost. Read more about our announced partnerships in this area.
For more than 20 years, Schlumberger has been involved in CCS projects around the world, helping customers reduce emissions by providing services and technologies for permanent underground sequestration of CO2.
Recently, Schlumberger New Energy has started exploring ways to go beyond our traditional offering and directly partner with emitters to assess, develop, and operate entire CCS value chains. The scope of collaboration goes beyond subsurface requirements and includes project economics, technology selection, business models, and permitting. We're designing new partnerships and business models with a focus on
Schlumberger New Energy is partnering with leaders in a range of strategic sectors to demonstrate carbon solutions across a wide range of projects. Through our portfolio of CCS initiatives, we support businesses and governments in facing today's challenges of minimizing environmental impact while undertaking the transformations necessary to provide the global energy, materials, and infrastructure needed to sustain the growing societal demands of the future.
