FAQ

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, and storing it permanently underground.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the few technological solutions that can contribute to a significant reduction in emissions from industrial operations based on coal or gas power, keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere that would otherwise worsen climate change.

CCS will be crucial for decarbonising industries such as cement and steel where production itself results in large CO2 emissions, as well as other industries

CCS is short for Carbon Capture and Storage. CCS targets reducing the emission of CO2 to the athmosphere. CO2 is captured from a point of emission, then transported og permanently stored in underground geological formations.

The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Additionally, the agreement aims to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change. Without CCS, both th IPCC and IEA point out that reaching these goals will be way more difficult and expensive. 

It is absolutely safe to store large amounts of CO₂ on the Norwegian continental shelf. Equinor has thorough experience from storing CO2 in the North Sea. CO2 is injected into deep underground rock formations, usually at depths of one kilometre or more. This has been done at both the Sleipner-field (1 mill tons CO2 annually since 1996) and the Snow White-field (appr 700.000 tons CO2 annually since 2007). Surveillance programs show that there is no CO2-leakage from the storing.

Yes. Through the building of the full scale CCS-project at Norcem Brevik, all parties involved accumulate knowledge which may be useful for future facilities.

CO₂ can and will be used in other industrial procedures. However, this will often just postpone the emissions. Due to the large amount of CO₂ which is now released into the atmosphere, CO₂-storage is needed in the foreseeable future. 

According to the Global CCS Institute (GCCSI), there are currently 19 large scale projects in operation and four new projects under construction with a total capacity close to 40 million tonnes of CO₂. However, Norcem Brevik is the first cement plant in the world with fullscale CCS. 

Norway wants to contribute to reducing the global greenhouse gas emissions. The government therefore wants to contribute to developing CCS technology that can be shared internationally. In order to achieve the required amount of CCS projects needed, the technology has to be further developed and costs have to come down. Currently CCS is too costly for commercial industry to tackle the development on their own. Norway has good capabilities in technology development and we have strong experience in safely storing CO2 underground. This puts us in a good position to contribute to the development of CCS globally.

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