# Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR43300

## Record

- **Collection:** Congressional research report
- **Document type:** CRS Report
- **Published:** November 5, 2013
- **Citation:** R43300

## Text

Carbon Capture Technology Assessment:
In Brief
(name redacted)
Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy
November 5, 2013

Congressional Research Service
7-....
www.crs.gov
R43300

Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

Summary
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is widely seen as a critical strategy for limiting
atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)—the principal “greenhouse gas” linked to global
climate change—from power plants and other large industrial sources. This report focuses on the
first component of a CCS system, the CO2 capture process. Unlike the other two components of
CCS, transportation and geologic storage, the CO2 capture component of CCS is heavily
technology-dependent. For CCS to succeed at reducing CO2 emissions from a significant fraction
of large sources in the United States, CO2 capture technologies would need to be deployed
widely. Widespread commercial deployment would likely depend, in part, on the cost of the
technology deployed to capture CO2. This report summarizes prospects for improved, lower-cost
technologies for each of the three current approaches to CO2 capture: post-combustion capture;
pre-combustion capture; and oxy-combustion capture. CRS Report R41325, Carbon Capture: A
Technology Assessment, provides a more detailed analysis of these technologies.
While all three approaches are capable of high capture efficiencies (typically about 90%), the
major drawbacks of current processes are their high cost and the large energy requirements for
operation. Another drawback is that at present there are still no full-scale applications of CO2
capture on a coal-fired or gas-fired power plant; these plants produce over a third of total U.S.
CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. However, a number of large-scale demonstration
projects at both coal combustion and gasification-based power plants are planned or underway in
the United States and elsewhere. Substantial research and development (R&D) activities are also
underway in the United States and elsewhere to develop and commercialize lower-cost capture
systems with smaller energy penalties. Current R&D activities include development and testing
of new or improved solvents that can lower the cost of current post-combustion and precombustion capture, as well as research on a variety of potential “breakthrough technologies”
such as novel solvents, sorbents, membranes, and oxyfuel systems that hold promise for even
lower-cost capture systems.
The future use of coal in the United States will likely depend on whether and how CCS is
deployed if legislative or regulatory actions curtail future CO2 emissions. Congressional interest
in CCS was renewed when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-proposed
standards for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new fossil-fueled power plants on September
20, 2013. These re-proposed standards would not apply to existing power plants. As re-proposed,
the standards would limit emissions of CO2 to no more than 1,100 pounds per megawatt-hour of
production from new coal-fired power plants and between 1,000 and 1,100 for new natural gasfired plants. According to EPA, new natural gas-fired stationary power plants should be able to
meet the proposed standards. However, new coal-fired plants only would be able to meet the
standards by installing CCS technology, which could add significant capital costs.
In general, the focus of most current R&D activities is on cost reduction rather than additional
gains in CO2 capture efficiency. Key questions include: when would advanced CO2 capture
systems be available for commercial rollout; and how much cheaper they would be compared to
current technology. “Technology roadmaps” developed by governmental and private-sector
organizations anticipate that CO2 capture may be available for commercial deployment at power
plants by 2020. Some roadmaps also project that some novel, lower-cost technologies may be
commercial by 2020. Such projections acknowledge, however, that this will require aggressive
efforts to advance promising concepts to commercial viability.

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

Achieving significant cost reductions would likely require a vigorous and sustained level of R&D
and also a significant market for CO2 capture. At present such a market does not exist. While
various types of incentive programs can accelerate the development and deployment of CO2
capture technology, actions that significantly limit emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere ultimately
would be needed to realize substantial and sustained reductions in the future cost of CO2 capture.

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 1
Structure of this Report.............................................................................................................. 2
Other CRS Reports on CCS ...................................................................................................... 2
Background ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Overview.......................................................................................................................................... 4
Current Research and Development (R&D) Activities ............................................................. 5
Future Outlook........................................................................................................................... 6

Figures
Figure 1. Schematic of a CCS System, Consisting of CO2 Capture,
Transport, and Storage .................................................................................................................. 4

Tables
Table 1. Post-Combustion Capture Approaches Being Developed
at Laboratory or Bench Scale ....................................................................................................... 6

Contacts
Author Contact Information............................................................................................................. 8

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

Introduction
Congressional interest in carbon capture and sequestration (or carbon capture and storage, CCS)
has been renewed since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-proposed standards
for carbon dioxide (CO2) from new fossil-fueled power plants on September 20, 2013. As reproposed, the standards would limit emissions of CO2 to no more than 1,100 pounds per
megawatt-hour of production from new coal-fired power plants and between 1,000 and 1,100
(depending on size of the plant) for new natural gas-fired plants. The standards would not apply
to existing facilities. EPA proposed the standard under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act.1
According to EPA, new natural gas-fired stationary power plants should be able to meet the
proposed standards without additional cost or the need for add-on control technology. However,
new coal-fired plants only would be able to meet the standards by installing carbon capture and
sequestration (CCS) technology. The proposed standard would allow an option of up to seven
years for a new coal-fired plant to comply. But that option would require a more stringent
standard for those plants and limit CO2 emissions to an average of 1,000-1,050 pounds per
megawatt-hour over the seven-year period.
The promise of CCS lies in the potential for technology to capture CO2 emitted from large,
industrial sources, thus significantly decreasing CO2 emissions without drastically changing U.S.
dependence on fossil fuels, particularly coal, for electricity generation. The future use of coal—a
significant component of the U.S. energy portfolio—in the United States will likely depend on
whether and how CCS is deployed if legislative or regulatory actions curtail future CO2
emissions. The September 20, 2013, proposed rule for limiting CO2 emissions from new fossilfueled power plants is one such action. In addition, Section 111 of the Clean Air Act requires that
EPA develop guidelines for pollutants—which has been interpreted to include greenhouse gas
emissions—for existing plants whenever it promulgates standards for new power plants. In a June
25, 2013, memorandum, President Obama directed the EPA to issue proposed guidelines for
existing plants by June 1, 2014, and to issue final guidelines a year later.2 These proposed actions
will likely draw additional congressional scrutiny of the viability of large-scale CCS as the
primary technology for mitigating CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Unlike the other two components of CCS, transportation and geologic storage, the first
component of CCS—CO2 capture—is almost entirely technology-dependent. For CCS to succeed
at reducing CO2 emissions from a significant fraction of large sources in the United States, CO2
capture technology would need to be deployed widely. Widespread commercial deployment
would likely depend on the cost of capturing CO2, although other factors, such as incentives for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions, would also influence deployment.

1

Since 2009, EPA has begun to address emissions of greenhouse gases from both mobile and stationary sources, using
broad regulatory authority provided by Congress decades ago in the Clean Air Act. Although Congress has never
specifically directed EPA to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases, the Clean Air Act as enacted in 1970 and as
amended in 1977 and 1990 gave the agency authority to identify air pollutants and promulgate regulations to limit their
emission. For more information see CRS Report R43127, EPA Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power
Plants: Many Questions, Some Answers, by (name redacted).
2
Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, “Power Sector Carbon Pollution Standards,” Memorandum for the
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, June 25, 2013, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/
2013/06/25/presidential-memorandum-power-sector-carbon-pollution-standards.

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

The transportation and storage components of CCS are not nearly as technology-dependent as the
capture component. Nonetheless, transportation and sequestration costs, while generally much
smaller than capture costs, could be very high in some cases. They would depend, in part, on how
long it would take to reach an agreement on a regulatory framework to guide long-term CO2
injection and storage, and on what those regulations would require. CCS deployment would also
depend on the degree of public acceptance of a large-scale CCS enterprise. Several CRS reports
(see below) address these policy issues of CO2 transportation and storage.

Structure of this Report
This report is a brief summary of a longer study—CRS Report R41325, Carbon Capture: A
Technology Assessment—that provides a “snapshot” of technological development current
through mid-2010. The technology assessment is both prospective and retrospective in that it
examines emerging or advanced technologies that may affect future CCS deployment, and looks
at lessons from past experience with large-scale technological development and deployment as
guidelines that could be used to shape energy policy. The longer report consists of 10 chapters,
together with figures and tables.
This report and the longer CRS report focus on the first component of a CCS system, namely, the
CO2 capture process. The goal of these reports is to provide a realistic assessment of prospects for
improved, lower-cost technologies for each of the three current approaches to CO2 capture.
The technology assessment was undertaken by Carnegie Mellon University, Department of
Engineering and Public Policy, under the leadership of Edward S. Rubin, together with Aaron
Marks, Hari Mantripragada, Peter Versteeg, and John Kitchin. The work was performed under
contract to CRS, and is part of a multiyear CRS project to examine different aspects of U.S.
energy policy. (name redacted), CRS Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy, served as the
CRS project coordinator.
CRS Report R41325, Carbon Capture: A Technology Assessment, was funded, in part, by a grant
from the Joyce Foundation.

Other CRS Reports on CCS
CRS has written a suite of products on different aspects of CCS that complement this assessment
of carbon capture technologies. These include:
•

CRS Report R42532, Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS): A Primer, by
(name redacted).

•

CRS Report R42496, Carbon Capture and Sequestration: Research,
Development, and Demonstration at the U.S. Department of Energy, by (name
redacted).

•

CRS Report R43028, FutureGen: A Brief History and Issues for Congress, by
(name redacted).

•

CRS Report R42950, Prospects for Coal in Electric Power and Industry, by
(name redacted), (name redacted), and (name redacted).

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

•

CRS Report RL33971, Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Pipelines for Carbon
Sequestration: Emerging Policy Issues, by (name redacted), (name redacted), and
(name redacted).

•

CRS Report R40103, Carbon Control in the U.S. Electricity Sector: Key
Implementation Uncertainties, by (name redacted).

•

CRS Report RL34316, Pipelines for Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Control: Network
Needs and Cost Uncertainties, by (name redacted) and (name redacted).

•

CRS Report RL34307, Legal Issues Associated with the Development of Carbon
Dioxide Sequestration Technology, by (name redacted) and (name redacted).

•

CRS Report RL34601, Community Acceptance of Carbon Capture and
Sequestration Infrastructure: Siting Challenges, by (name redacted).

•

CRS Report R43127, EPA Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Power
Plants: Many Questions, Some Answers, by (name redacted).

Background
Global climate change is an issue of major international concern and the focus of proposed
mitigation policy measures in the United States and elsewhere. In this context, CCS technology
has received increasing attention over the past decade as a potential method of limiting
atmospheric emissions of CO2—the principal “greenhouse gas” linked to climate change.
Worldwide interest in CCS stems principally from three factors. First is a growing consensus that
large reductions in global CO2 emissions are needed to avoid serious climate change impacts.3
Because electric power plants are a major source of CO2, curtailing their emissions has become a
focus.
Second is the growing realization that large emission reductions cannot be achieved easily or
quickly simply by using less energy or by replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy sources
that emit little or no CO2. The reality is that the world (and the United States itself) today relies
on fossil fuels for over 85% of its energy use (including fuel for transportation, not just electricity
generation). Changing that picture dramatically would take time. CCS thus offers a way to get
large CO2 reductions from power plants and other industrial sources until cleaner, sustainable
energy technologies can be widely deployed.
Finally, energy-economic models show that adding CCS to the suite of other GHG reduction
measures significantly lowers the cost of mitigating climate change. Studies also have affirmed
that by 2030 and beyond, CCS is a major component of a cost-effective portfolio of emission
reduction strategies.4
3

National Research Council, America’s Climate Choices: Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change, The
National Academies Press, Washington, DC, May 2010; S. Solomon et al., eds., Climate Change 2007: The Physical
Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, 2007.
4
J. Edmonds, “The Potential Role of CCS in Climate Stabilization,” Proc. 9th International Conference on Greenhouse
Gas Control Technologies, 2008, Washington, DC; B. Metz, et al., eds., Climate Change 2007: Mitigation.
Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
(continued...)

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Figure 1 depicts the overall CCS process applied to a power plant or other industrial process. The
CO2 produced from carbon in the fossil fuels or biomass feedstock is first captured, then
compressed to a dense liquid to facilitate its transport and storage. The main storage option is
underground injection into a suitable geological formation.
At the present time, CCS is not commercially proven in the primary large-scale application for
which it is envisioned—electric power plants fueled by coal or natural gas. Furthermore, the cost
of CCS today is relatively high, due mainly to the high cost of CO2 capture (which includes the
cost of CO2 compression needed for transport and storage). This has prompted a variety of
government and private-sector research programs in the United States and elsewhere to develop
more cost-effective methods of CO2 capture.
Figure 1. Schematic of a CCS System, Consisting of CO2 Capture,
Transport, and Storage
Fossil Fuels;
Biomass

Air or
Oxygen

Power Plant
or Industrial
Process

CO2

USEFUL
PRODUCTS
(e.g., electricity, fuels,
chemicals, hydrogen)

CO2
Capture &
Compress

CO2
Transport

CO2 Storage
(Sequestration)

- Post-combustion
- Pre-combustion
- Oxyfuel combustion

- Pipeline
- Tanker

- Depleted oil/gas fields
- Deep saline formations
- Unmineable coal seams
- Deep Ocean
- Mineralization
- Reuse

Source: E. S. Rubin, “Will Carbon Capture and Storage be Available in Time?,” American Association for the
Advancement of Science, Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, February 18-22, 2010.
Notes: Carbon inputs may include fossil fuels and biomass. Technical options are listed below each stage. Those
in italics are not available or implemented at a commercial scale.

Overview
The following is an assessment of prospects for CCS capture technologies; namely, postcombustion capture from power plant flue gases using amine-based solvents such as
monoethanolamine (MEA) and ammonia; pre-combustion capture (also via chemical solvents)
from the synthesis gas produced in an integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power
plant; and oxy-combustion capture, in which high-purity oxygen rather than air is used for
(...continued)
Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

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Carbon Capture Technology Assessment: In Brief

combustion in a pulverized coal (PC) power plant to produce a flue gas with a high concentration
of CO2 amenable to capture without a post-combustion chemical process.
Currently, post-combustion and pre-combustion capture technologies are commercial and widely
used for gas stream purification in a variety of industrial processes. Several small-scale
installations also capture CO2 from power plant flue gases to produce CO2 for sale as an industrial
commodity. Oxy-combustion capture, however, is still under development and is not currently
commercial.
The advantages and limitations of each of these three methods are discussed in CRS Report
R41325, Carbon Capture: A Technology Assessment, along with plans for their continued
development. While all three approaches are capable of high CO2 capture efficiencies (typically
about 90%), the major drawbacks of current processes are their high cost and the large energy
requirement for operation (which significantly reduces the net plant capacity and contributes to
the high cost of capture). Another drawback in terms of their availability for greenhouse gas
mitigation is that at present, there are still no applications of CO2 capture on a coal-fired or gasfired power plant at full scale (i.e., a scale of several hundred megawatts of plant capacity).

Current Research and Development (R&D) Activities
To address the current lack of demonstrated capabilities for full-scale CO2 capture at power
plants, a number of large-scale demonstration projects at both coal combustion and gasificationbased power plants are planned or underway in the United States and elsewhere. These projects
and the technologies they plan to employ are summarized in CRS Report R41325, Carbon
Capture: A Technology Assessment. Many of these demonstrations are expected to begin
operation in 2014 or 2015. Planned projects for other types of industrial facilities also are
discussed.
Also elaborated in the longer report are the substantial R&D activities underway in the United
States and elsewhere to develop and commercialize lower-cost capture systems with smaller
energy penalties. To characterize the status of capture technologies and the prospects for their
commercial availability, five stages of development are defined: conceptual designs; laboratory or
bench scale; pilot plant scale; full-scale demonstration plants; and commercial processes. The
CRS report reviews current activities at each of these stages for each of the three major capture
routes.
Current R&D activities include development and testing of new or improved solvents that can
lower the cost of current post-combustion and pre-combustion capture, as well as research on a
variety of potential “breakthrough technologies” such as novel solvents, sorbents, membranes,
and oxyfuel systems that hold promise for even lower-cost capture systems. Most of the latter
processes, however, are still in the early stages of research and development (i.e., conceptual
designs and laboratory- or bench-scale processes), so that credible estimates of their performance
and (especially) cost are lacking at this time. Table 1 lists the major approaches being pursued for
post-combustion capture, although many of these approaches apply to pre-combustion and oxycombustion capture as well.

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Table 1. Post-Combustion Capture Approaches Being Developed
at Laboratory or Bench Scale
Liquid Solvents

Solid Adsorbents

Membranes

Advanced amines

Supported amines

Polymeric

Potassium carbonate

Carbon-based

Amine-doped

Advanced mixtures

Sodium carbonate

Integrated with absorption

Ionic liquids

Crystalline materials

Biomimetic-based

Source: Edward S. Rubin, Aaron Marks, Hari Mantripragada, Peter Versteeg, and John Kitchin, Carnegie Mellon
University, Department of Engineering and Public Policy.

Processes under development at the more advanced pilot plant scale are, for the most part, new or
improved solvent formulations (such as ammonia and advanced amines) that are undergoing
testing and evaluation. These advanced solvents could be available for commercial use within
several years if subsequent full-scale testing confirms their overall benefit. Pilot-scale oxycombustion processes also are currently being tested and evaluated for planned scale-up, while
two IGCC power plants in Europe are installing pilot plants to evaluate pre-combustion capture
options.
In general, the focus of most current R&D activities is on cost reduction rather than additional
gains in the efficiency of CO2 capture (which can result in cost increases rather than decreases). A
number of R&D programs emphasize the need for lower-cost retrofit technologies suitable for
existing power plants. As a practical matter, however, most technologies being pursued to reduce
capture costs for new plants also apply to existing plants. As the fleet of existing coal-fired power
plants continues to age, the size of the potential U.S. retrofit market for CO2 capture will continue
to shrink, as older plants may not be economic to retrofit (although the situation in other
countries, especially China, may be quite different).

Future Outlook
Whether for new power plants or existing ones, the key questions are the same: When would
advanced CO2 capture systems be available for commercial rollout, and how much cheaper would
they be compared to current technology?
To address the first question, CRS Report R41325, Carbon Capture: A Technology Assessment,
reviews a variety of “technology roadmaps” developed by governmental and private-sector
organizations in the United States and elsewhere. All of these roadmaps anticipate that CO2
capture will be available for commercial deployment at power plants by 2020. Current
commercial technologies like post-combustion amine systems could be available sooner. A
number of roadmaps also project that novel, lower-cost technologies like solid sorbent systems
for post-combustion capture will be commercial in the 2020 time frame. Such projections
acknowledge, however, that this will require aggressive and sustained efforts to advance
promising concepts to commercial reality.
That caveat is strongly supported by a review of experience from other recent R&D programs to
develop lower-cost technologies for post-combustion SO2 and NOx capture at coal-fired power
plants. Those efforts typically took two decades or more to bring new concepts (like combined
SO2 and NOx capture processes) to commercial availability. By then, however, the cost

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advantages initially foreseen for these novel systems had largely evaporated in most cases: the
advanced technologies tended to get more expensive as their development progressed (consistent
with “textbook” descriptions of the innovation process), while the cost of formerly “high-cost”
commercial technologies gradually declined over time. The absence of a significant market for
the novel technologies put them at a further disadvantage. This may be similar to the situation for
CO2 capture systems today. Thus, the development of advanced CO2 capture technologies is not
without financial risks.
With regard to future cost reductions, based on past experience, the costs of environmental
technologies that succeed in the marketplace tend to fall over time. For example, after an initial
rise during the early commercialization period, the cost of post-combustion SO2 and NOx capture
systems declined by 50% or more after about two decades of deployment at coal-fired power
plants. This trend is consistent with the “learning curve” behavior seen for many other classes of
technology. It thus appears reasonable to expect a similar trend for future CO2 capture costs once
these technologies become widely deployed. Note, too, that the cost of CO2 capture also depends
on other aspects of power plant design, financing, and operation—not solely on the cost of the
CO2 capture unit. Future improvements in net power plant efficiency, for example, would tend to
lower the unit cost of CO2 capture.
Other cost estimates for advanced CO2 capture systems are based on engineering-economic
analysis of proposed system designs. For example, recent studies by the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) foresee the cost of advanced PC and IGCC power plants with CO2 capture falling
by 27% and 31%, respectively, relative to current costs as a result of successful R&D programs.
No estimates are provided, however, as to when the various improvements described are expected
to be commercially available. In general, the farther away a technology is from commercial
reality, the lower its estimated cost tends to be. Thus, there is considerable uncertainty in cost
estimates for technologies that are not yet commercial, especially those that exist only as
conceptual designs.
More reliable estimates of future technology costs typically are linked to projections of their
expected level of commercial deployment in a given time frame (i.e., a measure of their market
size). For power plant technologies like CO2 capture systems, this is commonly expressed as total
installed capacity. However, as with other technologies whose sole purpose is to reduce
environmental emissions, there is no significant market for power plant CO2 capture systems
absent government actions or policies that effectively create such markets—either through
regulations that limit CO2 emissions, or through voluntary incentives such as tax credits or direct
financial subsidies. The technical literature and historical evidence examined in CRS Report
R41325, Carbon Capture: A Technology Assessment, strongly link future cost reductions for CO2
capture systems to their level of commercial deployment. In widely used models based on
empirical “experience curves,” the latter measure serves as a surrogate for the many factors that
influence future technology costs, including the level of R&D expenditures and the new
knowledge gained through learning-by-doing (related to manufacturing) and learning-by-using
(related to technology use).
Based on such models, published estimates project the future cost of electricity from power plants
with CO2 capture to fall by as much as 30% below current values after roughly 100,000
megawatts (MW) of capture plant capacity is installed and operated worldwide. That estimate is
in line with the DOE projects noted above. If achieved, it would represent a significant decrease
from current costs—one that would bring the cost and efficiency of future power plants with CO2
capture close to that of current plants without capture. For reference, it took approximately 20

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years following passage of the 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments to achieve a comparable level of
technology deployment for SO2 capture systems at coal-fired power plants.
Uncertainty estimates for these projections, however, indicate that future cost reductions for CO2
capture also could be much smaller than indicated above. Thus, whether future cost reductions
would meet, exceed, or fall short of current estimates will only be known with hindsight.
In the context of this report and CRS Report R41325, Carbon Capture: A Technology Assessment,
the key insight governing prospects for improved carbon capture technology is that achieving
significant cost reductions would require not only a vigorous and sustained level of R&D, but
also a substantial level of commercial deployment. That would necessitate a significant market
for CO2 capture technologies. At present such a market does not exist. While various types of
incentive programs can accelerate the development and deployment of CO2 capture technology,
actions that significantly limit emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere ultimately would be needed to
realize substantial and sustained reductions in the future cost of CO2 capture.

Author Contact Information
(name redacted)
Specialist in Energy and Natural Resources Policy
/redacted/@crs.loc.gov, 7-....

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