Question: what is carbon catcher?

Gemma Purser answered on 27 Jun 2012:

Hi Emilythenerd (cool username by the way!)

Carbon capture is when carbon dioxide from industrial emissions, the gases that come out of big chimneys, is captured before it is released into the atmosphere. To be able to capture the carbon dioxide, the emissions, sometimes called flue gases, have to be seperated.

There are a few ways that the carbon dioxide can be seperated and captured:

Pre-combustion
Firstly the fossil fuel like coal is reacted with oxygen at high tempertures to convert it into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, The carbon dioxide is then seperated out and the hydrogen burnt during combustion to make energy.

Post-combustion
This is when the fossil fuel like coal is burnt in air (combustion) This produces a mixture of gases such as sulphur dioxide, nitogen oxide, hydrogen sulphide, but mainly carbon dioxide. These gases have to be taken out of the flue gas seperatley. To remove the carbon dioxide chemical such as amines can be used to remove the carbon dioxide. You can then release the carbon dioxide from the amine a a controlled way so you are left with just carbon dioxide gas.

Both ways make the same thing at the end which is pure carbon dioxide gas. This can then be squashed under high pressures to turn it into a dense liquid. This makes it easier to move it in pipelines to a place where it can be injected underground to store it. This technology hopes to allow us to keep using energy that we need to live while trying to stop the climate changing too quickly in the future.