Precast Solutions - September/October 2008 - (Page 23) With the carbon capture and storage (CCS) process, heat and steam curing is replaced by a chemical process using compounds in the precast mixture. the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland in December. The conferences address the global problem of rising CO2 emissions, the problematic reliance on fossil fuels into the future and the dearth of short-term solutions. "Concrete capture and sequestration techniques could reduce CO2 emissions by hundreds of million of tons per year, globally," explained Niven. Rapidly evolving approaches to address CO2 emissions are as welcome as they are exciting. Because CO2 is best captured at the emission source and because fossil fuel power plants are thought to produce about one-third of all CO2 emissions worldwide, the placement of CCS technology in or near power plants has great potential to reduce GHG. What is unique about Niven's process has the long-term potential to actually produce a CO2 deficit (in relation to government emission reduction goals). Theoretically, and for a fee, CO2 emissions created in power plants and other carbon-producing industries in one region could be captured and transported to a precast plant in another region for permanent storage. Within carbon-trading schemes like those utilized in European markets, carbon-efficient companies and entities can sell carbon credits to facilities or industries that are less efficient in reducing GHG emissions. A precast producer using the CCS system could potentially realize income on sales of carbon credits alone. The Carbon Capture and Sequestration conference held in Pittsburgh this spring traces is genesis to 2001, when it was launched as a forum for engineers and scientists involved in CCS projects in Canada and the United States. Niven presented this process at the 2005 annual meeting. The conference is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Canadian National Energy Technology Laboratory, British Petroleum, General Electric and Shell Oil. The 2008 CCS conference included more than 150 sessions covering various efforts to reduce CO2 emissions wherever possible. Most common CCS approaches under consideration by the energy industry focus on geological storage of the gases in underground coal beds, depleted oil and gas reservoirs, or saline aquifers. The CCS system for CO2 capture incorporates the same principles as geological storage, but traps the CO2 within another globally abundant material: concrete. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 | PRECAST SOLUTIONS 23
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