Is Carbon Capture Efficient?

Written By Teacher: Elizabeth Ward

My name is Elizabeth Ward. I am a former Early Childhood, Elementary, and English as a Foreign Language educator. I have taught third grade Science and Social Studies as well as Kindergarten in both urban and rural Oklahoma public schools. I taught online EFL to students of all ages in China for four years. I also have experience in curriculum development and content design for teachers in the physical and digital classroom. As a former teacher I have a passion for supporting teachers and making their jobs easier. I currently live in the greater Houston area with my husband and four dogs. 

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a critical technology in the fight against climate change, offering a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes and energy production. Understanding the efficiency and potential of CCS helps students explore innovative solutions to environmental challenges while considering their limitations and feasibility. This topic invites discussions about the balance between technological advances and sustainable practices, encouraging students to think critically about the future of energy and climate mitigation. Incorporating resources like diagrams, case studies, and interactive simulations can make this complex concept accessible and engaging for learners. Consider this video about storing carbon dioxide in minerals from Science Journal for Kids or this podcast from The Climate Question that explores how our oceans capture carbon. 

Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is any of several technologies that trap carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from large industrial plants before this greenhouse gas can enter the atmosphere. CCS projects typically target 90 percent efficiency, meaning that 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from the power plant will be captured and stored. However, CCS could capture more CO2, and thus do more to combat climate change, if industries and governments decide not only to invest in CCS at a large scale but also to pay extra to maximize its potential.

As good as it gets?

Howard Herzog, a Senior Research Engineer in the MIT Energy Initiative, says that CCS projects have used 90 percent efficiency as a baseline target for decades because a system needs to remove at least that much CO2 to be worth the investment to build and install it, and also because 90 percent is an achievable goal. “Thirty years ago, people were still learning about the climate and how much CO2 we needed to get out. So getting 90 percent of the CO2 out of a coal plant was pretty good,” Herzog says.

Yet meeting ambitious climate targets with this technology will require a leap forward in CCS efficiency. Consider that untreated exhaust from a coal-fired power plant can contain 300 times as much CO2 as the Earth’s atmosphere, which means capturing 90 percent of the CO2 still leaves a lot behind. Even if CCS could remove 99 percent of the CO2 from coal plant exhaust, what is left would still have a CO2 concentration equal to or higher than the atmosphere.