Oil company Total has taken a major step forward in its carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology development programme with the inauguration of a demonstration facility in Lacq, southwest France.
The new facility is Europe’s first end-to-end carbon capture, transport and storage demonstration project and will be operated for two years. The project will play an important role in the fight against climate change, says Total.
The EUR60 million Lacq project uses oxycombustion carbon capture technology developed by Air Liquide, where pure oxygen is substituted for air in an industrial boiler to produce smaller amounts of flue gas that is 90 per cent carbon. The carbon is then piped 27 km to the Rousse geological storage site, where it is injected into a depleted natural gas reservoir located 4500 m below ground.
According to Total, the project will capture and store around 120 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the two-year operation period. The storage site will be monitored for a further three years after injection has ceased.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that CCS technology has the potential to mitigate one-third of carbon emissions and could be used at 7000 industrial plants world-wide.
