Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an engineered technology for pulling CO2 out of large point-source emitters — chiefly industrial plants and power stations — and storing it away from the atmosphere rather than releasing it, typically by injecting it 1 km or more underground into geological formations such as declining oil and gas fields, saline aquifers or unmineable coal seams (geological sequestration), storing it as liquid in the ocean, or reacting it with metal oxide to convert it into stable solid carbonates. This engineered approach sits alongside natural carbon sequestration, the process by which plants and oceans already draw down and store CO2 continuously — terrestrial sequestration works mainly through forest and soil conservation practices, and organisms such as the microalgae Chlorella, Scenedesmus, Chroococcus and Chlamydomonas, tree species like Eugenia caryophyllata, Tecoma stans and Cinnamomum verum, and macroalgae, marine grasses and mangroves are all noted for their above-average carbon-sequestering capacity. A related idea, Carbon Footprint (CFP), quantifies the total greenhouse gases a person, household, organisation or country's activities generate — agriculture, industry, deforestation, waste disposal and fossil-fuel burning all contribute — usually expressed in equivalent tonnes of CO2 per year; everyday choices such as diet (plant-based foods generally carry a far lower footprint than beef and lamb), electronics use, travel, buying processed/imported food, gardening and line-drying clothes instead of using a dryer all measurably shift an individual's footprint. Any system that absorbs more atmospheric carbon than it releases over a given period functions as a carbon sink — forests, soil and oceans are natural sinks, while engineered landfills can function as artificial ones. Biochar offers a further long-duration storage route: partially burning biomass such as crop waste or waste wo …