Emily Grubert: Carbon removal requires less pipeline redundancy than point-source mitigation CCS
Dr. Emily Grubert · The good and bad of carbon capture · Jul 20, 2023 · at 36:32
Dr. Emily Grubert explains the engineering differences in pipeline network design between point-source carbon capture and direct air carbon removal.
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“One of the other really big infrastructure distinctions between mitigation CCS and removal CCS is basically that it matters if the CO₂ is re-released in a very different way for something that's mitigative versus removal. This even maybe applies to compensatory CDR a little bit, but it's a real big problem in kind of a net zero circumstance if you have a mitigative CCS project releasing CO₂ by accident. That means you need pipeline redundancy. It means you need ways to manage that CO₂ otherwise. With a removal situation, it's not good if you re-release that CO₂, but if you have to shut down a pipeline for a couple of months to repair it, it's not necessarily going to be creating a giant atmospheric problem to stop the CDR for a couple of months, and so you might actually be able to get away with a much lower intensity of, like, pipeline infrastructure if you're oriented that way than you are around mitigation for the same kind of assurances atmospherically.”
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