A report from analysts Research and Markets says the global Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) market will grow 9.18% per year between 2017 and 2021, with Babcock & Wilcox, ENGIE, GE Power, The Linde Group & Mitsubishi Heavy Industries dominating developments.
This level of growth is unlikely to be enough to make the technique a main stream option, although it might be enough to prove the technology and cut costs for an acceleration in development beyond 2021. In addition to capturing emissions from power generation, CCS is seen as essential in capturing carbon in any future process to produce hydrogen from natural gas.
The use of CCS technology is one option to reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by fossil fuel-dependent industries such as power generation and oil and gas processing. The basic functioning of the CCS technology includes capturing the CO2 before its release into the atmosphere and then transporting and storing it in an environmentally safe location.
According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is now growing demand to reuse CO2 rather than just storing it. In addition, it said the diversification of CO2 generation sources for CCS was essential to encourage power utilities to integrate CCS technologies into their projects.