Deployment of CCS in industrial applications in the EU – timing, scope and coordination

Paper in proceeding, 2013

This paper discusses the potential contribution of CCS as a means to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from carbon-intensive industries in the EU up to 2050. We assess how capital stock turnover influences the penetration rate of CCS and estimate the increases in the energy demand of the industries under different scenarios for the deployment of CO2 capture. The analysis covers petroleum refining, iron and steel production and cement manufacturing in the EU-27 and Norway. A previous study by the authors suggests that total emissions from the assessed sectors will exceed the targeted levels by more than twofold unless a major breakthrough in low-carbon process technologies materializes within the period up to 2050. The results of the present study demonstrate that deployment of CCS, from the year 2030, can substantially contribute to reducing CO2 emissions deriving from carbon-intensive industries. We show how an ambitious deployment of CO2 capture in carbon-intensive industries, in combination with extensive implementation of abatement measures currently available, could result in a 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, as compared to levels in 2010. However, the results also highlight how a largescale introduction would come at a high price in terms of energy use.