GLOBAL PROJECTS

How are scientists around the world working to solve the carbon problem?

1 IN SALAH STORAGE PROJECT ALGERIA

For almost two decades, the Algerian state oil and gas company has been separating CO2 from the natural gas it mines from the depths of the Sahara Desert. To extract gas in this way, the CO2 impurities need to be separated. Instead of releasing this by-product into the atmosphere, the In Salah gas field works to compress the CO2 and pump it back into the ground, below the sandstone.

2 GORGON PROJECT AUSTRALIA

In the gas fields of Western Australia, a project that could continue for 40 years has been launched. The plan is to inject up to 4 million tonnes of CO2 each year underneath Barrow Island. Barrow Island is a 78 square mile island off Australia’s Pilbara Coast. CO2 has been injected 1.2 miles underneath the island since 2019. The area of injection is known as the Dupuy Formation, which is made up of sandstone and siltstone of thicknesses between 200 and 500 metres.

3 SHUTE CREEK GAS PLANT WYOMING, US

This carbon capture and storage plant is the largest in operation, with a storage capacity of over 7 million tonnes. However, its size doesn’t necessarily make it the most successful. Since it opened in 1986, half of the CO2 captured has been released back into the atmosphere. About 120 million tonnes of CO2 has been captured at Shute Creek since it was opened.

4 ALBERTA CARBON TRUNK LINE CANADA

This 150-mile pipeline can transport 14.6 million tonnes of CO2 from industrial plants into old oil reservoirs per year. Here it’s stored for future use. Although the pipeline isn’t yet operating at full capacity, when it achieves its maximum capacity the amount of CO2 captured by the system will be the equivalent of the CO produced by 2.6 million cars in the area.