Carbon Capture Storage Reaching A Turning Point In Decarbonisation

13th August 2025

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is emerging as a critical tool in the global push toward net-zero emissions—particularly for hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel, and chemical manufacturing, where alternative decarbonisation options are limited. While CCS has struggled to scale in the past, new momentum suggests that is changing.

DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook: CCS to 2050 forecasts that global CCS capacity will quadruple by 2030, supported by advances in technology and a surge of industry activity. This projection is reinforced by real-world developments: in May, Northern Lights—the world’s first open-access CO₂ transport and storage network in Western Norway, received its inaugural shipment of liquefied CO₂ from Heidelberg Materials. In the U.S., 1PointFive’s STRATOS facility in Texas is nearing operation as the world’s largest direct air capture (DAC) plant.

Over the next five years, cumulative CCS investments are expected to total around $80 billion, with roughly two-thirds of new capacity located in North America and Europe. Policy support is set to play a pivotal role, driving cost reductions of about 14% by 2030 through lower capital expenses for capture systems and reduced transportation and storage costs.

CCS is especially important for industries where emissions are structurally embedded in the production process:

• Cement production - Releases CO₂ both from the chemical reaction in clinker production and from high-temperature heating, typically fueled by fossil energy.

• Steel production - Relies on carbon-intensive, high-heat processes often powered by coal or gas.

• Chemical and petrochemical production - Uses fossil feedstocks and energy, generating substantial CO₂ emissions.

• Energy generation - The burning of coal, oil, or natural gas for power and heat remains a major global source of emissions.

• Other heavy industries - Aluminum production, refining, and certain food and beverage processes also have significant carbon footprints.

These sectors are essential to modern society, yet their emissions are difficult to eliminate without CCS. With accelerating investment, policy momentum, and breakthrough projects now underway, CCS is positioned to play a central role in cutting global carbon emissions in the decade ahead.

Closer to home in the UK we have the very large The Acorn Project which is an ambitious carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) development in northeast Scotland. It leverages existing oil and gas infrastructure to move captured CO₂ from industrial emitters to secure geological storage sites deep beneath the North Sea. Serving as the transport and storage backbone of the wider Scottish Cluster, it plays a pivotal role in the UK’s path to net zero. Critics argue that the project risks prolonging the use of fossil fuels by enabling continued oil and gas extraction in the North Sea, hindering the transition to renewable energy.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) could be key in the reduction in Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) from industrial processes. Protea’s range of gas analysers have been used both in research into emerging technologies for CCS, but will also play an important role in the regulatory emissions monitoring from installations of CCS. Protea’s multi-gas FTIR technology is ideally suited to new processes involving carbon reduction, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

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