Capture of CO2 emissions: one of the solutions to promote decarbonisation

Climate change has always occurred in the history of our planet but the global warming we have been witnessing for about one hundred and fifty years is anomalous because it is triggered by man and his activities: it is called anthropic greenhouse effect and is added to the natural greenhouse effect.

Starting from the industrial revolution which led to a growing consumption of carbon, oil and natural gas, man has progressively released into the earth’s atmosphere millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO?) – a gas that forms in combustion processes, from the union of the carbon contained in fossil fuels with two oxygen atoms present in the air – and other greenhouse gases. Furthermore, following the felling of trees – essential since they help regulate the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen -, the CO₂ it has accumulated more and more in the atmosphere.

The prelude to what has now become an excessive accumulation was already recorded towards the end of the 1950s by an American researcher, Charles Keeling, who developed an instrument to measure the concentrations of CO₂ in the air in terms of parts per million (ppm). Thanks to these analyses, it was evident that carbon dioxide was progressively increasing: at the time the average concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere it stood at 315 ppm, today, instead – according to the data contained in the latest report of the Global Climate Highlights -, it is 417 ppm.

The progressive increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere was considered for a long time of little relevance, then – towards the end of the last millennium – through the analysis of ice samples extracted in Antarctica at a depth of 3/4 thousand metres, the scientists realized that in thousands of years the concentration I say₂ had always remained between 180 and 300 ppm, much lower than the current one.

The problems arising from the accumulation of CO₂ in the atmosphere

The excess production of carbon dioxide and the consequent concentration in the atmosphere causes environmental and climatic damage. In fact, the high accumulation of CO₂ makes the action of the ozone layer, the part of the stratosphere in which most of the ozone is concentrated – a greenhouse gas necessary for the protection of the earth from the harmful action of ultraviolet rays – less effective, and forms a hood which prevents the dispersion in space, during the night, of the heat absorbed by the earth during the day. This is the so-called greenhouse effect, theorized for the first time in 1822 by the French mathematician and physicist Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier.

The result of all this is also global warming. Thanks to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) we know that from 1880 to today the global average temperature has increased by about 1.2°C compared to the levels of the late 19th century (according to the IPCC report, the carbon dioxide is responsible for 63% of man-made global warming). This has led to events such as the melting of the polar ice caps and the resulting rise in sea levels, as well as unprecedented heat waves. All phenomena which, if a significant reduction in CO emissions is not implemented₂, will continue to intensify. And it is precisely with the increase of these events that scientists have begun to develop a common thought: carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced before it is too late.

Solutions for decarbonisation and RINA’s commitment

There are many solutions available to promote decarbonisation but there is no winning technology capable of achieving this goal: in fact, it is necessary to adopt a mix of solutions. Among the strategies to be taken into consideration we undoubtedly find the use of renewable energies – which however also have an environmental impact in terms of soil consumption and potential alteration of ecosystems and are not decisive in non-electrifiable sectors -, the tree planting – an activity that can contribute to offsetting CO emissions₂ not killed – and, in this transitory phase, also the capture of carbon dioxide carried out artificially.

The so-called carbon capture typically involves the capture of carbon oxides from an emissions stream before their release into the atmosphere, the sequestration of the captured oxides in a permanent geological storage (in this case we speak of carbon capture and sequestration, ccs) or their use in commercial or approved chemical applications (we are talking about carbon capture and utilization, ccu, or, in case of a mix between the two destinations of CO₂, of carbon capture, sequestration and utilization, ccsu). Incidentally, there is also another technology to capture CO directly₂ from atmospheric air: direct air capture (dac). The photosynthesis activity of plants is the natural form of direct air capture.

With the aim of promoting decarbonisation, RINA is active in various carbon capture and forestation projects. In particular, we have recently launched a feasibility study with Axpo on the carbon dioxide capture of two combined cycle power plants.

Among other things, the company makes it possible to obtain various certifications aimed at certifying the management of greenhouse gases and the contribution to the fight against climate change.

In short, to fight global warming it is essential to undertake decarbonisation processes by betting on all the means at our disposal: in fact, there is no single winning technology that alone can help us achieve this goal.

In all of this, the important thing is to continue investing in all sectors with the most suitable measures for each of them because the costs of not doing will be increasingly unsustainable. And we are already seeing it with our own eyes, year after year.

(*Ugo Salerno, President and Chief Executive Officer of RINA)