Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
Carbon capture encompasses the methods and technologies required to capture carbon dioxide from large emitters, such as cement and steel production, chemical processes, blue hydrogen production and biomass or fossil fuel power generation, thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is when carbon dioxide is captured and transported to be stored safely and permanently in deep underground geological formations, preventing it from contributing to climate change.
Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) is when captured carbon dioxide is used as a feedstock in chemicals, fuels or materials production, giving the carbon dioxide economic value whilst playing a role in sustainable manufacturing and forming part of the circular economy.
The Scottish Government supports the development of CCUS which is a necessity for increasing the pace of decarbonising key sectors such as heat, industry and power. We also hold a position that CCUS cannot be used to justify unsustainable levels of fossil fuel extraction or impede Scotland’s just transition to net zero.
Potential for CCUS in Scotland
Scotland is among the best placed nations in Europe to deploy CCUS as we can take advantage of excellent access opportunities to vast carbon dioxide storage sites in the North Sea. There is also a unique opportunity to repurpose the existing network of oil and gas pipelines which link Scotland’s industrial clusters in North-East and Central Scotland for the transportation of carbon dioxide to storage sites.
The development of CCUS infrastructure in Scotland’s industrial clusters can protect jobs and utilise skills to ensure that there is a just transition to a low carbon future for important domestic industries. There is no technological alternative currently available to decarbonise some key strategic and economically significant industries.
The Scottish Government’s Green Industrial Strategy has identified the development of a self-sustaining CCUS sector as one of our key economic opportunities.
Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) are an emerging field of technologies that may be underpinned by CCS, such as Bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) or Direct Air CCS (DACCS). The aim of NETs is to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The Scottish Government published a detailed feasibility study in November 2023 to explore the opportunities of developing NETs in Scotland.
CCUS projects in Scotland
Acorn Transport and Storage Project and the Scottish Cluster
The Scottish Government supports a number of CCUS projects in Scotland. The largest is the Scottish Cluster which is a group of industrial emitters which will be linked by pipeline to the Acorn Transport and Storage project, located at St Fergus. Carbon dioxide which has been captured at these industrial emitters will be transported by pipeline to Acorn, and then onwards to be injected and stored permanently under the North Sea in well understood depleted oil and gas wells. The Acorn Transport and Storage project has an ambition to store up to 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2030, which is key to meeting Scotland’s net zero targets.
The Scottish Government has provided funding to support the National Gas Transmission SCO2T Connect project to assess the feasibility and viability of repurposing an existing gas pipeline for the transportation of carbon dioxide from industrial emitters to the Acorn Transport and Storage project at St Fergus.
NECCUS
NECCUS is an industry-led alliance drawn from industry, academia, membership organisations and private sector bodies. The group was launched in 2019 with Scottish Government support with the aim to coordinate and promote CCUS in Scotland at a Scottish, UK and European level.