Transition Economist in association with Air Liquide Engineering & Construction hosted a live roundtable on 15 September 2022 to discuss carbon capture as a solution to decarbonize industries with a special focus on the US market.

The growth of CCS is gaining momentum in the US, with major oil and gas producers giving the technology high priority as they respond to pressure to decarbonize. Supportive federal policies such as the 45Q tax credit system, combined with the country’s existing network of CO2 pipelines and available storage capacity have given the US CCS sector a head-start, while the recent emergence of plans for low-carbon industrial clusters have provided new opportunities to deploy the technology across a range of sectors.

The industry experts discussed:

• Sector update – how has the uptake of CCS performed in the last twelve months in the US and which industries/regions are leading the way in terms of CCS deployment?
• CCS in a volatile market - Impact on CCS sector of extreme volatility in energy, carbon markets; managing project risk around  supply chains issues and  cost inflation
• Clusters and beyond – Development of low-carbon industrial clusters and what this means for CCS; approaches to CCS deployment at remote sites not tied into clusters.
• The storage question – is the development of long-term storage capacity keeping pace with the wider CCS sector; what are the challenges in terms of availability, cost and policy/regulation; which regions have the most potential for storage; what advantages does the US market have in terms of existing infrastructure?