Technology readiness level assessment of carbon capture and storage technologies

Abstract

The global energy sector has experienced significant expansion in recent years, driven by rising demand and technological advancements. This growth has led to both opportunities and challenges, including global warming and the need to offset global carbon emissions. A wide range of technological maturity characterizes the current state of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. To efficiently navigate and accelerate the implementation of these solutions, conducting an in-depth assessment of various CCS technologies is necessary. In the literature, maturity assessment-based study of CCS technologies exists only using expert surveys. This study aimed to conduct a technology readiness level (TRL) assessment of CCS technologies with the help of a multi-faceted approach comprising a literature review, technology identification, data collection, TRL mapping, expert survey, and comparative analysis. To achieve this, 79 CCS projects from the literature were analyzed to identify growing trends in the CCS industry. The analysis shows that both pre-combustion and post-combustion capture are mature technologies achieving TRL 9, while oxy-fuel capture is ranked at TRL 7. Similarly, carbon storage technologies achieved high ranking, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and storage in saline aquifers are fully commercial and ranked at TRL 9. Enhanced coal bed methane (ECBM) extraction is trailing at TRL 3 in the research phase. In addition, a total of 21 experts were surveyed, and their statements corroborate the conclusions of the literature review. The research concludes that post-combustion capture and EOR are the most popular CCS technologies, respectively.