A new white paper reports that Houston is better poised than anywhere else in the US to play a far more significant role in reducing emissions from industrial sources.
Experts agree that, when it comes to the energy transition—the global shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy—nothing is more critical than the broad commercial deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). And, with the use of Texas’ and the Gulf Coast’s geologic storage capacity, both onshore and off, nowhere is better poised than Houston to play a far more significant role in reducing emissions from industrial sources throughout the United States.
“Houston is positioned more favorably than anywhere else in the world to immediately jumpstart a regional CCUS hub and ecosystem to service Texas, the Gulf Coast, and the extended US energy system and to enable its businesses to export this capability internationally,” said Charles McConnell, executive director of the Center for Carbon Management in Energy at the University of Houston.
UH Energy is joined by Gutierrez Energy Management Institute and the Center for Houston’s Future in authoring a new white paper, “Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage—Lynchpin for the Energy Transition,” that outlines Houston’s ability to steward the transition along with reducing Houston’s emissions to net zero by 2050. That amounts to a reduction of approximately 52 million tons per year from the various industry sources of energy production and carbon emissions.
“Our key conclusion is simple: If CCUS cannot succeed in the Greater Houston region, it is unlikely to be effectively implemented anywhere,” McConnell said. The region’s oil and gas, petrochemical, and electric power industries produce significant CO2 emissions in a geographic cluster ripe for capture. The region also has the backbone of necessary pipeline infrastructure to connect industries that produce the emissions and those that have suitable storage.
CCUS provides the ability to decarbonize and is essential to immediately affect emissions and create a commercially sound pathway to a sustainable energy future, agrees the International Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the US Energy Information Administration.
“For Houston to remain the energy capital of the world, it must lead in several critical aspects of the energy transition, including CCUS,” McConnell said. “That leadership means ensuring the energy mix is sustainable not only in terms of providing reliable and affordable energy to meet growing global demand—the city’s traditional role—but also ensuring that carbon emissions associated with that energy are dramatically lowered.”
The report provides an analysis and investment structure to illustrate what steps will be required for the Greater Houston region to expand the use of CCUS, building upon existing resources and dramatically lowering emissions from power plants, refining, and other manufacturing operations while developing low-carbon products to meet demand over the coming decades.