Carbon capture and storage in Houston

Climate solutions

Carbon capture technology is proven

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the few proven technologies that could enable some of the highest-emitting sectors to significantly reduce their emissions, such as manufacturing and heavy industry. For the past few years, we’ve been studying the approach of multi-user CCS zones in major industrial areas that are located near safe underground geologic storage sites. The Houston industrial area is ideally suited for deploying CCS technology on a large scale, due to the large concentration of industrial emissions that are near expansive underground geological formations along the Gulf of Mexico coast and under the seabed. According to ExxonMobil’s analysis of U.S. Department of Energy estimates, these formations could hold about 500 billion metric tons of CO₂.

What is the potential for CCS in Houston?

ExxonMobil is one of several companies with operations in the greater Houston area that have expressed interest in capturing CO₂ emissions from their petrochemical, manufacturing and power generation facilities. The CO₂ would then be stored in natural geologic formations deep underground.
What opportunity does CCS present?

CCS could enable the United States to safely capture and store hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO₂ each year from industrial facilities that otherwise would go into the atmosphere. It’s one of the few proven technologies with the potential to significantly reduce emissions from manufacturing and heavy industry.
What are the potential environmental and economic benefits for Houston?

In addition to creating thousands of new jobs, the city of Houston could become a leader in the transition to a lower-carbon energy future. With appropriate government, industry and community backing, the participating companies believe they could safely capture and permanently store about 50 million metric tons of CO₂ annually by 2030 and double that by 2040, moving Houston toward its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

Carbon capture and storage could help the city of Houston meet its climate leadership aspirations and achieve its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Fully implementing CCS in the Houston industrial area has the potential to capture and store:

_¹_{^{. U.S. EPA greenhouse gas equivalences calculator.

2. Global CCS Institute. Data updated as of April 2020.}}

7x

More than 7x the amount of carbon currently being captured across the U.S.²

100M

100M metric tons of CO₂ a year by 2040

~120M

Equal to the CO₂ sequestered by ~120 million acres of forest¹

1 in every 12

Equal to taking 1 in every 12 U.S. cars off the road¹

What is needed to advance CCS technology?

CCS could enable the United States to safely capture and store hundreds of millions of metric tons of CO₂ each year that otherwise would be released into the atmosphere.