The recent United Nations COP15 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, has focused industry attention on the possibilities offered by carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies as a means of driving CO2 emission cuts for energy-intensive businesses.

The need to control environmental emissions is an increasingly urgent priority. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2030 demand for energy will increase by 50 per cent compared to today. Such a rise will inevitably force up CO2 emissions significantly, heightening the climate change problem still further and making the efficient use of energy even more critical to resource conservation.