RAS question
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology aims to:
Correct answer: (A) Capture CO2 emissions from sources and store underground.
Carbon capture and storage technology aims to capture carbon dioxide emissions from sources such as power plants and factories, transport them, and store them underground so the captured CO2 does not enter the atmosphere.
Explanation
CCS stops released CO2 from reaching the air. In the main CCS chain, CO2 is captured from industrial sources such as power plants and factories, transported, and stored permanently in geological formations such as depleted oil fields and saline aquifers. The DST source supports the same core idea for CCUS: it aims to reduce carbon emissions by storing or reusing captured carbon dioxide so that it does not enter the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage therefore aims to keep captured CO2 out of the atmosphere. Utilisation belongs to CCUS, where the captured CO2 may also be used for fuels, chemicals or building materials, but the storage part of CCS is underground geological storage, not a change in atmospheric oxygen.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) CCS targets carbon dioxide emissions; its goal is reducing carbon emissions, not reducing oxygen in the atmosphere.
- (C) Converting CO2 into oxygen is not the CCS process, which involves capture, transport and storage; utilisation in CCUS is about value addition or useful products, not ordinary CCS turning CO2 into oxygen.
- (D) Producing more carbon dioxide is the opposite of CCS, because the DST source says the programme aims to reduce carbon emissions and keep captured CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Concept
Climate-change mitigation technology under Environment and Ecology includes CCS/CCUS. CCS/CCUS recurs in RAS because it connects industrial emissions, greenhouse-gas reduction and policy-linked science and technology initiatives.