Total launches carbon capture facility

LACQ, France, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- French supermajor Total inaugurated a carbon capture facility in the south of France that could remove more than 120,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Total hailed its $85.6 million end-to-end carbon capture, transportation and storage demonstration facility in Lacq as Europe's first such project.

The French supermajor said intergovernmental studies showed that carbon capture and storage could remove roughly 30 percent of carbon emissions from the atmosphere. More than 7,000 industrial facilities could benefit from the technology by 2050, the company added.

The Lacq demonstration facility uses a system that employs pure oxygen for its industrial boiler in order to produce smaller amounts of carbon-rich flue gas. Remaining carbon is ferried through a pipeline and injected into a depleted underground natural gas reservoir.

Total said the facility could remove more than 120,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within two years, which is equal to removing 40,000 cars from European roads during the same time period.

The Lacq facility contributes to Total's green-energy portfolio and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuel oil, natural gas and other heavy industries, the supermajor noted.