Carbon capture and storage| Turbine technology The last mile will be thermal
Why gas turbines equipped with carbon capture and storage will power the net-zero transition
Professor Emmanouil Kakaras EVP, GX (Green Transformation) Solutions, EMEA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
The global energy system is undergoing its most significant transformation in a century. Electrification across transport, buildings and industry is accelerating, driven by factors such as the rollout of electric vehicles, growing uptake of heat pumps, and the shift to electric industrial heat. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global electricity demand is expected to increase by more than 3% annually between now and 2026, with electrification in end-use sectors contributing to the majority of this growth.
This growth is placing new strains on power systems, particularly arising from data centres driven by AI, cloud computing, and digital services that are becoming major electricity consumers. As we move further into the energy transition, the challenge is not just to supply more power, but also to do so with lower emissions without compromising the reliability of the electricity supply.
Renewables must continue to grow and will remain the foundation of decarbonisation. However, more needs to be done to provide the flexibility and resilience needed to meet today’s power demand. While solar, wind, geothermal, and battery energy storage can take us a long way towards net zero, covering the final stretch is increasingly complex and costly — requiring overbuilt capacity, long- duration storage, and grid reinforcements to manage variability. This is why I argue that the last mile will be thermal.
Hydrogen will play an important future role as a clean fuel for thermal power generation, but issues relating to cost, infrastructure and availability still constrain its near-term impact. At the same time, carbon pricing is increasing the cost of unabated thermal generation. This adds cost pressure to gas-fired power plants without a clear decarbonisation path, adding more risk to their business case, which is
already stretched due to the anticipated low operating hours.
This is where carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipped gas turbines offer a pragmatic response. They allow dispatchable plants to reduce emissions at the source and remain viable in a carbon-constrained world. More importantly, they help maintain the grid flexibility required to absorb more renewables. This is not about replacing renewables, but about making progress towards a carbon free power system, meeting the timelines for reaching zero emission and increasing the resilience of the system at minimum cost with the tools readily available.
The case for CCS in gas power CCS has gained traction in industrial sectors that are hard to decarbonise like cement, petrochemicals and steel. But in the power sector, progress has been slower. Infrastructure gaps, policy uncertainty and investor caution due to the cost addition have limited deployment.
Yet the need is urgent, and there is a lack of any realistic alternative. Dispatchable low- carbon solutions are required now, and CCS- equipped gas turbines are a viable option that is commercially available. The current barriers are not technical, but economic and regulatory. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has already demonstrated the feasibility of equipping gas turbines with carbon capture and storage. In 2024, we completed a commercial scale CCS application on a gas turbine in Ravenna, Italy –
demonstrating the feasibility of capturing CO2 from low-concentration flue gas. At Ravenna, the capture process is being used to treat low- CO2
flue gas from a natural gas fuelled turbine driving a turbo compressor.
This year, we launched a project in Himeji, Japan, this time capturing CO2
from a turbine
generating electricity. Himeji offers a model that is closer to the requirements of the power sector and proves the operational readiness of carbon capture and storage in real-world conditions.
Ravenna carbon dioxide capture plant, Italy. Photo courtesy Eni S.p.A. MHI’s proprietary KM CDR Process™ carbon capture technology is being deployed here to remove approximately 25 000 tonnes of CO2
fuelled turbine driving a compressor. CO2 peaks of 96%. The captured CO2
annually at Europe’s first fully
operational post-combustion carbon capture plant. The project, developed by Eni and Snam, is focused on treating low-CO2
(less than 3%) flue gas from a natural gas emissions are being reduced by 90%, up to
is subsequently transported through reconverted
gas pipelines and then injected and stored at a depth of about 3000 meters in Eni’s Porto Corsini Mare Ovest depleted offshore gas field
CCS is also cost-effective in specific roles. In renewables-heavy grids, gas turbines are often used for a few hundred hours per year during low wind or solar periods to guarantee the security of supply and system stability. Even at these low utilisation rates, our modeling shows that CCS-equipped turbines can outperform hydrogen-only alternatives under current market conditions.
www.modernpowersystems.com | July/August 2025 | 33
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