Skip to content

Carbon Capture and Air Quality

View Resource

Carbon Capture and Air Quality

Carbon capture is a valuable technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power and industrial facility emissions. Although the primary goal of carbon capture is mitigating the climate impacts from industrial and power processes, adding a carbon capture system to a facility can provide additional benefits to people and the environment by removing harmful pollutants present in a facility’s emissions. In addition to carbon dioxide, facility emissions are often accompanied by other pollutants, including nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter, which cause poor air quality and have negative health impacts. Before carbon dioxide emissions from an industrial facility can be captured, the nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulate matter must be removed for the system to work efficiently. Removing these additional pollutants can lead to substantial health benefits for people around a facility, which can also provide economic benefits in the tens of millions of dollars per year, from reducing emissions at a single facility.