carbon capture

noun

plural carbon captures

1

: any of various methods of removing carbon dioxide (as from industrial emissions) to reduce its presence in the atmosphere

Carbon capture can be applied to large-scale emissions processes, including coal and gas-fired power generation …

—Global CCS Institute

Direct ocean carbon capture operations look a bit like desalination or wastewater treatment plants, though something quite different is going on inside their systems of filters, tubes, pumps and tanks.

—Brooke Staggs

Aramco has developed an innovative mobile carbon capture system that sharply reduces CO₂ emissions from a heavy-duty truck.

—Oil and Gas Climate Initiative

also : such a method combined with storing the carbon dioxide to keep it from entering the atmosphere : carbon capture and storage

Those bent on bringing down the fossil-fuel industry are also less than thrilled with the … push for technologies such as carbon capture, which removes and stores carbon emissions …

—Valerie Richardson

2

: the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by living vegetation : carbon sequestration

Plants perform carbon capture every day through photosynthesis, and they actually do so quite well.

—Patrick Biller

Trees are nature's best carbon capture technology and have been working to clean the air since the first leafy frond appeared on Earth …

—Georgette Kilgore

Examples of carbon capture in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Oil companies invest in the green economy by focusing on carbon capture technology and buying output from wind and solar farms. —Ken Silverstein, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024

This heating process is expensive and energy-intensive, since traditional carbon capture materials must be heated to high temperatures. —Rudy Molinek, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Nov. 2024

But as he’s seen in West Terre Haute, where residents there are fighting back against a carbon capture storage project slate for it, it can be done. —Michelle L. Quinn, Chicago Tribune, 18 Nov. 2024

The World Economic Forum named microbial carbon capture as one of the world’s top emerging technologies in a June report, but the technology is still in its infancy, with companies running pilot-scale programs to test commercial viability. —Issy Ronald, CNN, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined at sense 2