Carbon Capture and Storage – IELTS Reading Answers

The ‘Carbon Capture and Storage’ Academic Reading Passage is a good resource for anyone who is preparing for the IELTS Reading test. The passage that is present in this blog is similar in difficulty to the passages that you will encounter on the actual IELTS Reading test.

By taking the ‘Carbon Capture and Storage’ IELTS Reading Answer, you can get a feel for the types of questions that you will be asked and the level of difficulty that you can expect.

The question types in this Reading Passage include:

• Multiple Choice Questions (Q. 1-2)
• Diagram Labeling (Q3-8)
• Sentence Completion (Q9-14)

For more IELTS Reading practice, take more IELTS reading practice tests.

Reading Passage

Carbon Capture and Storage

High coal dependence

Renewable energy is much discussed, but coal still plays the greatest role in the generation of electricity, with recent figures from the International Energy Agency showing that China relies on it for 79% of its power, Australia for 78%, and the US for 45%. Germany has less reliance at 41%, which is also the global average. Furthermore, many countries have large, easily accessible deposits of coal, and numerous highly skilled miners, chemists, and engineers. Meanwhile, 70% of the world’s steel production requires coal, and plastic and rayon are usually coal derivatives.

Currently, coal-fired power plants fed voracious appetites, but they produce carbon dioxide (CO2) in staggering amounts. Urbanites may grumble about an average monthly electricity bill of $113, yet they steadfastly ignore the fact that they are not billed for the 6-7 million metric tons of CO2 their local plant belches out, which contribute to the 44% of global CO2 levels from fossil-fuel emissions. Yet, as skies fill with smog and temperatures soar, people crave clean air and cheap power.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that advises the United Nations has testified that the threshold of serious harm to the Earth’s temperature is a mere 2° Celsius above current levels, so it is essential to reduce carbon emissions by 80% over the next 30 years, even as demand for energy will rise by 50%, and one proposal for this is the adoption of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

Underground carbon storage

Currently, CO2 storage, or sequestration as it is known, is practiced by the oil and gas industry, where CO2 is pumped into oil fields to maintain pressure and ease extraction – one metric ton dissolves out about three barrels, or separated from natural gas and pumped out of exhausted coal fields or other deep seams. The CO2 remains underground or is channeled into disused sandstone reservoirs. However, the sale of oil and natural gas is profitable, so the $17-per-ton sequestration cost is easily borne. There is also a plan for the injection of CO2 into saline aquifers, 1,000 meters beneath the seabed, to prevent its release into the atmosphere.

Carbon capture

While CO2 storage has been accomplished, its capture from power plants remains largely hypothetical, although CCS plants throughout Western Europe and North America are on the drawing board.

There are three main forms of CCS: pre-combustion, post-combustion, and oxy-firing. In a 2012 paper from the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), post-combustion capture was viewed most favorably since existing power plants can be retrofitted with it, whereas pre-combustion and oxy-firing mean the construction of entirely new plants. However, pre-combustion and oxy-firing remove more CO2 than post-combustion and generate more electricity.

Post-combustion capture means CO2 is separated from gas after coal is burnt but before electricity is generated, while in oxy-firing, coal is combusted in pure oxygen. In pre-combustion, as in an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle system (IGCC), oxygen, coal, and water are burnt together to produce a synthetic gas called Syngas – mainly hydrogen – which drives two sets of turbines, firstly gas-driven ones, then, as the cooling Syngas travel through water, steam-driven ones. Emissions from this process contain around ten percent of the CO2 that burning coal produces.

The pros and cons of CCS

Several countries are keen to scale up CCS as it may reduce carbon emissions quickly, and powerful lobby groups for CCS exist among professionals in mining and engineering. Foundries and refineries that produce steel and emit carbon may also benefit, and the oil and gas industry is interested because power-plant equipment consumes their products. In addition, recent clean energy acts in many countries mandate that a percentage of electricity be generated by renewables or by more energy-efficient systems, like CCS.

As with desalination, where powerful lobbies wield influence, states sometimes find it easier to engage in large projects involving a few players rather than change behaviors on a more scattered household scale. Furthermore, replacing coal with zero-emission photovoltaic (PV) cells to produce solar energy would require covering an area of nearly 20,720 square kilometers, roughly twice the size of Lebanon or half of Denmark.

Still, there are many reservations about CCS. Principally, it is enormously expensive: conservative estimates put the electricity it generates at more than five times the current retail price. As consumers are unlikely to want to bear this price hike, massive state subsidies would be necessary for CCS to work.

The capital outlay of purchasing equipment for retrofitting existing power plants is high enough, but the energy needed to capture CO2 means one-third more coal must be burnt, and building new CCS plants is at least 75% more expensive than retrofitting.

Some CCS technology is untried, for example, the Syngas-driven turbines in an IGCC system have not been used on an industrial scale. Post capture, CO2 must be compressed into a supercritical liquid for transport and storage, which is also costly. The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre predicts that 700 million barrels per day of this liquid would be produced if CCS were adopted modestly. It is worth noting that current oil production is around 85 million barrels per day, so CCS would produce eleven times more waste for burial than oil that was simultaneously being extracted.

Sequestration has been used successfully, but there are limited coal and oil fields where optimal conditions exist. In rock that is too brittle, earthquakes could release the CO2. Moreover, proposals to store CO2 in saline aquifers are just that – proposals: sequestration has never been attempted in aquifers.

Most problematic of all, CCS reduces carbon emissions but does not end them, rendering it a medium-term solution.

Alternatives

There are at least four reasonably priced alternatives to CCS. Firstly, conventional pulverized coal power plants are undergoing redesign so more electricity can be produced from less coal. Before coal is phased out – as ultimately it will have to be – these plants could be more cost-effective. Secondly, hybrid plants using natural gas and coal could be built. Thirdly, natural gas could be used on its own. Lastly, solar power is fast gaining credibility.

In all this, an agreed measure of cost for electricity generation must be used. This is called a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) – an average cost of producing electricity over the lifetime of a power plant, including construction, financing, and operation, although pollution is not counted. In 2012, the CBO demonstrated that a new CCS plant had an LCOE of about $0.09-0.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), but according to the US Energy Information Administration, the LCOE from a conventional natural gas power plant without CCS is $0.0686/kWh, making it the cheapest way to produce clean energy.

Solar power costs are falling rapidly. In 2013, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power reported that energy via a purchase agreement from a large solar plant was $0.095/kWh, and Greentech Media, a company that reviews environmental projects, found a 2014 New Mexico solar project that generates power for $0.0849/kWh.

Still, while so much coal and so many coal-fired plants exist, decommissioning them all may not be realistic. Whatever happens, the conundrum of cheap power and clean air may remain unsolved for some time.

Questions 1-2

1 What is the global average for electricity generated from coal?

A 41%

B 44%

C 49%

D 70%

2 What does the average American pay each month for CO2 produced by a local power plant?

A $17

B $80

C $113

D Nothing

Questions 3-8

A CO2

B Coal

C Natural gas

D Oil

E Saline aquifer

F Steam-driven turbines

G Syngas

H Syngas-driven turbines

Note: The labeled numbers (29-34) actually stand for questions (3-8).

3 ……………………………

4 ……………………………

5 ……………………………

6 ……………………………

7 ……………………………

8 ……………………………

Questions 9-14

Advantages of CCS

Sequestration is already used in the oil and gas sector.

CCS may cut 9……………….. in a short time.

10……………….. in labour, industry, and states already support CCS.

Alternatives, like 11……………….energy, take up vast amounts of space.

Disadvantages of CCS

The construction of new and the conversion of existing power plants and the liquefaction and transport of CO2 are very costly. While sequestration is possible, the scale would be enormous. Therefore, CCS would need 12………………..

Some CCS technology is 13.……………….. Gas-driven turbines for IGCC have not been used on an industrial scale.

Shallow underground storage may be limited; deep ocean storage is currently impossible. Geologists fear leaks in quake-prone regions.

Natural gas and solar PVs are cheaper. LCOE estimates for CCS = $0.09-15/kWh; for natural gas= 14………………..; and, for solar PV = $0.0849/kWh.

Carbon Capture and Storage IELTS Reading Answers with Location and Explanation

1 Answer: A

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer Location: Para 1 (High coal dependence), Line 1
Answer Explanation: The recent figures from the International Energy Agency show that China relies on it for 79% of its power, Australia for 78%, and the US for 45%. Germany has less reliance at 41%, which is also the global average.

2 Answer: D

Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions
Answer Location: Para 2 (Alternatives), Line 1
Answer Explanation: In all this, an agreed measure of cost for electricity generation must be used. This is called a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) – an average cost of producing electricity over the lifetime of a power plant, including construction, financing, and operation, although pollution is not counted.

3 Answer: A

Question Type: Diagram Labeling
Answer Location: Para 1 (Carbon Capture), Line 1

Answer Explanation: While CO2 storage has been accomplished, its capture from power plants remains largely hypothetical, although CCS plants throughout Western Europe and North America are on the drawing board.

4 Answer: C

Question Type: Diagram Labeling
Answer Location: Para 3 (Carbon Capture), Line 1
Answer Explanation: Post-combustion capture means CO2 is separated from gas after coal is burnt but before electricity is generated, while in oxygen-firing, coal is combusted in pure oxygen.

5 Answer: E

Question Type: Diagram Labeling
Answer Location: Para (Underground Carbon Storage), Last Line

Answer Explanation: There is also a plan for the injection of CO2 into saline aquifers, 1,000 meters beneath the seabed, to prevent its release into the atmosphere.

Tips for Answering the Question Types in Carbon Capture and Storage Reading Answers

Now let’s get started with the tips for each question type. It’ll help you understand how to approach the problem.

Multiple-Choice Questions

When we’re given a handful of options and each looks similar to each other then it might get tricky for one to answer it correctly. And, for that reason, we’ve outlined tips that’ll help you out for the same.

1. Pay attention to synonyms and paraphrasing: The answer choices may not use the exact same words as the passage but rather synonyms or paraphrases. Be on the lookout for these and be prepared to recognize them.
2. Skim the passage: Begin by skimming the passage to get a general idea of the content. Pay attention to headings, subheadings, and any formatting features that might signal the location of the answer.
3. Read the question first: Before you start reading the passage, quickly read the multiple-choice question. This will give you a specific focus as you read and help you identify relevant information more efficiently.
4. Eliminate wrong answers: Use the process of elimination to eliminate answer choices that are clearly incorrect. This can often be done by matching keywords from the question to the passage.
5. Don’t spend too much time on one question: If you’re struggling with a multiple-choice question, move on and come back to it later. It’s important to manage your time effectively to answer all questions within the allotted time.

Diagram Completion

Diagram Completion is a question type in the IELTS Reading test where you are presented with an incomplete diagram, table, flowchart, or similar visual representation, and you need to complete it by selecting the correct information from the reading passage. Here are five tips for successfully answering Diagram Completion questions:

1. Analyze the diagram: Before you start filling in the missing parts of the diagram, take a moment to analyze the visual representation. Understand the conventions and symbols used in the diagram, so you know how to interpret the information correctly. Pay attention to labels, axes, and any legends that provide important context.
2. Skim the passage: Begin by quickly skimming through the passage to get an overall sense of the content. Look for headings, subheadings, and keywords that may be relevant to the diagram completion. This initial scan will help you locate the relevant section more efficiently.
3. Read the instructions carefully: Before you start working on the diagram, make sure you understand the specific task and any limitations or requirements mentioned in the instructions. This will help you approach the question correctly.
4. Focus on the key information: Once you’ve identified the relevant section, read it carefully. Pay close attention to details, such as numbers, dates, names, and other specific information that may be needed to complete the diagram. Mark or underline this information as you read.
5. Match the information: Carefully match the information from the passage to the corresponding parts of the diagram. Ensure that the information you’re using fits the context of the diagram and is presented accurately. Check that your completed diagram is logical and coherent, with all components fitting together properly.

Sentence Completion

1. Look for clues: Scan the surrounding sentences for clues that can help you determine the missing word. Sometimes, the sentence structure or the words nearby can provide hints.
2. Read the sentence carefully: Begin by reading the sentence with the gap or blank. Try to understand the context and the type of word that should fit the gap (e.g., noun, verb, adjective).
3. Identify grammatical clues: Pay attention to the grammar of the sentence. If the sentence requires a verb, make sure you choose a verb form that fits the context. The same goes for nouns, adjectives, and other parts of speech.
4. Use your vocabulary:Draw on your vocabulary to come up with a suitable word for the gap. Ensure that the word you choose makes sense in the context of the sentence.
5. Check for coherence: After you’ve filled in the gap, read the entire sentence to ensure that it flows naturally and makes sense. The completed sentence should be grammatically correct and logically coherent.

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