Controlled freeze zone

Advances in technology are likely to make carbon capture and storage less expensive over time. ExxonMobil is investing more than $100 million in a test facility to develop one such technology.

Controlled Freeze Zone (CFZ) is a single-step cryogenic separation process for removing CO₂ and other undesirable elements from raw natural gas. It will be deployed at a commercial demonstration plant in Wyoming that is scheduled to begin operations in late 2009.

CFZ is expected to be a lower-cost process to develop gas high in impurities, such as carbon dioxide, and reinject the impurities. That is important because our world needs additional supplies of clean-burning natural gas.

But by making CO₂ capture from natural gas more affordable, this new CFZ technology may also make CCS a more practical option in the effort to address the risks of climate change.