CO₂ capture is the first step in the process of controlling CO₂ emissions from industrial sources.

CO₂ and water vapor are the primary products of fossil fuel combustion. CO₂ capture involves the separation of CO₂ from combustion exhaust gases, or in some cases from fuel gases before combustion, at a large industrial facility such as a power plant, oil refinery, or cement plant. This type of CO₂ separation is expensive and is not commercially practiced today.

However, CO₂ separation processes are commercially available and are used in the food and beverage industry—for soft drink carbonation, for example—and in natural gas processing, fertilizer manfacture, and other chemical industries. Adapting these processes for scale-up to capture CO₂ from large industrial combustion sources is currently the subject of considerable research. Researchers are also exploring new approaches to CO₂ capture, in hopes of creating processes that use less energy, take up less space, and cost less.

The viability of carbon sequestration requires the commercialization of CO₂ capture processes and geologic storage. WESTCARB is assessing current and emerging capture technologies and their suitability for West Coast industrial sources in conjunction with its field tests to validate CO₂ storage methods.