BLOG

I was invited to give a talk to a local Green Party meeting who wanted a debate on CCS. This was the Stroud Green Party, Stroud being a town in the scenic Cotswold Hills known for its number of green councillors, independent spirit and high level of environmental awareness. They titled the debate "CCS – Essential for our future or a Trojan horse fo...

CTCN and the International CCS Knowledge Centre delivered a webinar on the 11th April as update on the Carbon Capture and Storage facilities integrated in the Boundary Dam power plant in Canada. Emma Hannula, from CTCN, introduced Corwyn Bruce, who presented an overview of BD3 (Boundary Dam Unit 3), which is emitting 120-140 tCO2/GWh (as reference,...

In the latest PTRC news-letter the Saskatchewan based research organisation announced that the week of 13th – 16thMarch marked the fourth seismic imaging run conducted over the Aquistore site. This technique is an integral part of the sites's monitoring and measurement programme. Since injection began in 2015 over 140,000 tonnes have been stored.Th...

Once again, the UKCCSRC has held their biannual meeting, which took place in the University of Cambridge during 26-27th March. UKCCSRC leads and coordinates a programme of underpinning research on all aspects of CCS in support of basic science and UK government efforts on energy and climate change. This initiative receives support from the EPSRC an...

 The STEMM-CCS project held its second annual meeting last week. This is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project that is developing environmental monitoring to test in-situ at a controlled release of CO2 in the seabed at the Goldeneye location in the North Sea (see IEAGHG 2017-IP14). The project is coordinated by the UK's National Oceanography Centr...

 It has struck me when listening to astronauts that very often their concern for the earth's environment is much enhanced after their experiences. Perhaps because of their unique perspective from space looking back at this planet, I guess they see that this bright blue/green planet is a small oasis of life in the vastness of space.This was rei...

News came out on 9 February that the US Budget Bill passed by congress and signed by the President into law included "FUTURE Act". This act contains an extension to the US tax credit for CCS and CCUS, known as 45Q.The existing version of 45Q provided a tax credit of $10 per tonne of CO2 for anthropogenic CO2 going to enhanced oil recovery, and $20 ...

 The University of Texas held their biennial conference on CCUS, UTCCS-4 on the 30-31 January. This conference combines the Texas Carbon Management Program's amine-based capture research, the Gulf Coast Carbon Center's applied research in storage, and the Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security program's more fundamental research in...

The origin of the word 'sandwich' for an item of food may have originated from a story about John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. It is said that in approximately1762, he asked for meat to be served between slices of bread to avoid interrupting a gambling game. This story may have been rumour but soon people are reputed to have started ordering ...

 The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) meetings in Abu Dhabi, UAE, were held from 4-6 December and concluded with the 7th CSLF Ministerial Meeting. The CSLF is a government-to-government agreement on developing CCS, it started in 2003 and now has 25 member countries and the European Commission, and consists of a Technical Group, a P...

 There will be much analysis into the details coming out of COP-23, but my short summary is as follows.Progress was made in general in the details of the 'rulebook' for the Paris Agreement, but there is a lot of work still to do. As a result it is suggested there may need to be an extra UNFCCC Parties meeting before COP-24 in order to be ready...

 CEMCAP held its second ECRA/CEMCAP workshop in Dusseldorf, Germany, on the 7th November. CEMCAP is a collaborative project funded by the H2020 program which aims to increase the TRL of carbon capture systems applied to the cement industry and decrease the costs associated. Within the innovative concepts under development, we can find new cons...

 On Saturday we reached the end of the first week of COP-23, which is meeting in Bonn from 6 to 17 November. Whilst physically in Bonn, the formal host is Fiji, the first time a small island state has presided over a COP. Fiji asked that a focus of this COP to be on oceans, and we responded in our UNFCCC Side-event on the 7th November (see ear...

Yesterday was our Side-event, co-organised with The University of Texas, Bellona and CCSA. It was well attended, with around 150 attendees, and lots of good questions.The side event started with Dr Carol Turley OBE presenting an update on ocean acidification and its significant impacts on the planet; even the NDCs pledged so far will still cause a ...

 Coming straight on the heels of the ratification of the Paris Agreement COP22 in Marrakech starts today. the COP22 will focus on action items in order to achieve the priorities of The Paris Agreement, especially related to adaptation, transparency, technology transfer, mitigation, capacity building and loss and damages.At yesterday's opening ...

 A new technical review from IEAGHG summarising the current research on the reducing emissions from the natural gas supply chain.This technical review has been undertaken with the aim of providing a summary of the current status of research into greenhouse gas emissions in the natural gas supply chain. Although 90% or more of the CO2produced a...

 As part of the CO2STCAP project, last week I went to the review meeting in Stockholm. Concurring with this, the 4th October was the Cinnamon Buns Day in Sweden and we celebrated both, the last advances on the project and such a nice local pastry.This project, funded by the CLIMIT program, Swedish Energy Agency and participant partners, is coo...

 It is the 39th meeting of the London Convention and the 12th meeting of the London Protocol this week, the global treaties that protect the marine environment. The detailed work on transboundary CCS was completed in 2012 (see IEAGHG 2013-IP26 and 2014-IP19) but outstanding is the ratification of the 2009 amendment for CO2 export which would r...

 The IEA Greenhouse gas R&D programme is formed under an agreement framed by the International Energy Agency in Paris. There are nearly 40 such agreements, which used to be called Implementing Agreements. The term Implementing Agreement caused a lot of confusion and what it stood for was difficult to communicate especially to non-native En...

 The International CCS Knowledge Centre held its first Global CCS Symposium with a theme of "Advancing a Path Forward", supporting the goal of the Centre to advance CCS globally. Some 160 attendees from 11 countries participated, including from China, Mexico, Indonesia, Bangladesh, South Africa, and from India by video, as well as Norway, Aust...