This website will offer limited functionality in this browser. We only support the recent versions of major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

Technology Collaboration Programme by IEA

Explore our Publications Library

Discover the latest advances carbon capture and storage research

Technical Report

Oxy-combustion turbines

  • 1 August 2015
  • Capture

Post combustion capture is usually considered to be the leading option for capture of CO₂ at natural gas fired power plants but there is increasing interest in the alternative of oxy-combustion turbines which use recycled CO₂ and/or H2O as the working fluid instead of air. Large component tests have taken place and a 50 MWth demonstration plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017. Oxy-combustion turbines can also be combined with solid fuel gasification as an alternative to IGCC with pre-combustion capture. This study provides an independent evaluation of the performance and costs of a range of oxy-combustion turbine cycles, mainly for utility scale power generation. The study was carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano.

Technical Report

Integrated CCS Project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station

  • 1 August 2015
  • Capture
  • Storage

On October 2, 2014, the first-ever, commercial–scale, coal-fired power plant incorporating amine solvent absorption carbon capture began operation near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. This was a global landmark event. Although carbon capture technologies had been pilot tested prior to this, a commercial– scale power plant now exists that has demonstrated that a number of high-risk technology and business issues have been overcome. This report summarizes the experience and learnings of SaskPower in a way that will hopefully provide insight to other clean-coal initiatives

Technical Report

Monitoring Network Meeting

  • 1 December 2015
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

The 45 presentations and 17 posters covered a range of topics, with sessions on cost-effective monitoring of large projects, permit requirements, induced seismicity, shallow monitoring, geophysical monitoring and CO₂ relationships, pressure monitoring applications, monitoring tools for shallow, surface and deep monitoring, update on projects, and post-closure monitoring. As well as the new results and developments, new at this meeting was a group-work exercise created by Sue Hovorka of the University of Texas. This involved the groups designing monitoring plans for fictional but realistic storage sites, and then these being actually tested with leakage scenarios.

Technical Report

Social Research Network 2015

  • 1 January 2016
  • Event Proceedings
  • Public Perception

This work looked into adopting a place-based approach to better understand responses of the public to the siting of projects involving low-carbon technologies. The research examined public reactions to an offshore wind farm, a power line proposal and a tidal energy project in the UK. Theorising the concept of ‘place’ has two aspects to it – a place as a locus of attachment/identity and a place as a centre of meaning. With the latter, these meanings are not fixed and people have different thoughts or feelings about them. ‘Place attachment’ describes the emotional bonds between people and particular environments (which can be attachment or non-attachment), where ‘place identity’ refers to the ways in which places reflect and maintain identities for individuals or groups. This work argues the value of capturing place attachments and their related meanings to explain local responses to siting of infrastructure proposals, but notes that each in isolation is insufficient to explain why. It was felt that there is value in conducting and comparing multiple case studies across contexts and sectors to further examine the influence of place on consumers.

Technical Review

Evaluation of Barriers to National CO₂ Geological Storage Assessments

  • 1 February 2016
  • Storage

This report is the published product of a study undertaken for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) to assess barriers to high-level geological CO₂ storage assessments for the Clean Energy Ministerial. This review was undertaken by the CO₂ Storage team of the British Geological Survey on behalf of UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Korean Clean Energy Ministry to support the work of the CSLF. The review was funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Korean Clean Energy Ministry. The project was managed by the IEA Greenhouse Gas Research and Development Programme (IEA-GHG). The survey responses expressed and analysed in this report are based on publicly available information and the views of respondents to a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The responses do not necessarily reflect the view of authorities or government policies for the countries included in the survey.

Technical Report

Summary of IEAGHG/CSLF Workshop on LCA in CCUS London 12-13 November 2015

  • 1 March 2016
  • Event Proceedings

A workshop on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) was held in London, UK, 12<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> November 2015, hosted by IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). The workshop built on the IEAGHG report 2010/TR2 and review work by the CSLF. The workshop looked at the state-of-the art of LCA for CCUS in terms of goals and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation as well as social LCA and Life Cycle Costing (LCC).

Technical Report

Operational Flexibility of CO₂ Transport and Storage

  • 1 March 2016
  • Storage
  • Transport

This study has reviewed different transport and storage scenarios to reflect the range of full-scale commercial operations. In addition to a wide ranging literature review a survey of industrial, utility, pipeline and CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR operators was also conducted to obtain their insights of CO<sub>2</sub> transport and storage. Owing to the sensitivity of these commercial operations it has not been possible to attribute background information to either individuals or their companies. Anonymity has not prevented the inclusion of real world data on exhaust gas composition from different sources including power generation (coal and natural gas), oil refining, gas processing, cement, hydrogen production, and ethanol production. It also includes background information on actual CO<sub>2</sub> pipeline operation, including network hubs, and CO<sub>2</sub> CO<sub>2</sub>-EOR experience in the United States. Experience from different industrial scale injection projects such as Sleipner, Snøhvit and In Salah, has been included. The study has investigated how flexible operation affects CO<sub>2</sub> storage and the measures adopted to accommodate intermittent supply. There are a series of prioritized recommendations based on the gaps in knowledge.

Technical Report

CO₂ impurities

  • 1 April 2016
  • Industry Insights

The main objectives of the report are to: Review the CO₂ impurities that could be present from different CO₂ capture technologies and develop twelve CO₂ impurity scenario compositions for further analysis; Evaluate these impurity scenarios for CO₂ physical and transport properties. The properties that are investigated are the dew point, bubble point, melting point, density, Joule-Thomson coefficients, speed of sound, viscosity and thermal conductivity. Evaluate the effects of the impurities on CO₂ compression and liquefaction in terms of performance and energy requirements; Identify the effects of the impurities on the operating conditions for both pipeline and ship based transportation; Evaluate the effect of the impurities on the selection of materials for pipeline and ship transportation.

Technical Report

Can CO₂ Capture and Storage Unlock 'Unburnable Carbon'?

  • 1 May 2016
  • Capture
  • Storage

This study has undertaken an initial assessment on the relevance of CCS in terms of the unburnable carbon issues. This consisted of the following tasks: <ol> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Undertake a comprehensive literature review to identify and assess those studies done to date which are relevant to, include or comment upon the role of CCS in the issues of unburnable carbon.</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Assess the assumptions, methodologies, any contentious subjects, and understand differences in these studies.</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Identify and assess sources of information on the global potential for CCS deployment, including storage potential.</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Potential issues that would contribute to better understanding and assessment of this topic (which are of a technical nature and thus IEAGHG could address), will be identified and recommendations made for further work, including whether any work is necessary relating to global storage capacity and CCS global potential.</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> </ol>

Technical Review

International Workshop on Offshore Geological CO₂ Storage

  • 1 May 2016
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

The aims of the workshop were to undertake a global needs assessment for offshore geological CO₂ storage, to initiate a discussion about the various aspects of offshore transport and storage, and to build an international community of parties interested in offshore storage. This was achieved by bringing together those who are doing offshore CCS to share knowledge with those who are interested in doing, and by facilitating countries to identify their specific issues, challenges, opportunities, and then to identify synergies, common gaps and goals, and define common action items.

Technical Review

Review of GHG Accounting Rules for CCS

  • 1 May 2016
  • Policy & Regulation

This report aims to provide a comparative review of how current rules for compiling and reporting inventories of GHG emissions and removals, and for MRV of GHG emissions and removals (hereafter collectively termed “GHG accounting rules”) apply to CCS activities worldwide. These include international, regional and national approaches employed under policies and measures such as mandatory GHG emissions reporting, carbon taxes and emission trading schemes (ETS). The report will identify any significant differences between accounting protocols for CCS, the reasons for differences, and any issues that might arise from their differences. It will identify issues, gaps and potential barriers emerging from the review and possible measures that could be taken to support CCS deployment.

Technical Review

Review of Project Permits Under the London Protocol - As Assessment of the Proposed P18-4 CO₂ Storage Sites

  • 1 May 2016
  • Policy & Regulation
  • Storage

The London Convention and Protocol is one of the first global agreements to protect the marine environment. The Protocol promotes the protection of the marine environment by prohibiting the dumping of wastes and other matter into the sea. Under the Protocol all dumping is prohibited, with the exception of a limited number of selected wastes. In 2007, an amendment entered into force which permitted CO₂ streams to be considered for dumping under the London Protocol. The amendment was shortly followed up with a set of “Specific Guidelines for Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Streams for Disposal into Sub-seabed Geological Formations”, developed to support the National Authorities of Contracting Parties in evaluating permit applications for CO₂ disposal activities in their marine territories. As few offshore CO₂ storage sites have been permitted in the territories of Contracting Parties, there is no evidence of the application of the above mentioned guidelines to actual permitting processes. The P18-4 field is a near-depleted gas field at a depth of 3.5 km under the seabed, located approximately 20 km off the Dutch coast in the North Sea. The operator of the gas field applied for a CO₂ storage permit to the Dutch authorities in 2011, for the storage of a maximum of 8 Mton CO₂. An irrevocable storage permit for P18-4 was provided to the operator in September 2013, however the project has been postponed indefinitely due to economic constraints. The objective of this report is to assess to what extent the proposed P18-4 storage site, originally part of the ROAD CCS Project, complies with the London Protocol’s 2012 Specific Guidelines for Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Streams for Disposal into Sub-seabed Geological Formations, and therefore the 1996 London Protocol itself. The assessment has been achieved through a simple, but systematic, cross-check of the requirements of the Specific Guidelines against the contents of the application material provided by the operator to the National Authority. This involves the appraisal of approximately 1100 pages of submitted material in order to identify evidence of compliance

Explore our resources

Discover everything that IEAGHG has to offer, from the latest publications to exciting events.

Publications

Discover our expansive library of leading CCS research covering a wealth of topics. From DACS to BECCS and Carbon Markets to Carbon Capture.

Discover More

Events

We are committed to sharing the latest CCS knowledge worldwide. Learn how you can join our global conferences, expert networks, workshops and webinars.

Experience More

News & Insights

Get the latest IEAGHG news, discover our impact, and uncover essential analyses of global CCS developments.

Stay Updated

Discover membership

Access to restricted publications is just the beginning. IEAGHG membership has unlocked CCS potential for government and industry around the world. Discover what it can do for you.

Discover More

Get the latest CCS news and insights

Get essential news and updates from the CCS sector and the IEAGHG by email.

Can't find what you are looking for?

Whatever you would like to know, our dedicated team of experts is here to help you. Just drop us an email and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Contact Us Now