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

CO₂ as a Feedstock: Comparison of CCU Pathways

  • 1 November 2021
  • Utilisation

The aim of this study is to present a holistic assessment of the viability (both technically and from a market perspective) of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) routes and to identify areas of strength and weakness within individual routes, compare different CCU pathways, and identify common drivers, barriers, and enablers. The results of this study will be of interest to the technical community, as well as industry and manufacturers. The study assessed commodities across four different CCU categories (building materials, chemicals, polymers and fuels) regarding their mitigation potential, market uptake potential, technical scalability and other impacts.

Technical Report

CO₂ Utilisation: Hydrogenation Pathways

  • 1 November 2021
  • Costs of CCUS
  • Utilisation

The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of select carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) routes based upon CO₂ conversion through hydrogenation, in terms of their climate change mitigation potential. The results of this study will be of interest to organisations/individuals involved with climate-change scenario modelling, as well as RD&D financial sponsors. The commodities selected for investigation were methanol, formic acid, and middle distillate hydrocarbons (synthetic fuels: diesel, gasoline, jet fuel), with a focus on catalytic hydrogenation pathways. Results of CO₂ emissions, costs and energy consumption for formic acid, however, will not be presented in detail in this Overview, as the analysis has shown that the abatement is limited to 2 MtCO₂ due to the small market size. (Results for formic acid are available in the full report.)

Technical Review

White Paper: Towards improved guidelines for cost evaluation of carbon capture and storage

  • 11 August 2021
  • Costs of CCUS

One of the key barriers to the wide scale application of CCS is cost. Understanding the costs of CCS is essential to understand the role for and potential of CCS technology in addressing climate change, and for guidance in research activities aiming to reduce the cost and improve the performance of promising new CCS technologies in different applications. This white paper, entitled ‘Towards improved guidelines for cost evaluation of carbon capture and storage’, addresses three of the challenges that remain to establish reliable cost estimates for CCS technologies, namely: estimating the future “Nth-of-a-kind” (NOAK) cost of advanced technologies that are currently at early pre-commercial stages of development; improving existing guidelines for cost evaluation of CCS from industrial applications; and reviewing and providing guidance on available and emerging methods for uncertainty analysis in CCS techno-economic studies.

Technical Review

CCUS in national GHG inventories

  • 28 June 2021
  • Policy & Regulation

This report builds upon previous IEAGHG studies on the topic of carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) in order to assess the potential of a portfolio of CCU technologies to contribute towards Japan’s climate change mitigation goals in 2030 and 2050.

Technical Review

IEAGHG Monitoring Network - ‘Monitoring Expertise Showcase for Post-Closure Monitoring’

  • 23 April 2021
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

This was a little different from usual webinars, whereby the Steering Committee aimed for a more interactive and informal experience for the audience with a scenario-based exercise.<br />Susan Hovorka (<em>BEG at UTexas</em>) introduced the hypothetical site scenario. She emphasised that the aim of the event was to learn about post-closure monitoring options, with an informal ‘game’ to engage panellists with the audience in thinking about CO<sub>2</sub> storage sites and measurement, monitoring and verification (MMV). This is a hypothetical site with some gaps in the information, in reality the site characteristics would be much better understood for storage projects and months of planning would have been done prior to making any sort of decisions on monitoring programmes. The hypothetical site scenario is described in figure 1, below. This ‘site’ will be injecting for 25 years, into 50 metre thick sandstone at a depth of 1.5km.

Technical Review

Exporting CO₂ for Offshore Storage – The London Protocol’s Export Amendment and Associated Guidelines and Guidance

  • 12 April 2021
  • Policy & Regulation
  • Storage

The London Convention and London Protocol are the global treaties that protect the marine environment from pollution caused by the dumping of wastes. Since 2006, the London Protocol has provided a basis in international environmental law to allow carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage beneath the seabed when it is safe to do so, and to regulate the injection of CO₂ into sub-seabed geological formations for permanent isolation. However, Article 6 of the London Protocol prohibits the export of waste or other matter for dumping in the marine environment. Therefore in 2019, Contracting Parties to the London Protocol adopted a resolution to allow provisional application of the 2009 amendment to Article 6 of the Protocol to allow export of CO₂ for storage in sub-seabed geological formations in advance of its ratification, which was progressing slowly.

Technical Report

Biorefineries with CCS

  • 1 March 2021
  • Capture
  • Costs of CCUS

The aim of this study is to provide a techno-economic assessment of biorefinery concepts with and without carbon capture and storage (CCS) as well as a comparative assessment of 1st generation and 2nd generation biorefineries. The results of this study will be of interest to developers of biorefinery and CCS projects and policy makers.

Technical Review

IEAGHG Risk Management Network Webinar December 2020

  • 25 January 2021
  • Event Proceedings
  • Storage

This webinar heard from the operators at Shell’s Quest project about their experiences with risk management at the project, which was followed by a panel discussion between representatives from leading CCS developers, as well as experts in the area of risk management.

Technical Report

CCS and the Sustainable Development Goals

  • 15 December 2020
  • Policy & Regulation

The overall objective of this assessment was to improve the availability and accessibility of information regarding the relevance of CCS in contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The primary objective was achieved through the completion of three key goals: <ol> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Collation of existing information on impacts of CCS on specific targets of the 17 SDGs, using the rating, scoring and information assessment as per IPCC’s SR1.5,</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> <!-- wp:list-item --><!-- wp:list-item --><li>Articulation of specific gaps in information, and</li><!-- /wp:list-item --><!-- /wp:list-item --> </ol> Proposal of a path forward by providing a prioritised lists of gap closures.There is a growing body of literature orientated towards converting climate action into policies directed towards implementation of SDGs. There is also a trend of material becoming available examining the interaction of technologies and sectors against SDGs. CCS remains a complex technological solution to climate change, and public understanding of the technology remains low. This study can help to substantiate the wider value of CCS, but it can also highlight points of attention/action on potentially negative interactions with specific SDGs.

Technical Report

CCS on Waste to Energy

  • 1 December 2020
  • Capture

It is estimated that, by 2050, 3.75 billion tons of waste will be produced annually and 11.1% of it will be incinerated (The World Bank). Globally, it is estimated that 1.76 billion tons1 of CO₂ were generated from solid waste treatment and disposal in 2016, representing 5% of the total global CO₂ emissions (The World Bank). In waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities, the waste incineration of 1 ton of municipal solid waste (MSW) is associated with the release of about 0.7-1.7 tons1 of CO₂. (Zero Waste Europe, 2019). The CO₂ content in the flue gas emitted from WtE facilities is approximately 6-12%, depending on the feedstock and treatment process (Zehenhoven R. and Kilpinen P). IEAGHG identified the need to explore the implementation of CCUS (Carbon Capture & Utilization/Storage) as a CO₂ emissions mitigation pathway in the WtE sector under different regional scenarios. This report is divided into 5 sections: overview of WtE frameworks and WtE with CCS projects; review of regulations for WtE plants; overview of strategies to cut down CO₂ emissions from WtE plants; review of challenges on the integration of CO₂ capture systems on WtE plants; and assessment of the market potential of the WtE-CCU/CCS integration.

Technical Report

IEAGHG High Temperature Solid Looping Cycles Network – Combined meeting report

  • 16 October 2020
  • Capture
  • Event Proceedings

The 6th HTSLCN Meeting took place from 1st to 2nd September 2015 at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, in Italy. 72 attendees from 19 countries enjoyed a two-day programme with 45 presentations, site visits to research facilities at Politecnico di Milano and a stunning dinner at Lake Como. Two keynotes covered the progress made in calcium and chemical looping technologies respectively in the last decade. The technical sessions provided the latest advances in calcium and chemical looping pilot plant testing, solid carrier fundamentals, system modelling, process and heat integration, and sorption enhanced reforming technologies. Other topics were utilisation of biomass as a fuel, techno-economics of a large-scale packed bed reactor for chemical looping and the application of calcium looping in cement plants. The meeting formally closed with a discussion forum that summarised the main conclusions from the earlier presentations and the most burning issues for the future. The 7th HTSLCN Meeting will take place from 4th to 5th September 2017 at Swerea MEFOS in Luleå, Sweden.

Technical Report

Beyond LCOE: Value of technologies in different generation and grid scenarios

  • 29 September 2020
  • Capture
  • Costs of CCUS

Since its introduction, the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) has become ubiquitous in the evaluation and comparison of power generation technologies. While it is a readily accessible metric, it focuses exclusively on the cost of electricity produced from an asset and neglects to address the provision of ancillary services that are vital for the reliable operation of an electricity grid. This simplification was entirely appropriate for the electricity system of the 20th century, dominated at it was by fossil fuels and nuclear technologies, but it falls well short as a metric to compare technologies in a system to provide net-zero emissions by the mid-21st century. The objective of this study was to evaluate the various concepts that have been proposed as alternatives to LCOE and to explore the potential for a concept that balances completeness and ease of use. As an alternative to LCOE, this study proposes the modified screening curve concept, which shows that, while intermittent renewables have significant value by providing energy/fuel savings, a low-carbon dispatchable technology such as CCUS has critical value by supplying the flexible capacity to deliver security of supply.

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