Leading UK carbon capture and storage projects receive key funding

Thirteen ‘cutting-edge’ carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects have been awarded funding from the UK CCS Research Community Network+ (UKCCSRC) as part of its Flexible Funding 2023 initiative.

Announced at the end of November, the funding will help to advance research into CCS, which is considered by many as a necessity for achieving Net Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Set to last between three and nine months, a total of £365,102 was awarded to a range of CCS-related projects.

According to Professor Jon Gibbins, Director of the UKCCSRC, the ‘Flexible Funding’ round will be tackling a wide range of projects suggests by the needs of the UK’s growing CCS deployment sector.

These includes C-WELL, which explores carbon dioxide (CO2) injection well integrity under operational thermo-hydro-mechanical loading.

Project lead Dr. Lee Hosking from Brunel University London said that research on CCS enables him to apply his ‘dual passions’ for climate action and environmental engineering.

Some of the funded projects also focus on the knowledge and technical developments required for safe CO2 storage deep underground.

Professor Sophie Nixon at the University of Manchester is leading a project which ‘will take the first steps to assess what native microbiota live in the reservoirs targeted for CCS, and how they may respond to CO2 storage.’

Dr. Yihuai Zhan from the University of Glasgow will use ‘cutting-edge X-ray imaging to understand, at a micro-level, how CO2 interacts with carbonate rocks when injected deep underground.’

Experienced structural geology expert Dr. Emma Michie from the University of Liverpool will analyse surface samples from the Central and Northern Apennine, Italy and subsurface samples from the Norwegian North Sea to assess the validity of CO2 storage sites.

A project led by Dr. Marius Dewar at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory explores safety once the CO2 is stored by ‘providing CCS operators with tools to develop cost effective monitoring programmes that can provide assurance to stakeholders (public, operators and regulators) that the storage site is secure, and that sensors are located in the best positions to detect any anomalies that may occur.’

“As this call was well-subscribed, and there is clearly a major opportunity for us to help build UK CCS wealth-creation capacity in CCS using this route, the UKCCSRC, with its proven track record of rapid and effective project procurement and funding, is actively seeking additional funds for future calls,” added Professor Gibbins.

source: gasworld.com