UKCCSRC - Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) UKCCSRC Spring Biannual, Cranfield - CCS in Action - 21-22 April 2015

The UKCCSRC Spring Biannual Meeting 2015 was held at Cranfield University 21-22 April 2015
The theme was CCS in Action and the meeting was hosted by the Energy Theme, Cranfield University
A proceedings document can be downloaded here.
Photos from the event can be seen on our Flickr album.
Blogs from the event can be read here.

AGENDA (click on presentation titles for available PDFs)

Tuesday 21 April 2015
10:00-12:00	Optional tour of the PACT facilites at Cranfield
12:00-13.00	Arrivals, networking, lunch and registration
13.00-13.15	Welcoming remarks Jon Gibbins – Director, UKCCSRC Professor Sir Peter Gregson – Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor, Cranfield University John Oakey – Cranfield University
13.15-14:15	CCS Action in Canada: Max Ball (SaskPower) – Building on the success at Boundary Dam This presentation will include a discussion and short video tour of the Boundary Dam Integrated CCS Demonstration. This is the world’s first commercial scale integration of coal fired power with full stream carbon capture, representing a landmark development for CCS. Discussion will also include related CCS efforts at SaskPower, including SaskPower’s Carbon Capture Test Facility and the planning of future CCS projects. The role of research and development activities in advancing CCS will be addressed. Don Lawton (CMC Research Institutes) – Monitoring conformance and containment for geological carbon storage: can technology meet policy and public requirements? The Province of Alberta, Canada identified carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a key element of its 2008 Climate Change strategy. The target is a reduction in CO₂ emissions of 139 Mt/year by 2050. To encourage uptake of CCS by industry, the province has provided partial funding to two demonstration scale projects, namely the Quest Project by Shell and partners (CCS), and the Alberta Carbon Trunk Line Project (pipeline development and CO₂-EOR). Important to commercial scale implementation of CCS will be the requirement to prove conformance and containment of the CO₂ plume injected during the lifetime of the CCS project. This will be a challenge for monitoring programs. The Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) is developing a Field Research Station (FRS) to calibrate various monitoring technologies for CO₂ detection thresholds at relatively shallow depths. The objective being assessed with the FRS is sensitivity for early detection of loss of containment from a deeper CO₂ storage project. In this project, two injection wells will be drilled to sandstone reservoir targets at depths of 300 m and 500 m. Up to four observation wells will be drilled with monitoring instruments installed. Time-lapse geophysical, geochemical, geomechanics and geodetic surveys will be undertaken at the FRS to evaluate the movement and fate of the CO₂ plume.
14:15-15:15	EPSRC Project Updates Updates from projects funded by the latest rounds of EPSRC funding for CCS Organic mixed matrix membrane technologies (ORGMENT) for post-combustion CO₂ capture – Peter Budd (University of Manchester) DiSECCS project – Andy Chadwick (BGS) Process Intensification for Post-combustion Carbon Capture using Rotating Packed Bed through Systems Engineering Techniques – Meihong Wang (University of Hull) Multi-scale Energy Systems Modelling Encompassing Renewable, Intermittent, Stored Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage (MESMERISE-CCS) – Niall Mac Dowell (Imperial College London) CONTAIN: The impact of hydrocarbon depletion on the treatment of caprocks within performance assessment for CO₂ Injection schemes – Caroline Graham (British Geological Society) Development of Unified Experimental and Theoretical Approach to Predict Reactive Transport in Subsurface Porous Media – Branco Bijeljic (Imperial College London) Fingerprinting Captured CO₂ using Natural Tracers: Determining CO₂ Fate and Proving Ownership – Stuart Gilfillan (University of Edinburgh) CO₂ injection and storage – short and long-term behaviour at different spatial scales – Anna Korre (Imperial College London) Selective Exhaust Gas Recirculation for Carbon Capture with Gas Turbines: Integration, Intensification, Scale-up and Optimisation – Richard Marsh (Cardiff University)
15:15-15:45	Break
15:45-17:15	Technical Parallel Session 1 *Aquistore: Performance Monitoring for Full-Chain CCS* Chaired by Michelle Bentham (BGS) Anna Stork (University of Bristol) – Microseismic monitoring at the Aquistore CCS site The Boundary Dam project, Saskatchewan, is the world’s first com mercial power plant CCS project. CO₂ capture began at the plant in 2014 and start-up of CO₂ injection at the adjacent Aquistore site is planned for Spring 2015. Microseismic monitoring forms an important part of a monitoring and verification program for such a project because the detection of seismic events can be used to verify geomechanical models and provide real-time early-warning of CO₂ migration or leakage. The microseismic monitoring set-up at the Aquistore site is unrivalled in this sector with baseline data available since July 2012 from an array of 51 vertical component geophones. In addition, three broadband stations provide data since November 2013. The instruments cover ~2.5kmx2.5km, surrounding the injection well. Preliminary baseline data analysis identifies noise sources associated with activity at the power plant, around the wells and on nearby roads. As part of this analysis we calibrated event detection, location and magnitude estimation procedures using injection well perforation shots and reported regional events. With near real-time passive seismic data analysis we will report and characterise any induced seismicity associated with CO₂ injection to improve understanding of the geomechanical response to injection at the site and inform injection activities. Stuart Gilfillan (University of Edinburgh) Fingerprinting captured CO₂ using natural tracers at Aquistore Claire Birnie (University of Leeds) – Passive noise analysis from the permanent surface array at the Aquistore CCS site A study has been performed on a 3-month period of passive seismic data collected at the Aquistore injection site in 2012 with the aim of identification and characterisation of individual noise sources prior to their recreation within a synthetic dataset. Synthetic datasets are commonly used to aid interpretation, test hypothesis and as a benchmarking tool for evaluating the robustness of seismic imaging algorithms however, noise within these datasets is often modelled as white and/or Gaussian. Our work is aimed at creating more realistic noise models with spatial and temporal variations as observed in noise present within field data. This work defines a noise classification scheme that systematically represents these temporal and spatial variations and trends. Preliminary results of the noise analysis are presented where noise signals identified at the Aquistore injection site are classified using the scheme defined into the noise categories: stationary, non-stationary and pseudo-non-stationary noise. Future studies will focus on creating a mathematical description of the signals focusing on non-stationary and non-linear aspects with the aim to build this into a synthetic seismic dataset as realistic noise. Material Science for CCS Chaired by Niall Mac Dowell (Imperial College London) Stuart Scott (University of Cambridge) – High temperature oxygen donor materials for oxy-fuel combustion Various solid materials can be used to separate oxygen from the air for use in combustion processes. In chemical looping combustion, a metal oxide is used to provide the oxygen to the fuel, thus produce a stream of CO₂ which requires little further separation. In some cases, the metal oxide can be used to produce gas phase oxygen, which is released in the vicinity of the fuel. The oxygen released locally can be used to combust solid fuels more efficiently than if the fuel is only reacted with steam or CO₂. The metal oxide could also be kept separate from the fuel and used in a cyclic process to produce a stream of oxygen, something which is now sometimes referred to as chemical looping air separation. This latter process is not new and in fact was one of the first commercial processes used to produce oxygen (i.e. the Brin process) before modern air separation techniques were developed. In all case, the incentive to use a looping process comes from the fact that they operate at temperatures above which the waste heat can be recovered back into a power cycle. In these processes, the properties of the solid oxygen carrier to a large extent determine the performance limits of the process. Kyra Campbell (Imperial College London) – Understanding and addressing corrosion due to amine solvents in post-combustion carbon capture processes While absorption-desorption of gaseous CO₂ in alkyl amines such as monoethanolamine (MEA) is a developed technology for concentration and purification of CO₂, corrosion remains a significant obstacle to the advancement of amine-based post-combustion carbon capture. While stainless steel remains reasonably impervious to amine solvents in the short term, the use of cheaper steels (e.g. mild) for large scale plants is preferred. However, the understanding of corrosion occurring on the mild steel construction remains problematic. To address this, a study of the corrosion on mild steel has been undertaken under reasonably thermally degrading conditions for MEA and three popular 2nd generation amine solvents. These four amines show two categorical behaviors: corrosion and passivation; additionally the common additive K2CO3 also shows passivation. Interestingly, mixtures of amines can be developed which contain corrosive components while still showing a passivating effect on the metal surface. Solomon Brown (University College London) – Material considerations in CO₂ pipeline design: practical issues and ongoing work Several major factors influence the selection of pipeline materials for CO₂ transportation, including the susceptibility to corrosion and the ability to resist ductile and brittle fracture propagation. As part of the ongoing EC FP7 project CO₂Quest, measurement of the relevant properties for the materials likely to be used in the construction of pipelines for CCS is being performed, and their sensitivity to the composition of the transported CO₂ mixture examined. As part of this effort fracture mechanics tests have recently been completed under both normal conditions and at low temperatures, indicative of those potentially reached in the case of a failure of a CO₂ pipeline. In this work, the results of the crack resistance of industrial steels, in particular X65, X70 and X80 grades, will be presented and experiments described which have been designed to investigate the materials behaviour during realistic release scenarios. Of those tested it is found that the X70HIC grade steel has the lowest ductile-to-brittle-transition-temperature, hence providing the most protection from brittle fracture. Jiafei Zhang (Imperial College London) – Influence of amine molecular structures on CO₂ absorption Amine scrubbing is the most dominated commercial technology adapted for CO₂ capture from fossil fuel power plant. However, significant energy consumption and irreversible solvent degradation are the major unsolved challenges for the conventional amines. It is therefore essential to screen new solvents to overcome these drawbacks. Amines with various molecular structures, such as p rimary, secondary and tertiary amines containing linear, branched and cyclic chains, have thus been studied according to the selection criteria: (a) reactivity, (b) CO₂ capacity, (c) regenerability, (d) thermophysical stability, (e) degradability, (f) toxicity, etc. The influence of amine molecule structures [e.g. alkanolamine vs. alkylamine; primary or secondary vs. tertiary amines; and linear vs. branched or cyclic substituents] on the physical and chemical properties is evident. We observed many interesting phenomena, for example, (i) some of the alkylamines with their switchable polarity can led to a liquid-liquid phase separation behaviour upon heating, (ii) secondary amine has a high potential to achieve rapid absorption rate, (iii) tertiary amine and cyclic structure typically exhibit a good chemical stability against thermal and oxidative degradations, (iv) a branch at α-carbon position is favoured to enhance both the absorption rate and CO₂ capacity. These observations can help us select suitable amines or optimise solvent recipes for CO₂ absorption. Novel Capture Technologies Chaired by Mohamed Pourkashanian (University of Sheffield) Ben Anthony (Cranfield University) – The Future of Calcium Looping Technology Ca looping is one of the newest carbon capture technologies. However, in the space of two decades it has made impressive strides. Firstly, it has been demonstrated at the 2 MWth level, and has performed flawlessly. Secondly, a feed study is now underway for a 10 MWth demonstration. The use of the technology for applications related to both the cement and steel industry are also now under active exploration. It is however at the pilot and lab-scale that some of the most interesting developments have been made. These developments are in particular focused on enhanced reforming, and sorbent improvement. This presentation will look at the state of the art of Ca looping technology, and highlight a number of the most important developments and provide a road map for anticipated future developments. Jonathan Lee (Newcastle University) – Intensification of Solvent Based Carbon Capture using Rotating Packed Beds Peter Budd (University of Manchester) – Novel membranes for carbon capture Membrane technology offers the potential for energy-efficient and cost-effective gas separations. However, it is challenging to develop membrane materials that exhibit sufficient selectivity and flux for a given separation, and which maintain performance over time under the conditions of use. For post-combustion carbon capture, the challenge is to separate very large volumes of CO₂ (a typical coal-fired power station may produce 10,000 tons of CO₂ per day) at relatively low concentration (10-15% in N₂) at low pressure. The current state-of-the-art will be outlined, and efforts to develop improved membrane materials will be discussed, with particular reference to our experience with “Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity” (PIMs). PIMs are glassy polymers which possess high free volume and high internal surface area as a consequence of their relatively inflexible, contorted macromolecular backbones. Recent research has sought to tailor the permeability and selectivity of PIM-based membranes, and to improve the ageing behaviour. This includes: (1) bespoke monomer synthesis; (2) chemical post-modification of precursor polymers; (3) thermal or ultraviolet treatment; (4) the preparation of polymer blends; (5) the formation of mixed matrix membranes with a variety of fillers, including: (a) inorganic porous solids, (b) carbons (activated carbons, nanotubes, graphene), (c) metal-organic frameworks, (d) porous organic materials.
17:15	Sessions close
17:30-19:00	Networking reception and Call 1 and Call 2 poster session
19:00-21:30	Networking dinner Speaker: Matthew Billson (University of Sheffield) – In the thick of it: Working with new Ministers The life of a new Minister, and how to influence them

Wednesday 22 April 2015
08:30-09:00	Arrivals and registration
09:00-09:30	Welcoming remarks John Gale (IEAGHG) – CCS in the Process Industries The presentation will summarise the work that the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) has been undertaking on assessing the potential for CCS implementation in the process industries. IEAGHG have undertaken techno economic studies on CCS implementation in the cement and steel industries. We are currently supplementing this work with techno economic analyses in the oil refining and pulp and paper industries. IEAGHG has recently reviewed the status of CCS implantation in the industrial hydrogen production sector and looked at barriers to CCS implementation for the bioethanol industry.
09.30-10:00	Chris Franklin (NERC) – A NERC perspective of CCS An update on the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding of CCS research under the RCUK Energy Programme. Sarah Tennison (Tees Valley Unlimited) – Teesside Collective: Current progress on the Industrial CCS project in Teesside An introduction to the Teesside Collective Project, our progress to date and our plans for the future. The presentation will also cover some of the key risks and challenges that the project faces and how these should be overcome.
10.00-11:10	Call 1 project updates Including: Tractable equations of state for CO₂ mixtures in CCS: Algorithms for automated generation and optimisation, tailored to end-user – Richard Graham (University of Nottingham) Fault Seal Controls on CO₂ Storage in Saline Aquifers – John Williams (British Geological Society) Multi-Phase Flow Modelling for Hazard A ssessment – Solomon Brown (University College London) Mixed matrix membranes preparation for post-combustion capture – Maria Chiara Ferrari (University of Edinburgh) Flexibility Issues in CCS Networks: Initial findings from the FleCCSNet project – Hamed Aghajani (Newcastle University) Experimental investigation with PACT facility and CFD modelling of oxy-coal combustion with recycling real flue gas and vent gas of compression and purification units – Sheraz Daood (University of Sheffield) Measurement of water solubility limits in CO₂ mixtures – Stephanie Foltran (University of Nottingham) Chemical looping for low-cost oxygen production and other applications – Paul Fennell (Imperial College London) CO₂ storage in Palaeogene and Neogene hydrogeological systems of the North Sea: preparation of an IODP scientific drilling bid – Maxine Akhurst (British Geological Society) Oxyfuel and EGR processes in GT combustion – Richard Marsh (Cardiff University) UK Bio-CAP UK – Janos Szuhanszki (University of Sheffield)
11:10-11.30	Break
11.30-12:45	Technical Paralell Session 2 *Surface Monitoring in the Marine System* Chair Clair Gough (University of Manchester) Jerry Blackford (Plymouth Marine Laboratory) – Monitoring and baseline requirements for offshore CCS: Outcomes from the QICS project. Quantifying and monitoring potential ecosystem impacts of geological carbon storage (QICS) is a UK funded project that aimed to improve knowledge on the potential ecosystem impacts of a leakage from carbon dioxide geological storage and to investigate a variety of techniques and methods that may be suitable for monitoring for leakage. , QICS developed a coupled experimental and modelling approach based around a unique real world release of CO₂ beneath the sea-floor. The project mimicked, on a very small scale, a leak event and monitored chemical transformations, seismic perturbations and ecosystem impact and recovery. The outcomes of the QICS experiment have in several ways challenged pre-conceptions and revealed a wealth of complex interactions that could modify both impacts and monitoring strategies. This talk will present the key operationally relevant outcomes from the QICS project, in particular relating to biogeochemical transformations relating to the release and the implications these have for biogeochemical monitoring. Modelling of hypothetical leakage events and natural variability and what these tell us about the need for comprehensive baselines will also be discussed. The talk will finally touch on ecosystem impacts of leakage. Graham Brown (Sonardyne) – ETI CCS MMV project overview This presentation will very briefly describe the progress in developing a marine monitoring, measurement and verification system for offshore carbon capture and storage in the UK. Although there are existing technology components which can detect CO₂ in a marine environment, there are no integrated, cost-effective and commercially available systems which can currently reliably record and report anomalies in the level of CO₂ in the sea above a large store. This project is taking a systems engineering approach to develop and demonstrate a first in class system. A key objective of the system is to be cost-effective and as such significant use is being made of cutting edge surface and underwater autonomous vehicles equipped with chemical and acoustic sensors. An overview of the proposed Concept of Operation will be given and initial results from chemical simulations as well as testing and evaluation of active sonars against CO₂ leaks will be presented. Paul White (Southampton University) – Bubble-stream monitoring and measurement Gaseous CO₂ leaks from marine CCS facilities generates bubbles which are acoustically active entities. As a bubble is formed it radiates acoustic energy, the frequency of which is indicative of the bubble’s size. Detecting and analysing the signature of a leak allows one to identify the presence of a leak and further has teh potential to quantify it. This paper discusses this approach, describes the fundamental principles, presents results from tank tests and, finally, shows field results from a simulated release. CO₂Shipping Chaired by Julia Race (University of Strathclyde) Peter Brownsort (SCCS) – Overview of CO₂ shipping studies worldwide, plus brief focus on potential role and issues of shipping for CO₂-EOR Transport of CO₂ by ship may fulfil a key role in the development of carbon capture and storage, particularly for CO₂-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the North Sea where a flexible transport system may be advantageous. This talk will give an overview of the potential for ship transport of CO₂ based on a recent literature survey. It will cover in outline the technology required, existing experience, regulation, HSE aspects, and financial factors. It will also highlight areas of uncertainty. Hans Aksel Haugen (Tel-Tek) – The crucial role of ships in establishing a Nordic CCS infrastructure The Nordic countries Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway can in many ways illustrate how an infrastructure for CCS may be established, and how ships may represent a key to making such an infrastructure possible. Although promising sites have been identified, The Baltic seems to have rather limited geological CO₂ Storage capacity. Further to the West, both the Danish and the Norwegian Continental shelves on the other hand, have very large potential Storage capacities, some of which (Sleipner/Utsira formation) have already been storing CO₂ for many years. CO₂ Sources in these countries are often quite small (0.3 – 1 mill tons per year) and scattered along the coasts, making pipe line transportation unfeasible. Ship transportation has been demonstrated in a small scale by Commercial interests already, and may represent a way to kick start the build-up of a CCS infrastructure, but may also be a cost efficient alternative throughout the life span of such infrastructure. Ships may be combined with pipelines, and CO₂ may be transported by ship to a land based hub from where a pipeline can transport the CO₂ to an offshore Storage location. The feasibility of such concepts has been shown through several studies, for instance in a study of the Skagerrak region between Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The presentation will show examples from selected Projects, and also focus on cost of CO₂ transportation. Daniel Loeve (TNO) – CO₂ shipping, a potential breakthrough? Several studies showed that the North Sea has large scale CO₂ storage potential. Countries around the North sea are progressing their research on CCS demonstration projects. After the demonstration projects the next phase of full scale projects will further develop the storage possibilities in the North Sea. Nonetheless a major difficulty is the transport of CO₂ to the offshore storage locations. CO₂ Pipeline transportation needs a guarantee for long term CO₂ supply in relative large quantities. In contrast to shipping which can handle many small sources and is flexible in source and sink location. For Enhanced Oil Recovery projects (EOR) this is especially convenient because of the high demand of CO₂ at the start of project and declining demand over time. This talk will discuss the CO₂ shipping value chain including one of the remaining questions in, which is the interface between the ship and the wellhead. What are the boundary conditions at the wellhead to safely inject CO₂ into the subsurface. For example e.g. maximum injection rates, minimal temperature. *CCS in Energy Intensive Industries* Sarah Tennison (Tees Valley Unlimited) – Teesside Collective: Designing an industrial CCS network in Teesside, outcomes from the engineering design work The Teesside Collective project recieved £1million from DECC to kick start the development of an industrial CCS network in Teesside. The project partners commissioned AMEC Foster Wheeler to undertake the inital engineering carbon capture at four industrial plants, an onshore transportation network, and an offshore transportation network. The presentation will cover the results of this inital engineering. Paul Fennell (Imperial College London) – A systematic review of current technology and cost for industrial carbon capture A systematic review of current technology and cost for industrial carbon capture is presented. Drawing on both the literature and current research projects, the cost of CCS will be assessed for technologies likely to be applied in the short, medium (5 – 10 yrs) and long (10 + years) terms. A particular focus will be high temperature solid looping cycles, which are a relative newcomer in the field of CCS, but are being rapidly commercialised. The economics of any process are key to its uptake. It is important to remember this when considering CCS technologies, which are marginally incentivised in the EU, but will eventually be crucial to efforts to combat climate change. As regulation of CO₂ emissions becomes more stringent, operators have renewed focus on the bottom line, driving renewed interest in 2nd and 3rd generation technologies. This study will mainly use the cost of CO₂ avoided as its primary metric. A significant number of literature sources have yielded costs for industrial CCS which have then been re-based to 2011 USD for fair comparison. A key message is that it is extremely important to consider how the financing has been accounted for in any analysis, prior to quoting a figure. Bruce Adderley (Tata Steel)
12:45-13:45	Networking lunch
13:45-14:45	CCS in Action or Inaction? Graeme Sweeney – DIY CCS Joan MacNaughton – CCS – the silver bullet travelling at snail’s pace?
14:45-15:00	Wrap up and closing remarks

ACCOMODATION
A limited number of rooms are held for delegates at Mitchell Hall on the Cranfield University campus – book soon to avoid disappointment. We have also held rooms at two hotels in Milton Keynes. For more information about these accommodation options click here.
TRANSPORT
We will provide transport from and to central Milton Keynes in the morning and evening of the 21st and 22nd April. If you think you will need transport please select the relevant option in your registration below to help us with planning.
Parking is available at on the Cranfield University campus.
STORAGE CPD COURSE
The UKCCSRC will hold a specialist CPD course on CO₂ Storage and Monitoring at Cranfield University on the 20-21 April 2015 (immediately before the biannual meeting). For more information on the course programme, fees etc. please click here. Please note the ECR Meeting Fund has also been made available to ECRs who want to apply for a fully-funded place on the course and funding to support travel, accommodation and subsistence. Click here for more information on the application process and deadline.
ECR MEETING FUND
The UKCCSRC is making its ECR Meeting Fund available to support UKCCSRC ECRs who need financial assistance to attend the biannual meeting in Cranfield. For more information on this fund, how to apply and deadlines please click here.
ECR POSTER PRIZE
The UKCCSRC is delighted to announce that there will be an Early Career Researcher (ECR) Poster Prize at the Cranfield Biannual Meeting on 21-22 April 2015. Up to four prizes will be awarded to ECRs for the best poster presentations covering the range of capture, storage and cross-cutting issues topics. Winners will receive a prize certificate and a voucher for £250 of CPD (continuing professional development) activities. For more information on the ECR Poster Prize and past winners please click here. Applications to the ECR poster prize have now closed.

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UKCCSRC Spring Biannual, Cranfield – CCS in Action – 21-22 April 2015

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