ECCSEL, the pan-European CCS Research Infrastructure – April 2016 Manchester Biannual

This blog was written by Xiabo Luo who is a PhD student at the University of Hull and received funding to attend the Manchester Biannual Meeting from the UKCCSRC ECR Meeting Fund

At the Europe-wide level, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is regarded as the most promising technology that can be commercially deployed to reduce Europe’s greenhouse emissions to achieve the targets set out in the EU Energy Roadmap 2050.

Aiming to developing cost-effective second and third generation CCS technologies in an efficient and structured way, European Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Laboratory Infrastructure (ECCSEL) (funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 675206) is opening access for researchers to a top quality European research infrastructure covering the experimental facilities from 9 countries across Europe (Figure 1).

At the UKCCSRC biannual meeting in Manchester on 13 -14 April 2016, Dr Helen Taylor, the ECCSEL UK Node contact and also a Geochemist from British Geological Survey (BGS), delivered a presentation to provide an update on ECCSEL’s strategy and current implementation.

Dr Helen Taylor first introduced the functional organisation of ECCSEL and the partners from nine countries. For the joint applications, there are several requirements including legally independent entity, signing up at the national level and funding by Member State subscriptions (cash / in-kind). She also pointed out the benefits of joining ECCSEL to the UK and to researchers.

Dr Taylor then presented the implementation in the phase of INFRADEV-3 (2015-2017), including implementing integrated Research Infrastructure (RI) and establishing European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). Currently, there are 43 CAT-1 facilities (existing research facilities) at implementation. With the addition of CAT-2 facilities (upgrading of facilities) and CAT-3 facilities (new establishment facilities), the RI is expected to  have 69 facilities for carbon capture section, 10 facilities for CO₂ transport section and 12 facilities for CO₂ storage section. More details can refer to the slides of this presentation made by Dr Helen Taylor.

Good news is that the first call (funded by European Union’s HORIZON 2020 programme) in 2016 is open now. Researchers could applyfor transnational access for 43 CAT-1 facilities,