UKCCSRC Spring 2025 Conference – Parallel 2a – CO2 Capture (ECR Meeting Fund)

Nicholas Landon (University of Nottingham), Janna Aljoubory (Brunel University of London) and Sylvanus Lilonfe (University of Nottingham) share their takeaways from the “Parallel 2a – CO2 Capture” session at the UKCCSRC Spring 2025 Conference.

While the UKCCSRC conferences allow researchers and industry from a wide variety of areas of carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector to come together and share knowledge, the central focus will always be the carbon capture aspect itself, without which there would be no need for advancements in materials, storage, policy, etc. As seen in the CO₂ Capture Parallel Session, the research currently conducted focuses on improving the technology’s performance and economics, both necessary fields to ensure CCS operates as effectively as possible.

Achieving high capture rate with amine post-combustion (STRETCHER)

The session’s opening speaker, Jon Gibbins, demonstrated this when discussing his research with optimising the energy requirement and capture rate of amine capture plants. Explaining the basic working principles of amine post-combustion capture systems led the way for examinations of how changes in the system’s operating conditions affect the reboiler duty, showing that at a particular lean loading of amine there will be an exponential increase in the energy requirement, which is the ‘inflection point’ at which the system should be operated at for optimum efficiency. Further projects investigating the temperature profiles in the desorber column to optimise its energy recovery and the solvent loading in the absorber column to maximise its capture efficiency.

A presentation by Jon Gibbins of University of Sheffield on achieving high capture rates for amine post-combustion at the UKCCSRC 2025 Spring Conference in Glasgow. Credit: Nicholas Landon

The overall positive messages from the research – that capture rates upwards of 95% are possible with low energy requirements from this process optimisation – were illustrated by the collaboration with Guangdong Carbon Capture Test Platform in China where the theory was put to the test, demonstrating that high capture efficiency was achievable under the operating conditions investigated. And just to ensure the presentation didn’t get too technical, Gibbins populated the discussion with anecdotes on having to halt the China system’s operation for mealtimes, and the history of Norway’s CCS journey and the ‘Soria Moria Declaration’, to keep everyone entertained.

Flexibly operated capture using solvent storage (FOCUSS)

A project collaboration between the University of Sheffield, AECOM, SSE Thermal and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, with an estimated budget of £670,000, demonstrated the cost-effectiveness and high CO₂ capture rates of flexibly operated capture using solvent storage across different plant operation regimes, including start-up, transient and shutdown regimes. According to Mathieu Lucquiaud, from the University of Sheffield, solvent storage tanks were designed to accommodate different flow regimes of an amine-incorporated power plant, which enabled capture rates of more than 97% CO₂. Additionally, the project examined the impacts of various regeneration pressures and temperatures on amine desorbers. Inflection points in solvent regeneration in the desorbers enable minimal energy use, even with a lower lean loading. However, attempting to achieve lean loadings below the desorber inflection point results in a rapid increase in specific reboiler duty.

A presentation by Mathieu Lucquiaud from the University of Sheffield on flexibly operated capture using solvent storage at the UKCCSRC 2025 Spring Conference in Glasgow. Credit: Sylvanus Lilonfe

Flexibly operated capture using solvent storage leads to high CO₂ capture rates of more than 97% at a small cost penalty. However, the use of rich solvent storage leads to an increase in solvent demand and inventory, up to 344%, but this could be reduced to a 25–49% increase using early and late steam from the power plant start-up and shutdown events. Early and late steam refers to steam produced during plant start-up and shutdown events and cannot be utilised in the steam turbines.

Dispatchable Power Agreement and CCS Business Models

The final speaker, Stephen Glenville, focused on the policies in place with regards to carbon capture. As a senior policy advisor in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), he has recently been involved in the design of the Dispatchable Power Agreement (DPA). As an introduction, various carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) business models were mentioned, those of which similar in approach to the DPA, such as the Transport and Storage Regulatory Investment Model used to mitigate and address risks through the development of Transport and Storage Networks. Also, the Industrial Carbon Capture Model designed to incentivise the deployment of carbon capture particularly in industries that have no other alternative when it comes to decarbonisation.

A presentation by Stephen Glenville of DESNZ on the Dispatchable Power Agreement at the UKCCSRC 2025 Spring Conference in Glasgow. Credit: Janna Aljoubory

There was a larger focus within the session on the use of DPA, especially in the context of natural gas-fired power stations adopting CCS. In short, the DPA supports stability within the grid by incentivising low carbon dispatchable power to help with achieving Net Zero and maintain energy security. Agreements are 15 years long and protection is provided within contracts in cases of uncertainty particularly from policy changes and political shifts. This mid-merit operating model, as Stephen mentioned, can be applied to new build construction as well as retrofitting existing plants, and aims to increase revenues through electricity generation and subsidies provided by the DPA – encouraging operators to sustain high capture rates whilst optimising their processes over time to maximise earnings from the policy.