Kofo Awodun (Brunel University of London), Priyanka Thakur (Teesside University) and Shadi Samizadeh (University of Lincoln) share their takeaways from the “Plenary 5: What’s Next for CCS” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.
The final plenary session of the UKCCSRC Conference explored one of the most important questions facing the carbon capture community: what comes next? Chaired by Jen Roberts (University of Strathclyde), the session brought together three speakers who examined the future of carbon capture from international, technological and strategic perspectives.
From lessons learned through global collaboration, to the rapid expansion of carbon capture in China and the future direction of engineered carbon removal, the session demonstrated that achieving net zero will require more than technological innovation. It will depend on collaboration across countries, sectors and disciplines to build an integrated carbon management system.
CCS moves from ambition to delivery: Key takeaways from Hannah Galbraith-Olive
Hannah Galbraith (Global CCS Institute) highlighted the rapid growth of the global carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector and the factors driving its expansion.
The presentation showed that CCS is reaching a significant inflection point, with the number of operational facilities increasing by 54% between 2024 and 2025, reaching 77 facilities worldwide. Global capture capacity continues to grow, with the overall project pipeline now standing at 513 Mtpa, reflecting strong momentum across the sector.
A central message was that policy remains one of the strongest enablers of CCS deployment. Regions with clear regulatory frameworks, financial incentives and supportive government policies consistently have larger and more advanced project pipelines. The data demonstrates a clear trend: where strong CCS policy exists, project development follows.
The presentation also explored how different regions are pursuing CCS deployment through distinct models:
- North America is driven by market-based financial incentives and established permitting frameworks.
- Europe relies on public funding and comprehensive regulatory support.
- The Middle East is advancing CCS through national oil company-led projects integrated with hydrocarbon production.
- Asia-Pacific is seeing growth through government-backed projects, although policy maturity varies across the region.
Despite these differences, all regions are working toward the same goal: achieving CCS deployment at gigatonne scale.
Hannah concluded by emphasising that the challenge is no longer simply developing individual projects. Future growth will depend on creating coordinated systems that connect capture, transport, storage, policy and finance. As CCS scales, infrastructure coordination and investment frameworks will be critical to accelerating deployment and supporting global net-zero ambitions.
The overall message was optimistic: CCS is moving beyond aspiration and into delivery, with growing project numbers, increasing capacity, and stronger policy support creating momentum for large-scale deployment.
Xi Liang highlights China’s growing CCUS ambitions and opportunities for UK-China collaboration
Xi Liang outlined the remarkable progress being made in carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) across China and highlighted the increasingly important role the technology is expected to play in delivering the country’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality ambitions.
China’s current five-year planning period is expected to see substantial investment in CCUS, with dozens of large-scale projects under development across major industrial and energy-producing regions, including Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi. Liang demonstrated how carbon capture is moving beyond the demonstration phase and towards wider commercial deployment, particularly within the power generation, coal chemical and petrochemical industries.
A key theme throughout the presentation was scale. Several of China’s post-combustion carbon capture facilities are already among the largest operating worldwide, demonstrating how rapidly deployment is accelerating. Alongside conventional solvent-based capture technologies, research is also expanding into membrane separation, oxygen production and chemical looping, while increasing attention is being directed towards difficult-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel and petrochemicals.
Storage remains another major priority. Liang highlighted several onshore and offshore storage initiatives, including projects in Guangdong and the development of industrial storage clusters in coastal regions. While geological storage capacity is considerable, he emphasised that robust monitoring, reporting and verification systems, together with clear regulatory frameworks and long-term liability arrangements, will be essential for large-scale deployment.
The presentation also reinforced the long-standing collaboration between the UK and China on CCUS research. Universities, research organisations and industrial partners have worked together for more than two decades on technology development, pilot projects and policy research. Looking ahead, Liang suggested that future collaboration could focus on storage regulation, monitoring technologies, industrial deployment and supply-chain development.
Perhaps the strongest message from the presentation was that deep decarbonisation will be extremely difficult without CCUS. While renewable energy, energy efficiency and hydrogen will all contribute significantly towards reducing emissions, carbon capture remains an essential component of any credible pathway to net zero.
Mathieu Lucquiaud looks beyond capture technology to the future of integrated carbon management
Closing the session, Prof. Mathieu Lucquiaud shifted the discussion from individual capture technologies to the wider system needed for successful carbon management in the decades ahead.
The presentation began by introducing the role of Engineered Greenhouse Gas Removal (EGGR) in achieving net-zero emissions. While reducing emissions at source remains essential, Mathieu explained that carbon dioxide removal technologies will also be required to offset residual emissions from sectors where complete decarbonisation remains challenging.
One particularly interesting concept presented was co-DACCS, which combines Direct Air Carbon Capture (DAC) with conventional post-combustion carbon capture. Rather than treating these technologies independently, co-locating them allows shared infrastructure and utilities, improving efficiency while potentially reducing operating costs. It provided an example of how future carbon management systems may increasingly rely on integration rather than entirely new technologies.
The discussion then turned to one of the most significant challenges facing carbon capture: economics. Mathieu demonstrated that although increasing CO₂ capture rates reduces emissions, the cost of achieving each additional percentage of capture rises considerably. This reinforces the importance of balancing technical performance with economic viability when designing future CCS systems.
Another important topic was Waste-to-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (WECCS). Lifecycle assessment results illustrated how capturing CO₂ from waste-to-energy facilities can generate negative emissions while continuing to recover useful energy from waste streams. The approach demonstrates how waste management and carbon removal can complement one another as part of broader decarbonisation strategies.
The presentation concluded by emphasising that the future success of carbon capture depends on far more than capture technologies alone. Transport infrastructure, geological storage, supportive policy, investment frameworks and effective collaboration between academia, industry and government must all develop together if CCS is to achieve deployment at the scale required.
For many attendees, the key takeaway was that the future of carbon capture lies in building an integrated carbon management system. Advances in capture technology remain important, but equally critical are the connections between capture, transport, storage, carbon removal and policy that will enable these technologies to operate as part of a coordinated whole.
Mathieu Lucquiaud’s presentation showing the lifecycle assessment of two waste pathways
Looking Ahead
Although each speaker approached the question of “What’s Next?” from a different perspective, several common themes emerged throughout the session. Carbon capture is moving beyond isolated demonstration projects towards integrated deployment, requiring international collaboration, supportive policy, robust regulation and continued technological innovation.
Whether through global knowledge sharing, China’s rapidly expanding CCUS programme or the development of integrated carbon removal systems, the session highlighted that achieving net zero will depend not only on advancing individual technologies but also on building the interconnected infrastructure and partnerships needed to deploy them at scale.
As the 2026 UKCCSRC Conference came to an end, Plenary 5 provided a timely reminder that the next chapter of carbon capture is not solely about better capture processes, it is about creating a complete carbon management system capable of delivering meaningful climate impact.
Ebraheem Alanazy (University of Liverpool), Emmanuel Jonah (Cranfield University), Chioma Emehel (Heriot-Watt University) and Meisam Ansarpour (University of Wolverhampton) share their takeaways from the “Plenary 4: CO2 Storage” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.
The UKCCSRC Spring Conference 2026, held at the University of Sheffield on June 24-25, brought together top experts to discuss the future of carbon capture and storage. A key highlight from Day 2 was Plenary Session 4, which focused entirely on the massive challenges and exciting breakthroughs in CO2 storage. Chaired by Stuart Haszeldine (University of Edinburgh) and Jen Roberts (University of Strathclyde), the session featured four stellar speakers who took us on a journey from foundational science to real-world deployment.
The Science of Safe Storage – Professor Sam Krevor (Imperial College London)
Professor Sam Krevor kicked off the session by focusing on the crucial role of underground rock formations as long-term carbon sinks.
- The Good News: There is growing confidence in our ability to securely store CO2 for the long haul, thanks to better monitoring tools and underground mapping.
- The Hurdles: Moving to a massive scale means we still need to perfect how we calculate exact storage space, handle shifting underground pressures, and verify that the gas stays exactly where it belongs.
- The Takeaway: The science is strong, but we must bridge the gap between lab models and commercial-scale projects.
Overcoming Bottlenecks – Dr. Iain de Jonge-Anderson (University of Strathclyde)
Dr. Iain de Jonge-Anderson shifted the spotlight from pure science to a systems-level delivery problem. He reminded everyone that carbon storage is no longer just a research puzzle, however it is a massive logistics challenge.
- The CO2-LOGIX Model: He introduced a clever new framework designed to find bottlenecks across tech readiness, infrastructure, rules, and funding.
- Value Chains: For carbon storage to work, the whole chain, capture, moving it, and locking it away, must connect smoothly.
- Collaboration: Success depends on alignment between governments, universities, investors, and local communities.
Navigating the Rules – Dr. Zoë Sayer (North Sea Transition Authority)
Getting permission to store millions of tonnes of carbon under the sea is no easy feat. Dr. Zoë Sayer gave a clear guide on how the NSTA helps projects safely navigate the offshore permitting journey.
- The Five-Step Path: The regulatory roadmap goes through five main steps: Appraise (risk assessment), access (building transport options), define (submitting the permit), execute/operate (pumping the CO2), and post-closure (monitoring long after closing).
- Strict Checks: Applicants must provide seven critical documents proving their site will not leak or harm the environment or human health.
- Progress: So far, four storage permits have been granted, with more on the way.
Real-World Success – Nick Terrell (Carbon Catalyst)
Closing out the individual presentations, Nick Terrell shared incredible hands-on data from the Poseidon CCS Project, proving that large-scale storage is actively working right now.
- The Test: Starting in February 2025, a three-month test successfully pumped 3,500 tonnes of CO2 into an offshore well across 15 injection cycles.
- Key Discovery: The data proved that mixing liquids and gases during injection is safe and highly stable, which cuts development costs down significantly.
- Big Ambitions: Looking ahead, the project aims to scale up sharply after a final investment decision in 2027, with an ultimate goal of handling a peak rate of 40 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2040 through massive pipeline networks.
Panel Discussion and Q&A
At the end of the session, the floor was opened for a panel discussion and Q&A. All four speakers took to the stage together to answer a wide range of questions from the audience, sparking great conversations on how to practically apply these technical, regulatory and financial insights to the UK’s net-zero targets.
Plenary Session 4 made it clear that the UK’s carbon storage sector is moving fast. By blending rigorous science, smart system logistics, strong regulations, and successful field tests, the path to industrial scale decarbonisation is well underway.
Ubong Ekanem (University of Strathclyde), Chee Lok Yong (University of Bradford), Balkan Mutlu (Teesside University Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre) and Manpreet Kaur (University of Birmingham) share their takeaways from the “Plenary 3: People, Place and Policy” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.
The session examined how public trust, supportive policies and an understanding of the places and communities where projects are developed influence the deployment and long-term success of carbon capture and storage. It was chaired by Dr Jen Roberts, UKCCSRC Deputy Director, who opened by explaining why the social sciences matter for CCS. She noted that maintaining and accelerating deployment requires social dynamics, politics, economics and psychology to be taken into account. Three speakers then presented their work from different perspectives.
Diarmaid Clery (University of Manchester)
Diarmaid presented findings from his study on the social licence to operate (SLO) in principle and in practice. He described the SLO as informal, non-governmental support from stakeholders, including local communities, policymakers, regulators and developers, that a decarbonisation project needs in order to deliver. A project must first be seen as legitimate and credible to gain support, and it must ultimately build trust between stakeholders. He used the pyramid model of Thomson and Boutilier (2011) to describe this process. Crossing the legitimacy boundary earns acceptance, and crossing the credibility boundary earns approval. Psychological identification with a project becomes possible only when full trust is established. The licence is not static and can strengthen or weaken over time. He also outlined the engagement taking place on climate change and net zero industrial decarbonisation at different scales and levels, which ultimately serves to build trust and confidence.
The study found that stakeholders recognise the need for climate action and see industrial decarbonisation as an opportunity for jobs and regional renewal, while credibility depends on transparent and consistent government leadership. The public can support CCUS when it is seen to deliver climate benefits and preserve valued industry. That support depends on safety, affordability, fairness, transparency and credible regulation.
Zeynep Clulow (University of Cambridge)
Zeynep of Cambridge’s Energy Policy Research Group applied a political science based approach to stakeholder attitudes towards cluster CCS in the UK. Her talk centred on economics and social justice, asking why stakeholders feel the way they do about cluster CCS and how they justify their positions.
The starting point is the newspaper records in the UK. Coverage of cluster CCS drew a little interest around 2010 before vanishing, jumped in 2019 to 2020, then dropped gradually until 2025 and is now increasing again. The corpus runs to 276 articles, and the jumps line up with key projects starting around the early 2020s, such as HyNet, East Coast, Acorn and Viking.
The frequently recurring themes across the coverage are environment, social justice and energy security. Zeynep built these out from a word dictionary and word patterns drawn from the articles, with Yoshikoder turning that text into quantitative data. Across the corpus, the salient themes are dominated by economics, followed by feasibility, then environment, then social justice. This raises the question of what the heavy weighting towards techno-economics means for how the debate is framed.
On attitudes, Zeynep noted that an action such as protesting against the government is itself an expression of attitude, and the stakeholder attitude trends are quantitatively meaningful. The private sector spikes around 2020 as the most enthusiastic group, in line with the major projects starting, followed by government, while public and NGO themes lose momentum after 2025. Looking at correlations between themes and stakeholders, economics associates positively with the private sector. Regionalism and social justice are positively linked, so an article that uses one is likely to use the other as well. Economic themes run negatively against both government support and NGOs, meaning heavier economic framing tends to coincide with weaker support from those groups.
Zeynep closed by noting that the dataset needs expanding for better statistical power, with more focus on the key stakeholders such as the private sector, government and non-governmental parties, and more nuanced attention to specific projects.
Sandra Bogelein (Climate Change Committee)
Sandra Bogelein explained how the Climate Change Committee (CCC) – the independent body that advises government and reports to Parliament through carbon budgets, climate risk assessments and progress reports – is bringing public views into its analysis. In the CCC’s Balanced Pathway, around 60% of emissions reductions come from electrifying key technologies and decarbonising and expanding electricity supply. Households contribute around a third of the emissions reduction in 2040, and 72% of that comes from just two actions, switching to an electric vehicle and switching to a heat pump. Public engagement is therefore central to delivering the pathway.
To understand what an informed public would support, the CCC convened a citizens’ panel of 26 members of the public from Birmingham and the surrounding area, broadly reflective of the UK population, who met across seven online and face-to-face workshops. Unlike a focus group that captures initial reactions, a deliberative panel hears from experts, asks questions and works through options together. This allows in-depth exploration of challenging topics, in this case car use, home heating, what we eat and flying.
The spotlight on flying illustrated the approach. Although removals were not the main focus of the sessions, participants were less familiar with carbon removal technologies and some expressed concern. They felt removals should be a complementary measure alongside managing aviation demand. Paying for removals through taxes on all citizens was generally seen as unfair, and participants wanted airlines or those who fly to cover the costs. Low trust in airlines to manage removals led many to call for government oversight.
Closing thoughts
The three talks reinforced a common message. A social licence has to be earned and can be lost, the framing of the public debate shapes who supports CCS, and people engage seriously with difficult trade-offs when they are given the time and information to deliberate. Plenary 3 was a reminder that public trust, policy and place are central to delivering CCS at scale.
Saleh Alfaleh (University of Edinburgh), Maryam Nasiri Ghrir (University of Lancashire) and Muhammad Shahbaz (Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre, Teesside University) share their key takeaways from the “Plenary 2: CO2 Transportation” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.
As researchers in carbon capture and related technologies, one of the purposes of conferences like this one, is to understand the government, policy, industrial and scientific issues and development for the transportation of carbon after its capture and removal processes, and link these to current research on novel technologies and processes. Hence, the session on the first day of the conference “CO2 Transportation” was chaired by Richard Marsh (Cardiff University) and Ben Wetenhall (Newcastle University), with talks delivered by James Watt (WSP), Ben Kek (NEP) and Jacqueline Penn-Morley (ROSEN UK).
James Watt opened his talk by puncturing the assumption that moving CO2 through pipelines is not new at all. The Canyon Reef Carriers pipeline in Texas was built in 1972, carrying 5.2 million tonnes of CO₂ a year across 225 kilometres. Larger systems soon joined it: Cortez stretched 808 km and moved 19.3 Mt/yr, Sheep Mountain ran 660 km at 9.5 Mt/yr, Bravo covered 350 km at 7.3 Mt/yr, and Weyburn later added 328 km at 5 Mt/yr.
Clusters has become a hot topic again. The UK’s first two funding rounds didn’t really consider clusters; current funding does, looking deliberately at multiple sites linked together. Regulation and standards have been catching up in parallel. BS PD 8010 has been updated, the Pipeline Safety Regulations have been amended to formally name CO₂ as a dangerous fluid, the Energy Institute’s guidance has been republished, the API has issued RP 1192 covering CO₂ transport by pipeline, and ISO continues to update its suite of CCS standards. The evidence base was developed through projects such as CASSEM, Pipetrans, Mattrans and CoolTrans and work on the Social Licence to Operate and ZEP’s early RCI studies. Watt observed improvements in water solubility, equation-of-state behaviour and flow metering, but said the problem has become more complex and expensive. Our tools have gotten more advanced, RunPilot, gCCS/gProms, Continuum, Goldset, InfraCCS, SimCCS and Olsights; but industrial decarbonisation has been slow. Watt left us with a question: did we become more risk-averse, more policy-led, or just doubt it could be done?
Watt grouped the road ahead into a few themes. On compositions, the open questions are what impurity projects will actually accept, how those mixtures behave in practice, which equations of state we can trust, where the empirical data is, and what it all means for corrosion and integrity. Dense phase versus gas, there is a real capacity question: can we run dense-phase pipelines onshore in the UK, not just offshore and can dispersion models be properly verified against field data? Then there are cluster and pipeline dynamics. Designing a cluster is not just a matter of flow, pressure or even surge analysis; it is about how the whole system behaves over time, and about the commercial agreements, business models, operating models and third-party access rules. Composition limits, routing and location all feed into the same puzzle. Non-pipeline transport (shipping, road and rail) and how those modes integrate into clusters, what they do to flexibility and steady flows, and where access points and buffer storage should sit.
Challenges for cluster and pipeline dynamics
Ben Kek from bp presented an update on the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and its Teesside Carbon Capture Pipeline. NEP is developing the infrastructure to transport CO2 from industrial carbon capture projects across Teesside to a compression facility, and then out via a 145-kilometre offshore pipeline to the Endurance carbon store beneath the North Sea. The Humber region was identified as the priority target due to its concentration of very large industrial emitters, while Teesside – the most compact cluster – serves as the practical first phase, with all learning to be carried forward to the Humber.
Phase 1 is currently approximately 25% complete, on track for a late 2028 start-up. The pipeline is designed to transport 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year initially, with future capacity projected to reach 40 to 50 million tonnes per year. Storage is not a concern; NEP holds six stores across five licences, with the Endurance store alone capable of holding 150 million tonnes, representing 45 years of storage at current injection rates. Construction has presented real challenges, including unexploded World War ordnance found both onshore at the former Redcar steelworks site and offshore in the southern North Sea, as well as the need for tunnel boring to protect a nearby protected coastal site. Despite this, the project has achieved over 50% local content, with more than £2 billion awarded to UK subcontractors, including Liberty Steel, which manufactured all the pipeline steel. The project is majority financed by approximately 23 global banks, a first for carbon capture and storage. With Teesside as the blueprint, the Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline is the clear next step, applying the same model at a larger scale.
NEP Phase 1 progress report in Teesside
The third talk of the session was delivered by Dr Jacqueline Penn-Morley of ROSEN UK, who presented her research on corrosion in pipelines used for CO₂ transport, a growing concern in carbon capture and storage infrastructure. She provided a detailed overview of the primary causes of corrosion, highlighting the roles of impurities such as SO₂, NOₓ, H₂S, and O₂ in accelerating degradation. Penn-Morley shared specific findings from experimental work conducted at the Institute for Energy Technology, where tests were performed on gaseous CO₂ containing 40 ppm H₂O, varying concentrations of SO₂, and 20 ppm O₂. Notably, liquid drop formation was observed when NO₂ levels were increased from 5 ppm to 8 ppm across different pipeline conditions. She also addressed environmentally assisted cracking (EAC), outlining the critical interplay between susceptible materials, corrosive environments, and tensile stress. While CO₂ itself is not typically aggressive, the presence of co-contaminants significantly heightens risk. Despite these challenges, she proposed several mitigation strategies, including maintaining lower hydrogen partial pressures and ensuring that fracture arrest pressures are set above ductile fracture thresholds to prevent running fractures. To support safe and reliable CO₂ transport, she introduced the use of in-line inspection (ILI) tools, which she presented as a viable solution for assessing pipeline suitability and managing corrosion risks effectively.
Nicholas Landon (University of Nottingham), Freya Bretton (University of Edinburgh) and Usman Ali (Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre, Teesside University) share their takeaways from the “Plenary 1: Co2 Capture” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.
While the UKCCSRC conferences allow researchers and industry from a wide variety of areas of the 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 Plenary, the research being conducted focuses on improving the technology’s performance and economics, both necessary fields to ensure CCS operates as effectively as possible.
The session’s opening speaker, Stavros Michailos, University of Hull, demonstrated this with his research modelling the operation of CO2 absorption stacks under different operating conditions, with the aim to achieve capture rates upwards of 95% – a necessity for post-combustion capture to be more widely deployed. After highlighting the key parameters investigated and discussing the process followed in the work, Stavros explained the results obtained from the various ASPEN studies conducted: from altering the rich loading of the MEA solvent and then the operating pressure to discover the effect on reboiler duty, to showing the optimum operation window for CO2 absorption – though 100% capture was found to not be achievable.
Thermal reclaiming of the solvent was a large focus for Stavros’ talk, with the model prepared in ASPEN using pilot-scale data and operating at one- or two-stage reclamation for MEA, using HEEDA as a thermal proxy. The findings that solvent recovery could reach up to 97% for one-stage, with lower degradation at two-stage, alongside the fact that the additional electricity loss from adding reclaiming was only 0.8%, show promise that CO2 capture technologies can be highly efficient without dramatically reducing plant efficiency, though this work is still limited by the bounds of the model and capabilities of the modelling software. A concluding look at the techno-economics of this work determines that once the capital expenditure of the systems is established (the largest cost driver), achieving 100% capture is economically viable, assuming electricity prices are lowered while carbon prices rise. Stavros provided a detailed overview of the challenge of achieving high capture rates, but demonstrated the work being done to ready the technology for large-scale deployment.
Following Stavros, we heard from Daniel Mullen from SSE Thermal, who joined us online and delivered an insightful talk on “Delivering Flexible, Low Carbon & Dispatchable Power”. Daniel opened his talk with a stark reminder on the importance of conditional nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and net-zero pledges on limiting global warming to below a specified temperature limit.
He first discussed the importance of understanding the effects of carbon capture storage plants on thermal power station operation, the results of which are soon to be published. Key insights from the study were shared, including the challenges of dynamic operation and flexibility between the thermal power plant and the carbon capture plant and substantially increased cooling duty, to name a couple.
The effect of the net power output, the CO2 capture capacity, and flue gas flow rate to the carbon capture plant (CCP) on the footprint of the CCP for various existing combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants was shown, with all parameters increasing the footprint required. Finally, the CAPEX associated with the corresponding CO2 capture rate was presented, showing the capital investment required for CCP integration with CCGT, highlighting the engineering and economic considerations that must be addressed before large-scale deployment of carbon capture at CCGT plants.
The third speaker was Jon Gibbins, UKCCSRC Director. His talk was about the high capture rates required for net zero and he shared his experiences from the COGENT project tests results from China. The three main principles of obtaining ultra-high capture rates are: produce the lowest possible lean loading without wasted energy; use the lean solvent flowrate which gives the optimum capture rate and rich loading; and operate the desorber and absorber independently for shorter intervals.
COGENT stands for Capture Operation with Greater Economy for Net-zero Targets which was run at Guangdong Carbon Capture Test Platform with the capacity of ~40 tCO2/day. A visit was made in August 2024 to discuss the theory behind ultra-high CO2 capture rates with the Heifang capture plant team and selection of appropriate reboiler based on the industrial standard for the commercial-scale plant. Initial testing in 2024 confirmed the principles of desorber and absorber control at high capture rates and demonstrated 98 % capture rates with low reboiler energy, however, the performance was limited by the desorber pressure of about 1.9 bara. In the recent continuous 75-hour test runs at a desorber pressure of 2.4 bara driving a lower lean loading at the inflection point with a capture rate of ~100 % of the fossil CO2 while achieving reasonable specific reboiler duty. The results also suggested appropriate control strategies to avoid delay in data signals. The talk was concluded with indicating the long-term plans for solvent management at reduced throughput, using realistic flue gas, continuous reclaiming, novel instrumentation and control, and ultra-low amine and degradation products.
Finally, all three speakers were invited to answer questions from the audience. The challenges facing future opportunities were answered by three speakers – pointing towards financial models that will be developed based around extremely high rates of availability and reliability. With the answer to the selection of novel solvents or MEA as solvent, Jon indicated that the MEA is a primary amine with two carbon atoms which can easily boil and when it degrades you will get polymers which can be easily reclaimed. This is not possible for secondary amines, because as a result of degradation there are nitrosamines which are unacceptable from a health risk point of view.
The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Community (UKCCSRC) is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Energy Programme.
The mission of the UKCCSRC is to ensure that carbon capture and storage (CCS) plays an effective role in helping the UK achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
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University of Sheffield
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