Aisha Ibrahim (University of Sheffield) was one of the panellists on the “Future Leaders Forum” at IEAGHG’s GHGT17 conference. We spoke to her to find out what that experience was like and the impact it’s had.
Hi Aisha, thanks for your time today! Did you have a good time at the conference as a whole?
Yes, it was really interesting to see what everybody’s doing. Sometimes you feel like you can’t see anybody else doing what you’re doing in the UK but then, when you look at the whole globe, you see everybody doing it. That means I must be doing something right, right? It’s also good to see that although a lot of places are further ahead than the UK, there are also a lot of places who are trying to catch up as well. So, it makes you realize that the UK is doing something well, they’re doing a lot to be honest.
The whole conference was really interesting, with so much conversation and so much to learn. There was a lot of knowledge being shared, but it was also a bit tiring because it was four days long and there were so many sessions. And it was huge, really huge, a lot of people.
What were you part of at the conference, and how did that come about?
I was part of what was called the “Future Leaders Forum”. It was the last panel of the conference and the most interesting panel, I would say! It was essentially young people in the CCS space – six women and one man, which is unusual for a lot of these conferences but great! We represented a number of different perspectives, mostly academics like myself, but people from core industries like cement and lime as well. Because I’m also from Nigeria, and I work for the regulatory body for Nigeria, that gave a different perspective from developing countries too.
I got involved through Carys Blunt [the UKCCSRC’s Centre and Finance Manager] – she’d been contacted by IEAGHG, then emailed me and asked if I’d be interested. I then spoke to Abdul’Aziz Aliyu, the organizer from IEAGHG, and checked what he expected from us, because as early career researchers, there’s a limit to our experience. He put my mind at ease and said that one of the conference themes was young voices in CCS, so it was just having young people speak their mind, their opinions about certain topics, etc.
And then my supervisor, Jon Gibbins [also UKCCSRC Director], said I should definitely do it and emphasised the point of having a developing country represented and being in the conversation. So, I was like, okay!
Did you get much support in preparing for it?
Yes, they prepared us really well. We had a meeting in advance with everybody who was going to speak on the panel. The moderator of the panel, Alex Cruz from Baker Hughes, gave us three questions and just asked us to speak about them. That gave him a sense of where everybody’s expertise was, and what everybody’s opinion would be with regards to certain things. Then we had a 30-minute meeting the day before, just to go through questions and to check if anyone felt uncomfortable about certain questions, perhaps because some of them are from industry and might not be allowed to speak about everything, etc.
Then in the session, the way Alex did it was like the primaries of the American Presidential election. He would ask a question, say, “do you think policy or regulation would impede CCS growth?” and then certain panellists would raise their hands. Some of us would say no, and then he’d ask questions tailored to someone’s experiences and find out why they’re saying no. Because I’ve come up from a regulatory background, he would ask me questions about regulations, and how we are faring in developing countries like Nigeria, what they’re looking at with respect to regulation and things like that. At the end we had 15 minutes for audience questions.
How was it when it went to audience questions? Were you a bit nervous at that moment?
Oh, yes, I was so nervous, I think that was the only thing that made me nervous, what to expect from the audience, because you never know. But the good thing about it was most of the questions were general questions and a lot of them just wanted our opinion. There wasn’t much pressure to say what’s right, what’s wrong, more like, “what’s your opinion about this?” Early career researchers do have plenty of opinions about certain things, but a lot of the time we don’t get to take part in conferences.
How important are opportunities like this for an ECR? What impact does it have for you now and in the future?
A lot! One of the things was obviously networking, because we were a group of people from different places, coming together and having thought-provoking conversations. From that, you can see lots of collaboration, people saying, “let’s meet once every six months to discuss what we are doing”. We always see collaboration happening between industry and academia, so seeing younger people already discussing this was a plus for us.
Another thing for me was putting myself out there. After the conference, I had a lot of people saying, “hey, that was such a good statement you made” or “that resonated with me”. That was a booster, it helped me think, “okay, I’m doing the right thing”. So, it was good and it definitely goes on my resume. You also see the impact you’re making because a lot of people from Nigeria linked up with me, saying, “I never knew there were women in this space” or “I didn’t even know Nigeria was doing anything”. There’s so much I’ve benefited from this, it was incredible. And I’ve already had a couple of people who have said, “do you want to come work for us in Abu Dhabi?” – I was like, I’m only in my second year of PhD, you know! I’m so glad I did it, especially because at first I was really scared.
It sounds like there have been so many amazing things about that experience. What would you say the one best thing about it was?
I would definitely say establishing my network. Everybody says your network is your net worth, which really is true. Establishing that is very important for me, building those connections with other young professionals across the world. But the whole conference was a great experience, and I would definitely do it all again.
In June, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the IEAGHG international CCS summer school in Darwin, Australia. The week-long summer school included an intensive program of lectures from world-leading experts about the whole CCS chain including capture, transport, storage, monitoring, economics and policy. The program also included evening group work in teams of nine students to evaluate challenging questions related to CCS, with guidance from the expert mentors. There was also a field trip to the Darwin LNG Facility to learn more about the Darwin CO2 Hub.
The IEAGHG Summer School 2024 attendees!
On day 1, we learned about why CCS is needed to reach net zero by 2050, and key updates from the latest technical reports including the IEA Net Zero Roadmap 2023 update, and the IPCC AR6 synthesis report 2023. We then learned about CO2 capture, different processes (pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel) and technologies (absorption, adsorption, membranes, biotechnology, etc) including examples of real facilities using these different processes like the Callide Oxyfuel Project (0.3 MT CO2/yr), the Mitsubishi Petra Nova post combustion project (1.4 Mt CO2/yr) and the Dakota Gasification Company’s Great Plains Synfuels Plant using pre-combustion CO2 separation (3MT CO2/yr).
Day 2 was all about transport and storage. First, we learned about shipping and pipeline transport. Key learning points included the importance of CO2 purity in transport (impurities can cause corrosion and the formation of secondary phases and solid particles, among other issues), and economic considerations of shipping vs pipeline transport. There is a distance at which shipping becomes cheaper than pipeline transport due to the need for repressurisation – this distance is dependent on the amount of CO2 being transported and increases as the amount of CO2 increases.
Then, in the storage and monitoring lectures, we learned about reservoirs, traps, capacity, injectivity and containment. My key takeaway on storage was that getting an accurate assessment of the storage volume of a potential storage site is time consuming and expensive – there are ways to quickly estimate storage capacity, but a detailed assessment of the site is needed before a project can be considered ‘bankable’. Also, monitoring of CO2 storage sites is important for fulfilling regulatory requirements, as well as reassuring stakeholders including members of the public. There is a wide variety of deep and near-surface monitoring techniques that may be deployed to meet these regulatory requirements including 2D/3D surface seismic, bubble stream detection, vertical seismic profiling and ground penetrating radar, and monitoring techniques required will be specific to the project.
Day 3 was a chance to get outside to visit the Santos Darwin LNG facility and learn more about the Darwin CO2 Hub. The trip included a boat tour around the peninsula where the LNG plant is located. The LNG plant processes natural gas from the Bayu-Undan offshore gas field in the Timor Sea (connected by ~500 km pipeline) which is then shipped to international markets. There are plans (a non-binding MOU between Santos and Timor-Leste’s national oil company TIMOR GAP) for Australia to store CO2 offshore in the Bayu-Undan field.
Jacky in front of the Darwin LNG facility (taken from the boat)
Day 4 started off on the theme of environmental impacts of geological CO2 storage, particularly related to stakeholder assurance. Environmental concerns from CO2 and/or brine migration include: impacting drinking water, risk of asphyxiation and effects on the health of the ecosystem. Fortunately, CO2 storage projects have been very safe, so our learnings about CO2 leaks come from controlled release experiments. We then covered policy, legislation and funding models relating to CCS, including learning about the UK government’s approach to the cluster sequencing programme, and Norway’s Northern Lights project.
Day 5 was our opportunity to present our group projects, which we had been working on in the evenings after lectures. It was great to watch the other groups’ informative and fun presentations, including ones in the form of episodes of Dr Phil (Dr Philip Llewellyn’s group) and Shark Tank (appropriately re-named ‘croc-tank’!). We then celebrated the end of an amazing week with a fantastic Gala dinner, and an impromptu night-out in Darwin’s best Irish bar, Shenannigans.
Group project team with mentors Owain Tucker (Shell) and Peta Ashworth (Curtin University)
Overall, it was an amazing experience, where I learned so much about CCS and met so many inspiring people, in both the expert mentors and the other attendees. It was a truly unique opportunity to connect with people passionate about CCS from around the world, and I would recommend applying to any early career professional in the field of CCS. I am grateful to my PhD supervisors Dr Greg Mutch and Prof. Ian Metcalfe for their support with my application and travel funding.
Jacqueline Penn, Newcastle University
Rory Leslie was supported by UKCCSRC to attend the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas (IEAGHG) Summer School – not a typo! – in Bandung, Indonesia from 27th November to 4th December.
This year’s IEAGHG Summer School in Bandung, Indonesia was the first in-person Summer School since 2019, when it was held in Regina, Canada. Many of this year’s students applied for the Summer School way back in 2019 and were excited to finally meet each other. A big thanks is due to Samantha Neades, the programme organiser, for bringing us all together after a difficult few years. Due to Covid-related postponements, the usual scheduling of July was replaced with late November-early December, but the title of ‘Summer School’ still felt appropriate, since Indonesia is hot all year round! This Summer School was especially significant for being the first ever hosted in Asia.
In total, 45 students from over 25 different countries attended, a talented and diverse group of early career researchers and young professionals who brought a wide range of different expertise. Almost half of the cohort came from Indonesia and Timor-Leste and were fantastic at providing a local and regional context to the event.
The Summer School was led by a world-renowned team of CCS experts: Tim Dixon (IEAGHG Director), Dr Katherine Romanak (University of Texas at Austin), Professor John Kaldi (University of Adelaide) and Dr Mohammad Rachmat Sule (Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), the Summer School host institution). The team was completed by mentors from the several of the sponsoring companies.
Throughout the week we worked on group projects looking at the future of CCS. My group was tasked with answering the question “what role will CCS play in a low-carbon hydrogen economy?”
The Summer School covered all aspects of carbon capture and storage (CCS), including geoscience, capture technology, regulation, transportation and public perception. Many of the presentations were given by the faculty of ITB, including Dr Bonar Marbun, who gave an excellent talk on well integrity concerns in Indonesia. Remote presentations allowed us to learn from a range of global experts, such as Jen Wilcox from the US Department of Energy, who discussed the role of CO2 removal in the path to net-zero. During the week, a consensus emerged that there is a strong scientific and technological case for CCS, and that economic and social factors are the final hurdles before large scale deployment.
With its walkable neighbourhoods and cool mountain climate, Bandung was a very pleasant location for the summer school. ITB is a world-class STEM-focused university with a beautiful campus and the ITB student ambassadors were excellent hosts (special thanks to Amanda, Fery and Fiyya). Bandung is a historically significant place, as it was the location of the first Asian-African Conference in 1955. The role of CCS in emerging economies and south-south cooperation will be key themes in the coming decades.
Bandung was great location for the Summer School and the students and staff at ITB made us feel incredibly welcome
We were lucky to have an end-of-week dinner and awards ceremony at the Savoy Homann Hotel, which hosted the world leaders of the historic Asian-African conference. Before the dinner, we were treated to a performance of gamelan music and traditional dance from ITB’s Balinese student society. The best summer school student awards were won by Katherine Beltrán Jiménez from the Norwegian Research Centre and Debanjan Chandra from Delft University of Technology. Great job guys!
Bandung and the surrounding area also provided excellent locations for field visits. We visited the Samator CO2 plant, which purifies CO2 from local oil and gas production and supplies it to the beverage industry and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. Another stop was the Jatibarang oil field, which uses the CO2 from the Samator CO2 plant. The Jatibarang CO2 EOR project is led by Pertamina, the Indonesia national energy company. The project is the first commercial demonstration of CO2 injection in Indonesia and is an important milestone on the way to large-scale CO2 capture and storage in Indonesia.
The Samator CO2 plant was a great place to see CO2 purification and transport first-hand
Indonesia’s location on the geologically active ‘ring of fire’ was apparent throughout the trip. On Saturday 3rd December we visited the Kamojang geothermal field, also operated by Pertamina. The field taps into a vast geothermal resource associated with nearby volcanic activity. The Kamojang field is a great example of sustainable, low-carbon energy production. It shows the potential future of low-emissions energy in Indonesia, using the abundant geothermal resource alongside abated fossil fuels.
The Kamojang geothermal field is spread over a huge area of forest. We had the chance to visit many of the naturally occurring geothermal springs.
After six days of lectures, site visits and group work, we found time for some fun. Our hosts at ITB organised a final send off at the beautiful Kampung Sampireun resort. We stayed in luxury bungalows surrounding a lake in the West Java countryside. After learning some Indonesian dancing and taking part in team building games, we had our final dinner as a group, followed by karaoke and more dancing.
Boat racing on the lake was one of the activities at Kampung Sampireun
After a busy week, the 2022 IEAGHG Summer School cohort said their goodbyes. The event has been the best networking opportunity of my PhD and I have formed friendships which stretch across the world. I have also gained access to a wider network of over 550 alumni from the previous 13 Summer Schools, with this group of alumni representing a not-inconsiderable proportion of the global CCS talent pool. I am already arranging meet-ups with my fellow students, and discussing opportunities for future collaborations.
I want to take the opportunity to thank the IEAGHG organising committee for delivering a great event and UKCCSRC for their travel grant. I recommend that all PhDs, post-docs and young professionals working in CCS consider attending the IEAGHG Summer School. It was educational, a lot of fun and has given me connections that will undoubtedly have an ongoing positive impact on my career in CO2 storage.
Rory Leslie is a PhD student researching geological CO2 storage at the University of Edinburgh, School of GeoSciences. Rory’s research is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Equinor ASA.
Photograph credits: ITB and IEAGHG
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.
Location
D03 Ella Armitage Building
University of Sheffield
40 Leavygreave Road
Sheffield
S3 7RD
UK
Social
