Core research programme

What core research are we funding from 2017-2022?

In our latest grant, we fund a programme of core research on carbon capture and storage (CCS). It’s split into three main themes, which are interconnected:

• Capture, along with combined capture and systems projects (Theme A)
  Our capture projects focus on improving the performance and costs of CO₂ capture technologies and systems, including integration with hydrogen, to ensure CCS scale up to a larger commercial scale. The two main threads running through the theme are: Biomass-enhanced CCS and advanced solid looping cycles. Both of these threads encompass basic laboratory research, appropriate scale-up, detailed modelling and incorporation of the detailed models into UK systems models.
• Transport and storage (Theme B)
  Our storage projects look at CO₂ transport, injection, migration and storage. A large number of potential offshore storage sites lie beneath the North Sea with a capacity of many tens of billions of tonnes of injected CO₂. This is a significant potential commercial asset for the UK. The Oxburgh report highlights that uncertainties in long-term storage security and the transfer of long-term liability are currently impeding the deployment of CCS. Our core research will focus on pressure propagation (WP B1) and plume migration (WP B2) within structurally and stratigraphically heterogeneous reservoirs. The work will help to address poorly-known aspects of geomechanical security, plume stability and site monitorability through a deliberately connected and integrated scale-up with laboratory, outcrop, and field-scale studies.
• Systems and policy (Theme C)
  Our systems and policy projects consider the social, technological and economic issues surrounding CCS’s role within the UK’s energy system and how it contributes to achieving our climate goals in the Paris agreement. The Theme will deliver integrating systems modelling, social science research and policy-oriented outputs working closely across all relevant themes and work packages.

Jump to each area by clicking on the links above, or scroll down to explore and click on each tile to find out more about individual research projects in each area.

You can also see how these projects fit together as a complete work programme here.