A funding call launched by the UKCCS Research Community (UKCCSRC) will back seven carbon capture and storage (CCS) research projects that address critical gaps directly relating to real-world deployment challenges.
According to Dr Jens Roberts, Deputy Director of the UKCCSRC, the organisation prioritised research that can make an “immediate and practical” contribution to UK CCS scale-up.
“The result was a series of highly focused, rapid-response projects, geared towards delivering the knowledge needed to support large-scale, safe and effective deployment of CCS in the UK,” he explained.
The projects explored challenges surrounding amine emissions in CCS, leakage potential for legacy carbon dioxide storage wells, and plume emission and risk from CO2 storage.
Other projects will look at seismic and sonic-frequency monitoring in CCS sites and brine migration pathways for CSS risk assessment around legacy wells in the UK North Sea.
There are over twenty carbon dioxide (CO2) appraisal and storage licences on the UK Continental Shelf ©NSTA
The successful projects are based across a range of different institutions, including the University of Birmingham, Heriot-Watt University, and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. A total of £70,000 was awarded to the projects.
The UK aims to become a leader in both CCS and carbon capture, utilisation and storage, with plans to capture 20 to 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year by 2030, rising to 50 to 60 million tonnes by 2035.
Backed by £20bn (£27bn) in investment, the strategy focuses on building four industrial clusters, including HyNet and East Coast Cluster, to decarbonise power and heavy industry.
The North Sea Transition Authority has also awarded more than 20 carbon storage licenses, aiming to use offshore oil and gas fields for permanent storage.
The NSTA’s Energy Integration Project found that offshore energy systems, including CCS, could deliver around 30% of total carbon reduction requirements needed to meet the 2050 net zero target.
Up to 78 billion tonnes of CO2 potential storage capacity on the UK continental shelf is sufficient to meet hundreds of years of UK demand, according to the British Geological Survey.
