Research Themes - Research Centre for Carbon Solutions

Our Research Themes

We thrive on delivering innovations in Carbon Solutions

CO2 Capture and Storage

Development of novel materials and processes for CO2 capture; studies on wellbore integrity, mineral trapping, microfluidics and reactive transport for CO2 storage applications

CO2 Utilisation

CO2 utilisation proposes to use CO2 as a building block for the chemical industry, to in time replace fossil-based carbon as a feedstock. It is imperative that the CO2 conversion happens using renewable energy as much as possible. Therefore, at RCCS, we pioneer material synthesis and engineering methods for photocatalysis (conversion of CO2 under the influence of direct sunlight), electrocatalysis (conversion of CO2 using renewable electricity), and hydrogenation (conversion of CO2 with renewable hydrogen). The resulting products are typical building blocks for the chemical industry, such as carbonates, methanol, or carbon monoxide. We complement this cutting-edge engineering science with frontier system analysis methods, focussing on identifying trade-offs, hot spots and enablers of making CO2 utilisation “net-zero-CO2-emissions” over its entire life-cycle.

Low Carbon Systems

Process and systems integration combined with life-cycle analysis to develop sustainable energy solutions, including alternative fuels, processes and circular economy strategies

Negative Emission Technologies

Negative Emission Technologies (NETs) propose to remove CO2 from the atmosphere by accelerating Earth’s natural processes of growing plants, increasing soil organic carbon stocks, weathering alkaline-rich rocks and increasing ocean alkalinity, and also via “synthetic forests” that draw CO2 from the air with more efficiency than a natural forest

Capture

At RCCS, different research programmes which aim to advance and help deployment of solid sorbents for different CO2 capture applications are currently undertaken, including: development of alkali-based sorbents for CO2 capture at high temperatures; synthesis of novel hydrotalcite materials for industrial carbon capture; performance evaluation of ordered mesoporous carbons and carbon gels for CO2 capture; sustainable development of activated carbons for biogas upgrading applications; microwave regeneration of adsorbents for CO2 capture applications; and, process integration of high temperature CO2 capture with lithium-based sorbents in power and industrial plants.

Transport

We investigate the CO2 flow measurement during the transportation of CO2 with impurities. A first kind CO2 mass flow-rig with Coriolis flowmeter at high pressure condition was designed and constructed during the COMET project. As the expected operating pressure and temperature of CO2 pipelines are near to the critical pressure and temperature of CO2 mixtures, the effects of impurities, pressure, temperature and low flow rates are investigated. The accuracy of density measurement by Coriolis meters also under investigation by comparing the measured densities of various CO2-rich mixtures to the predicted densities using equations of state as well as measured densities by densitometer. For future work, investigation on the performance of different types of flowmeters are planned.

Utilisation

CO2 utilisation at RCCS include photocatalytic processes (i.e. materials and devices), where solar energy can be used to drive photocatalytic reactions and produce sustainable fuels or chemicals suitable for use in existing energy infrastructure. We also work on the development of low carbon aviation fuels through electrochemical conversion of CO2 and using renewable energy from waste agricultural and forestry biomass. Other research areas of CO2 utilisation include mineralisation aiming at transforming CO2 from flue gases into solid mineral carbonates, which are stable and can provide permanent and safe storage. Process integration and life-cycle-analysis (LCA) are also developed to investigate the environmental/social/ political/economic valuation of the complete developed processes.

Storage

We have a wide range of research programmes in CO2 storage, including: improving our understanding of multiphase flow mechanisms at pore scale and modelling CO2 storage at pore, core and reservoir scale; conducting research on well management, particularly in-situ wellbore cement/rock behaviour in order to assess well integrity; exploring the micro-scale controls on fracturing in specific rock formations and understanding their implications for CO2 storage and, investigating the impact of CO2-induced geochemical reactions on the mechanical integrity of different host and cap rocks currently considered for CO2 storage.

Our Research Themes