Events & Courses

Register for the 2024 course today!

This course is for geoscientists, environmental scientists, regulators, policy makers and investors who deal with geological and engineering information related to carbon capture and storage. The course will cover the role of CCS within decarbonisation as an aspect of earth system science; why CCS is necessary; how CO2 is captured in industrial processes and how it can be used industrially; the factors affecting geological storage; how CO2 stores are monitored for leakage; how CCS will be regulated; how CCS will pay for itself; and the social licence for CCS. 

The course will be delivered in simple non-technical language suitable for non-specialists, and will have a strong international and global south emphasis with case studies of non-European, non-North American CCS and will touch on the role of CCS in development country energy transition. The course satisfies a part of the market that is not currently catered for – the wider science, risks, financing, planning and social licence aspects of CCS. These are issues that are as important as the technical issues in the sense that any of them can be a show-stopper for CCS. Many geologists in companies first starting out in CCS will need to have a broad background of the science, technology, risks and policy planning aspects of CCS and many technical civil servants and planners want to know about the new technology of CCS including its risks, environmental aspects and social licence. Similarly geologists and planners in investment organisations and NGOs will want to know the broad principles of CCS.

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Programme

This course will cover:

1. Section 1 The geological carbon cycle
   1. Natural geological carbon sequestration
   2. The 'negative greenhouse'
   3. Capturing carbon fast enough
2. Section 2. Anthropogenic influences on the geological carbon cycle
   1. Fossil fuel use Use of coal/gas in the future
   2. Case study Coal in India and South Africa
   3. Case study Shale gas in the US
   4. Exercise/discussion: Examination of IEA scenarios (using supplied materials - 450 scenario, Current Policies Scenario, and New Policies scenario) and discussion of the role of CCS within each)
3. Section 3 Capturing and transporting carbon dioxide
   1. Chemical CO2 capture
   2. Transporting CO2
   3. CO2 and decarbonisation clusters including hydrogen
   4. Uses of CO2 following capture - utilisation
   5. Exercise/discussion: Examination of UK’s decarbonisation clusters (using supplied materials) and the role of CCS within each.
   6. Question and answer and discussion on sections (1) to (3) 30 mins
4. Section 4 Geological storage
   1. Creating an underground CO2 store
   2. Depleted fields
   3. Saline aquifers
   4. Long term behaviour of CO2
   5. Storage space calculation
   6. CO2 storage in India, China and South Africa
   7. Exercise/discussion: Examination (using supplied materials) of geological, planning and environmental conflicts of offshore subsurface, seabed and sea surface space in a case study of a hypothetical North Sea CCS licence and development application
5. Section 5 Leakage and monitoring for CO2
   1. How likely is leakage Impacts of leakage
   2. Detecting leaks
   3. Regulation of storage
   4. Exercise/discussion: Examination (using supplied materials) of costs and efficacy of different leakage and monitoring methods of a hypothetical North Sea CCS site.
6. Section 6 The finances: How do you make CCS pay for itself?
   1. Carbon taxes, cap and trade
   2. Price of CO2 emissions
   3. Costs of CCS Exercise/discussion: Examination (using supplied materials from the IEA) of the efficacy of different policy instruments in the financing of CCS in the developed and developing world
7. Section 7. CCS regulation
   1. Purpose of regulation
   2. Roles of regulators and owners of subsurface space
   3. Licencing of CCS
8. Section 8. Public views of CCS
   1. Social licence to operate
   2. Learnings from failed and successful schemes

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:

   1. Place CCS within the context of the global geological carbon cycle and the contribution to could make to carbon abatement
2. Understand the basic engineering and other challenges and solutions of CO2 transport and capture
3. Understand the geological challenges and solutions of CO2 storage
4. Understand the methods of geological and environmental monitoring of CCS sites and why monitoring is important
5. Understand the policy and finance challenges and solutions of CCS projects
6. Understand the importance of social licence to operate and how to gain a social licence to operate