Community News Archive
Environment minister attends carbon capture event
IOP
5 December 2007
Last night Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on the eve of his journey to the UN Conference in Bali, came to address the UK’s science community and discuss the development of new carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
The event, jointly organised by the Institute of Physics (IOP), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the Institute of Biology (IOB), was opened by the Secretary of State and involved a series of presentations on the benefits of CCS from leading environmental scientists.
CCS is fast becoming the commonly accepted solution to the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions while still allowing the continued use of fossil fuels to generate power.
In addition to reducing emissions from power generation, the seminar also explored a range of techniques that have been researched for trapping CO2 before it is released into the atmosphere and finding safe places for long-term storage. Filling empty oil reservoirs with CO2; storing CO2 within large geological formations; sending CO2 down unmineable coal shafts; or harvesting CO2 capturing microalgae are all serious possibilities.
The event included presentations from Carol Turley, senior scientist at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Klaus S. Lackner, professor of geophysics at Columbia University, USA, and Peter Styles, professor of applied and environmental geophysics at Keele University.
At present, research in the UK has been focused on the disposal of carbon in saline aquifers, essentially vast reservoirs of empty space left open once natural resources have been extracted, but this method has large capture and transport costs so alternatives are being sought.
Peter Main, director of education and science at IOP, said, “The rise in CO2 emissions around the world over the past two centuries has created the biggest threat to that modern society has ever faced. Research into CCS has found a range of solutions to the challenge. It is now time to start acting on them.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. The Carbon Capture and Storage seminar was held at the Royal Society on the evening of Wednesday, December 5. For further information about the speakers, opportunities for interview, or photographs taken at the event, please contact IOP Press Officer, Joe Winters on direct dial 020 7470 4815, mobile 07946 321473, or email joseph.winters@iop.org.
2. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is the process of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from industrial and energy-related sources (such as power station) underground. This will help in the battle against climate change as most scientists say CO2 is the biggest contributor to the greenhouse effect because it traps heat from the Sun in the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that a power plant with a CCS system could reduce CO2 emissions by 80-90% compared to a plant without CCS. However the Panel has stressed that CCS is still a relatively unproven technology and requires further research.
Useful links:
- IPCC Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage: www.ipcc.ch/activity/ccsspm.pdf
- UK Energy Research Centre on CCS: http://www.co2capture.org.uk/
- Council for Science and Technology Report on Strategic Decision Making for Technology Policy which names CCS as one of six key technologies: http://www2.cst.gov.uk/cst/reports/
3. The Institute of Physics is a scientific membership organisation devoted to increasing the understanding and application of physics. It has an extensive worldwide membership (currently over 34,000) and is a leading communicator of physics with all audiences from specialists through government to the general public. Its publishing company, Institute of Physics Publishing, is a world leader in scientific publishing and the electronic dissemination of physics.
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