Carbon capture, utilisation and storage and conventional power

What is CCUS?

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) is group of technologies designed to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) released into the atmosphere from coal and gas power stations as well as heavy industry including cement and steel production.

Once captured, the CO₂ can be either re-used in various products, such as cement or plastics (utilisation), or stored in geological formations deep underground (storage).

Why is it important?

There is consensus amongst international fora that CCUS is the most valuable technology in a low carbon energy portfolio to fight climate change - that if CCUS is not developed and deployed, the costs of meeting ambitions climate targets will more than double.

• The International Energy Agency forecasts that the technology will contribute over 16% of the total global CO₂ emission reductions required by 2050.
• Without CCUS, the cost of meeting UK climate targets could double by 2050, according to the Energy Technologies Institute.
• The United Nations (UN) has forecast that without CCUS, efforts to meet global climate targets will be 138% more expensive.
• The UK CCS Cost Reduction Task Force calculated that significant cost reductions could be delivered through better engineering, and the development of so called 'second generation' capture technologies.
• Utilisation of the captured carbon dioxide is also an emerging sector.

Our expertise and activities

• We are a founder member of the UK CCS Research Centre.
• Energy2050 has direct access to the Translational Energy Research Centre, which supports and catalyses industrial and academic R&D in order to accelerate the development and commercialisation of novel technologies for carbon capture and clean power generation. Bridging the gap between bench-scale R&D and large-scale industrial pilot trials.
• We are the lead UK institution in the International CCS Test Centre Network.
• We host the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilisation (CDU) and manage CO2Chem - the world’s largest networking and research community for academics and industrialists interested in CO₂.
• We are a partner in the national PhD training centre for CCS (known as a Centre for Doctoral Training).

For more information please contact Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian, Energy 2050 Director.

Detailed research areas

• Post-combustion capture
• Oxyfuel combustion
• Next generation capture technologies
• Biomass co-firing
• Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling
• CO₂ transport in pipelines
• CO₂ utilisation in products
• CO₂ measurement and monitoring technologies

Key people (A-Z)

Professor Ray Allen
Emeritus Professor of Control of Particulate Environmental Emissions

Professor Solomon Brown
Director of R&I at CBE, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Professor Jon Gibbins
Director of UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC)
Professor of Power Plant Engineering

Dr Kevin Hughes
Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Professor Lin Ma
Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Dr Bill Nimmo
Reader, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Professor Siddharth Patwardhan
Deputy Head of CBE, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Professor Mohamed Pourkashanian
Head of University Energy Research
Professor of Energy Engineering

Professor Peter Styring
Director, UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilisation
Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry