The US has been a strong supporter of the GHGT series because it is THE event where one can get a reliable world view of the status of carbon capture and storage technology. The IEAGHG realized from the beginning that combining top notch venues with a thoughtful program was key to ensuring the best and brightest in the CCS universe would be there. This, coupled with the extraordinary commitment of the host countries and increasing interest in CCS resulted in attendance reaching almost 1600 in 2010 – three times the 1998 attendance.
It is especially interesting when an area starts to get significantly more attention in presentations and panel discussions than has been the case previously. For example, much of the past attention has been on CCS for coal-fueled power plants without consideration of the operating environment. At GHGT-11, however, researchers began to explore how such a plant might be affected by other fuels in the mix. A number of talks focused on flexible operation of CCS, particularly in European countries anticipating a high penetration of renewables. Presentations included temporary options such as bypassing the CO2 capture unit, turning off CO2 regeneration and storing the rich solvent for later CO2 recovery, and producing alternative products (e.g. liquid fuels) when electricity demand falls.
Another fuel getting renewed attention is natural gas. A plenary talk looked at the international implications of shale gas, and there were papers exploring alternative gas/CCS configurations and cost.
An overall impression of GHGT-11 is that while the march toward CCS commercialization appears to have slowed down in many countries, the R&D community continues to thrive and important progress is being made.
Blogged by Jay Braitsch,
Senior Advisor, Office of Fossil Energy, US DOE
