Research Coordination Network on CCUS Annual Meeting and Workshop

Speakers' presentations and conference video footage now available.

Thank you to all those who participated in the RCN-CCUS Annual Meeting and Workshop and helped make it a successful event!  Speakers' presentations are posted below (links provided in the program listed under "Conference Information" section).  Complete video coverage of the conference can be found on the RCN-CCUS YouTube channel here; please subscribe for updates on the latest videos.

Conference Information:

RCN-CCUS welcomed engineers of all disciplines; researchers, scientists and academics; economists; regulatory and legal professionals; and anybody else interested in Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) to attend the workshop and meeting. 

The RCN Annual Meeting in 2014 included a one-day workshop in addition to a day and a half of RCN sessions focusing on in-depth technological and policy related discussions on CCUS.  The program was as follows:

April 14^th - Workshop on "Air Capture and its Applications in Closing the Carbon Cycle"  

This workshop was part of an on-going collaboration between Columbia University's Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy and Technical University of Denmark's Department of Energy Conversion and Storage. To find out more about this collaboration and past workshops, click here.

Introduction:  Mogens B. Mogensen, Technical University of Denmark:  "Closing the Carbon Cycle with Air Capture" (click here for video)

Panel 1 - Business and Policy Implications (click here for video)

Moderator:  Jason Bordoff, Columbia University

Panelists:

• Scott Barrett, Columbia University:  "Some Thoughts on Air Capture and Climate Policy"
• Steven Smith, Stamford Center for Innovation:  "Clean tech and business startups"
• Christopher A. Cavanagh, National Grid:  "Role of Renewable Natural Gas in Closing the Carbon Cycle"

Panel 2 - Synthetic Fuels (click here for video)

Moderator:  Vikram Rao, Research Triangle Executive Consortium

Panelists:

• Christian Von Ohlhausen, Sunfire:  "Power-to-fuel scaling vs. market requirements"
• Søren Lyng Ebbehøj, Technical University of Denmark:  "Feeding CO2 from air into solid oxide electrolyzer cells"
• John Bøgild Hansen, Haldor Topsøe:  "Methanol synthesis from CO2"

​Panel 3 - Air Capture Technology (click here for video)

Moderator:  Peter Eisenberger, Columbia University

Panelists:

• Alain Goeppert, University of Southern California:  "Regenerable polyamine based solid sorbents for CO2 capture from the air"
• Klaus Lackner, Columbia University:  "Progress on Moisture Swing Sorbents"
• Jon Gibbins, University of Edinburgh:  "Negative Emissions Technologies in UK Mitigation Strategies"

​Panel 4 - Closing the Loop Through Photosynthesis and Plants (click here for video)

Moderator:  Frank O'Keefe, Infinitree LLC

Panelists:

• Robert Martienssen, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory:  "Duckweed (Lemnaceae): Biological design for alkane and biodiesel production"
• Tim Kruger, University of Oxford:  "Carbon Dioxide Irrigation: Using CO2 to Make the Deserts Bloom"
• Raghubir Gupta, Research Triangle International:  "Sustainable Biofuels – A Small Step towards Carbon Management"

April 15^th – RCN-CCUS Annual Meeting Day 1

Introduction:  Alissa Park, Columbia University:  "NSF RCN-SEES: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS)" (click here for video)

Panel 1 - Regulatory Developments, Costs, and Risk Assessment of CCUS (click here for video)

Moderator:  Shelley Welton, Columbia University

Panelists:

• Michael Gerrard, Columbia University:  "Legal Status of Carbon Capture and Sequestration"
• Scott Barrett, Columbia University:  "Role of CCUS in International Climate Negotiations"
• Jon Gibbins, University of Edinburgh:  "UK Carbon Capture and Storage developments"
• Raghubir Gupta, Research Triangle International:  "Risk Issues with CCUS"
• Klaus Lackner, Columbia University:  "The impact of natural gas on CCUS and risks associated with retrofitting a coal fired power plant"

Panel 2 - Global Large-Scale Projects on CCUS and their Outlook (click here for video)

Moderator:  Camille Petit, Imperial College

Panelists:

• Camille Petit, Imperial College:  "Overview of large-scale CO2 capture projects in Europe, Asia and Africa"
• John Grace, University of British Columbia:  "Implementation of Large-Scale Carbon Capture Units – a Canadian Perspective"
• Roger Aines, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:  "Lessons from Large Scale CO2 Injection"
• Patrick Brady, Sandia National Laboratory:  "Review of DOE Regional Partnerships such as SECARB and WESTCARB - CO₂ Storage"
• Peter Kelemen, Columbia University:  "Carbonation of mantle peridotite: Natural systems, global carbon cycle, engineered capture & storage"
• Jeffrey Fitts, Princeton University:  "The current state of CO2 utilization"

April 16^th – RCN-CCUS Annual Meeting Day 2

Panel 3 - Current Status and Challenges in CO₂ Capture and Conversion (click here for video)

Moderator:  Alissa Park, Columbia University

Panelists:

• Alissa Park, Columbia University:  "Towards Sustainable Energy: Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage"
• L.-S. Fan, The Ohio State University:  "Integrated CO2 capture (Chemical looping technology)"
• Chris Jones, Georgia Institute of Technology:  "CO2 air capture"
• Berend Smit, University of California, Berkeley:  "Computational carbon capture"
• Andrew Bocarsly, Princeton University:  "CO2 Conversion to Fuels"
• Mogens B. Mogensen, Technical University of Denmark:  "Overview of CO2 conversion R&D in Europe"

For a more detailed agenda, please click here.

Posters

Thank you to those who presented posters at the workshop and meeting.  The poster abstracts can be viewed here.

Information about RCN-CCUS

The RCN-CCUS is a research coordination project funded by the National Science Foundation (PI: Alissa Park at Columbia University, in partnership with AIChE).  It was created to provide transformative research collaborations in CCUS and to facilitate research collaborations that effectively cross the boundaries of the natural sciences, engineering, and the social and economic sciences.  Members of the RCN are from many countries and range from scientists, academics, and engineers to representatives from the government and industrial sectors.  For more information on the RCN, visit www.ccusnetwork.com