Abstract
Currently, global CO2 emissions from all sectors amounts to 37 GtCO2/year. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) currently remains the only means by which to significantly decarbonize the industrial sector and reduce emissions from fossil fuel based power plants. The use of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) has been widely cited as providing a transitional stepping stone for CCS by assuming a revenue stream from oil production. However, CCS with CO2-EOR has yet to kick off at the gigatone scale, and in the absence of a universal carbon tax and persisting low oil prices, it is uncertain how and if this will. A detailed economic model of CCS with CO2-EOR was developed here using an iterative dynamic approach to assessing the level of successful technology investment and industry growth based on price signals and technological operations. This talk will present the results from this study including recommendations regarding the price signals required to jumpstart CCS on the gigatone scale.
Speaker Bio
Clea is a 3rd year PhD student between the Centre for Environmental Policy and the Centre for Process Systems Engineering and is part of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment’s Doctoral Training Programme. Her supervisors are Niall Mac Dowell at CEP and Sam Krevor in Earth Sciences. The work she is presenting was conducted during an 8-month secondment at Stanford University in Adam Brandt’s Environmental Assessment and Optimization group. Clea has an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London.