CCS continues to progress both globally and here in the UK and now stands at a pivotal juncture. The EU’s Net Zero Industry Act and the US’s Inflation Reduction Act are driving significant levels of activity in those regions and the UK has also made recent announcements, including £20bn of funding, confirmation of the first carbon capture projects to be built and, importantly for Scotland, supporting the Acorn Project to progress under Track-2 of the UK’s CCUS Cluster Sequencing programme.
CCS has never been closer to delivering on its promise of playing a key role in delivering industrial decarbonisation, creating economic opportunities as part of a just transition and tackling the climate emergency. Offering the large-scale capture and permanent storage of harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, CCS is essential - alongside improved efficiencies and cleaner sources of energy - for protecting our atmosphere and ensuring we meet climate targets.
CCS can be grouped into two main approaches: engineered and nature- based. And within these, too, CCS comes in different ‘flavours’, each with its own specific operating, cost, benefits and sequestration profile. From engineered solutions, such as industrial CCS with cement, steel and chemicals manufacturing and removals, via bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) to nature-based solutions such as forestry, peatland restoration, and enhanced weathering, all are important; all have a role to play.
Featuring a range of expert speakers from academia, industry, government and policy making, this year’s conference opened a dialogue between these different CCS methods. We discussed their funding, policy and business model requirements and explored their specific benefits, attractiveness to investors, cost to operate, storage effectiveness and permanence.
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Agenda
0800-0900: Registration (tea & coffee)
0900-1030: Session 1 - CCS developments and financing in Scotland, the UK and the EU
Gillian White, SCCS Programme Manager - Welcome
Kersti Berge, Director of Energy and Climate Change, Scottish Government - Keynote address
Chris Bolesta, CCUS Team Leader, Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission - CCS in the EU (slides)
Emily Sidhu, Director Banking and Investments, UK Infrastructure Bank - Financing CCS projects in the UK (slides)
Paulina McPadden, Investment Manager, Baillie Gifford - Investing in CCS
1030-1100: Coffee and networking
1100-1230: Session 2 - Methods and Metrics
Christian Wurzer, Biochar Research Engineer, UK Biochar Research Centre - Biochar and its applications (slides)
John MacDonald, Senior Lecturer in Anthropogenic Geomaterials, University of Glasgow - Perspectives on enhanced rock weathering (ERW) for CO₂ drawdown (slides)
Giulio Santori, Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh - CO2 removal & utilisation via direct air capture
Catherine Witt, Head of Technical, Storegga - Acorn Subsurface CCS
Tavis Potts, Personal Chair in Sustainable Development and Environmental Governance, University of Aberdeen - Societal considerations for CCS and CO₂ removals (slides)
Q&A
1230-1330: Lunch and networking
1330-1500: Session 3: Project case studies
Michelle Thomson MSP, MSP for Falkirk East - Session keynote
Tom Snow, Engineering Manager Peterhead Carbon Capture Project Engineering, SSE - Peterhead Carbon Capture Project and the Scottish Cluster (slides)
Thomas Newell, General Operations Manager, The Future Forest Company Ltd - Using nature to remove atmospheric CO₂ (slides)
Richard Nimmons & Ed Nimmons, Carbon Capture Scotland Ltd - CCUS of biogenic CO₂ (slides)
Gareth Johnson, Head of CCS Sustainability, Drax - Large-scale bioenergy with CCS (BECCS) (slides)
Q&A
1500-1530: Coffee and networking
1530-1630: Panel discussion and closing remarks
Panel discussion - The different ‘flavours’ of CCS: delivery, scale, benefits
Chair: R Stuart Haszeldine, Professor of Carbon Capture and Storage, SCCS Director
Emily Sidhu, Director Banking and Investments, UK Infrastructure Bank
Ian Cook, Head of Low Carbon Ventures, SSE Thermal
Gareth Johnson, Head of CCS Sustainability, Drax
Thomas Newell, General Operations Manager, The Future Forest Company Ltd
R Stuart Haszeldine, Professor of Carbon Capture and Storage, SCCS Director - Closing remarks
1630-1800: Drinks reception
Drinks, networking, research poster session
Supported by:
