About this Research Topic
CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) has been widely recognized as a crucial part of CO2 emission reduction strategy to mitigate carbon-induced climate change. The significance of CCUS is further emphasized in the transition to a net-zero CO2 emission future with its role evolved and extended to decarbonize almost all energy-related products and services, including power, steel, cement, chemical/petrochemical, transport sectors. CCUS also provides the technology solution for negative emission by combining with bioenergy (BECCS) or through direct air capture (DAC) to balance emissions that are technically difficult or expensive to abate. It is anticipated that CCUS would contribute to 7.6 Gt/a of CO2 emission reduction to achieve net-zero emission by 2050 (International Energy Agency, 2021).
CCUS has been commercially applied in the fossil fuel industry for decades, but its operation capacity is only ~40 Mt/a CO2, which is ~0.5% of the targeted CCUS capacity in the 2050 net-zero scenario. Recognizing CCUS’s important role in net-zero transition, this decade will be critical for CCUS’s prospects that require a rapid deployment of mature CCUS technologies as well as an accelerated innovation of enabling CCUS technologies to ensure they can start to be deployed from the 2030s. It is anticipated that the 2020s will see CCUS’s widespread application not only in fossil-fuel power stations and hydrogen production where CCUS application has been technologically mature, but also in other emission-intensive industries such as cement, steel and chemical production where CCUS applications are early stage. Furthermore, negative emission technologies such as BECCS and DACCS will undergo significant performance improvement to reduce the capture cost; CO2 utilization applications including building materials, fuels, chemical production and biological conversion will become economically viable in some scenarios where cheap CO2 and renewable energy are accessible.
Deployment of these CCUS technologies requires strong support from research and development particularly the advanced engineering solutions to drive down the energy consumption and costs, which is essential for CCUS technology scale-up and wide deployment.
This Research Topic aims to provide a platform to identify, evaluate and discuss the CCUS engineering solutions that could contribute to the understanding, development and advancement of CCUS technologies and help de-risk CCUS deployment. These engineering solutions can range from process modification and equipment design to reduce capital investment and operating cost, system integration and optimisation and planning for better energy management and economic outcome, lab-/prototype-/pilot-scale demonstration and commercial scale study for technology evaluation, etc.
We welcome the experimental investigation, process simulation, dynamic modelling and techno-economic analysis of Original Research, Review and Perspective articles in the following areas, but not limited to:
• Advanced CO2 capture technologies (solvents, solid sorbents, chemical looping, calcium looping, membranes and membrane reactors, cryogenics and hybrid systems, etc.) and their applications (e.g. power station, cement, steel, and chemical/petrochemical plants)
• CO2 utilization technologies for chemicals, (e.g. polymer, urea, formic acid, ethylene), fuels production (e.g. methane, methanol, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide), building materials (e.g. concrete, aggregate), and biological conversion (e.g. algae, crop) and their applications
• CO2 storage technologies including modelling and monitoring solutions
• Technology development of negative emission technologies of BECCS and DACCS
• CCUS system integration and planning in decarbonizing power and industry sectors (e.g. through energy and economic modelling), including integration with industrial CO2 sources, integration with renewable energy system, integration between CO2 capture and utilisation
• Emerging CCUS technologies that are in low technology readiness level but have great potential for scale-up.
CCUS has been commercially applied in the fossil fuel industry for decades, but its operation capacity is only ~40 Mt/a CO2, which is ~0.5% of the targeted CCUS capacity in the 2050 net-zero scenario. Recognizing CCUS’s important role in net-zero transition, this decade will be critical for CCUS’s prospects that require a rapid deployment of mature CCUS technologies as well as an accelerated innovation of enabling CCUS technologies to ensure they can start to be deployed from the 2030s. It is anticipated that the 2020s will see CCUS’s widespread application not only in fossil-fuel power stations and hydrogen production where CCUS application has been technologically mature, but also in other emission-intensive industries such as cement, steel and chemical production where CCUS applications are early stage. Furthermore, negative emission technologies such as BECCS and DACCS will undergo significant performance improvement to reduce the capture cost; CO2 utilization applications including building materials, fuels, chemical production and biological conversion will become economically viable in some scenarios where cheap CO2 and renewable energy are accessible.
Deployment of these CCUS technologies requires strong support from research and development particularly the advanced engineering solutions to drive down the energy consumption and costs, which is essential for CCUS technology scale-up and wide deployment.
This Research Topic aims to provide a platform to identify, evaluate and discuss the CCUS engineering solutions that could contribute to the understanding, development and advancement of CCUS technologies and help de-risk CCUS deployment. These engineering solutions can range from process modification and equipment design to reduce capital investment and operating cost, system integration and optimisation and planning for better energy management and economic outcome, lab-/prototype-/pilot-scale demonstration and commercial scale study for technology evaluation, etc.
We welcome the experimental investigation, process simulation, dynamic modelling and techno-economic analysis of Original Research, Review and Perspective articles in the following areas, but not limited to:
• Advanced CO2 capture technologies (solvents, solid sorbents, chemical looping, calcium looping, membranes and membrane reactors, cryogenics and hybrid systems, etc.) and their applications (e.g. power station, cement, steel, and chemical/petrochemical plants)
• CO2 utilization technologies for chemicals, (e.g. polymer, urea, formic acid, ethylene), fuels production (e.g. methane, methanol, hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide), building materials (e.g. concrete, aggregate), and biological conversion (e.g. algae, crop) and their applications
• CO2 storage technologies including modelling and monitoring solutions
• Technology development of negative emission technologies of BECCS and DACCS
• CCUS system integration and planning in decarbonizing power and industry sectors (e.g. through energy and economic modelling), including integration with industrial CO2 sources, integration with renewable energy system, integration between CO2 capture and utilisation
• Emerging CCUS technologies that are in low technology readiness level but have great potential for scale-up.
Keywords: CCUS, CCUS engineering, CO2 capture and storage (CCS), CO2 utilization, net-zero emission, negative emission, techno-economic, modelling
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