GHG/07/47

IEA GREENHOUSE GAS R&D PROGRAMME

32nd EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

STUDIES IN PROGRESS AND PRIORITISATION OF NEW STUDIES

Studies in progress

Studies that have been published since the previous (31st) meeting, studies that are underway and studies that have been approved but not yet started are summarised below. An updated summary table and a brief commentary on the status of each of the studies will be presented at the meeting.

Table 1 Studies published since the 31st ExCo meeting

Title / Contractor / Report number / Publication date
CO2 capture ready plants / E.ON / 2007/4 / May 2007
Impacts of CO2 leaks on terrestrial ecosystems / BGS / 2007/3 / July 2007
CO2 capture from medium scale sources / Ecofys / 2007/7 / July 2007
Remediation of seepage from geological storage / ARI / 2007/11 / August 2007
Distributed CO2 collection / Gastec / 2007/12 / August 2007
Co-production of hydrogen and electricity by coal gasification with CO2 capture / Foster Wheeler / 2007/13 / September 2007

Table 2: Studies underway

Title / Contractor / Scheduled publication date
Improved oxygen production technologies / Rodney Allam / October 2007
Assessment of sub-sea ecosystem impacts / MBARI / November 2007
Fuel cells for combined heat and power / Jülich Research Institute / February 2008
CO2 capture in the cement industry / Mott MacDonald / February 2008
Regional capacity for CO2 storage in India / BGS / March 2008
CO2 pipeline transmission costs / Gastec / June 2008
Removal of impurities from CO2 / Advantica / July 2008
Improved solvent scrubbing processes / SINTEF / July 2008
Assessment criteria – TAG / EPRI / August 2008

Table 3: Studies in preparation

Title / Proposal number
Aquifer storage development issues / 31-8
Operating flexibility of power plants with CCS – scoping study / 31-2
CO2 capture in the iron and steel industry / 91
Prospects for storage of CO2 in EOR / 108a
Prospects for storage of CO2 in gas fields / 108b
Potential breakthrough capture processes / 30-2
Safety considerations for CO2 transmission and injection / 30-7
Retrofit and repowering with CCS / 31-3
Best practise guidelines on site characterisation / 31-6
Estimation of CO2 storage costs / 31-5


Prioritisation of new studies

12 proposals for new studies were sent to members and sponsors for voting. These consisted of:

·  4 proposals re-submitted from the previous round of voting

·  1 new proposal submitted by a Member

·  7 new proposals produced by the Programme Team

Members were asked to vote for up to five of the proposals and indicate their first choice.

Votes were received from 20 of the 35 members and sponsors, which is a small increase compared to earlier ExCo meetings. The votes for each proposal are shown in the following table. The table shows the total number of votes received, the number of ‘first choices’ and a weighted number of votes, in which the first choice vote is assumed to be equivalent to 2 votes[1].

Proposalnumber / Title / Votes / First choices / Weighted votes
Studies selected for presentation
32-6 / Developing guidelines for CO2 storage – Remediation practices / 16 / 2 / 18
32-5 / Building the pipeline infrastructure / 16 / 1 / 17
32-7 / Long term integrity of CO2 storage – Well abandonment / 14 / 3 / 17
32-1 / Use of biomass with CCS / 11 / 5 / 16
Other studies
32-2 / Capture of lower fractions of CO2 / 10 / 2 / 12
32-8 / Natural analogues for CO2 storage / 8 / 0 / 8
32-10 / Production of energy carriers from low cost coal and opportunities for GHG abatement / 6 / 0 / 6
32-3 / CO2 capture from small scale reformers in CHP systems / 5 / 1 / 6
32-9 / Capacity ready / 5 / 0 / 5
32-11 / Comparison of CCS, hydrogen and biomass for smaller scale energy users / 2 / 0 / 2
32-4 / Trans-boundary CO2 transmission and storage / 2 / 0 / 2
32-12 / Abatement of CO2 emissions from marine transport / 1 / 0 / 1

Outline specifications of the 4 studies which received the most votes have been prepared, see papers GHG/07/48-51.

Of the members who voted, 3 voted for all of the top four studies, 10 voted for 3 of them and 7 voted for 2 of them. No members had fewer than 2 of their selections in the top four studies.

As a back-up, a paper (GHG/07/52) has been prepared on the study which came fifth in the voting. This will be presented at the ExCo meeting if members decide not to proceed with one of the top four studies.

Following the presentations of the outline study specifications, the Committee will be asked to decide:

i)  Should the Programme proceed with these studies?

ii)  Do the outline specifications of the studies properly describe the work required?

iii)  Which of the proposals not selected in this round of voting should be re-submitted in the next round?

1

[1] Some members voted for fewer than 5 studies and some members did not indicate a first choice.