Carbon capture and storage: Tough road ahead to realize potential

The project is an independent, inter-disciplinary assessment of the viability of CCS technologies from now to 2030. Although these technologies could be a crucial component of global climate change mitigation strategies, there are significant uncertainties about their technical, economic and financial viability.

The project's analytical framework includes a series of uncertainties for CCS (including, for example, finance and economics, scaling up and system integration). For each uncertainty, a set of qualitative and quantitative criteria have been established. This framework is now being used to assess technologies and regulatory frameworks that are partially analogous to the case of CCS. A workshop was held to identify priority cases with members of the project steering group and other stakeholders from industry, regulators, government and other organisations.

The team subsequently selected nine case studies to be completed, including flue gas desulphurisation, the UK 'dash for gas' and the regulation of UK landfill waste. The project's final work package is assessing the UK investment climate for CCS and how the project uncertainties might affect the deployment of CCS technologies between now and 2030.

The project is a collaboration of four universities: Sussex, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Imperial College. It was conducted in close co-operation with a stakeholder steering group, chaired by Dr Tony White.

Report: http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=2386