First Ever Carbon Capture and Storage Conference Held

The University of Texas at Austin held the first ever Carbon Capture and Storage Conference Jan. 25–27 at Pickle Research Campus.  It was the first joint meeting between researchers focused on capturing carbon and those investigating how to store it as part of the Luminant Carbon Management Program (LCMP).

“It was beneficial to review progress made in both areas at once,” said Gary Rochelle, chemical engineering professor and head of the LCMP.  “Besides presentations on capture, we heard research updates about storage from The Gulf Coast Carbon Center, led by Bureau of Economic Geology Professor Sue Hovorka, and the Geological CO₂ Storage Research Project, led by Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Professor Steve Bryant.”

Approximately 200 people attended the event, including sponsors and representatives from the Department of Energy and the US Geological Survey.    

“It was the largest concentration of fundamental presentations on amine scrubbing ever,” said Rochelle.  “My favorite part was when I saw my own students presenting. And boy, were they good.  We have an excellent group of graduate students here.”

With generous contributions from sponsors, Rochelle and his team have developed a new form of amine scrubbing by using aqueous piperazine as a solvent to absorb CO₂ from coal-fired flue gas emitted from power plants.  This process requires less energy consumption and is much more stable than typical amine scrubbing methods.  The team is currently testing their process in a pilot plant at Pickle Research Campus.

The Luminant Carbon Management Program, funded by Luminant and 33 other sponsors, began in 2007 and offers doctoral students the opportunity to help “develop and demonstrate evolutionary improvements to monoethanolamine (MEA) absorption/stripping for CO₂ capture from coal-fired flue gas.”  There are currently 17 students enrolled in the program.