Projects supported under the ACT1 Call
The eight projects funded under the ACT1 Call is listed alphabetically below
3D-CAPS
Project title
Three Dimensional Printed Capture Materials for Productivity Step-Change, 3D-CAPS
Project coordinator
ECN
Project leader
Robert de Boer
Project period
September 2017 - December 2019
Support from ACT
€ 1.5 M
Web site
Summary
Step-changes are required to accelerate the introduction of CCS technologies, one of the overall goals of the ERA-NET ACT program. The project 3D-CAPS targets a productivity increase of an order of magnitude in two sorbent-based technologies for CCS. This will lead to a substantial decrease in overall equipment size and costs. This will be achieved using the latest available techniques for materials production: additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D-printing. One bottle neck for traditional packed-bed solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies is the trade-off between flow-rate through the reactor, pressure drop and kinetics of the adsorption process. The use of 3D-printing will allow bespoke material configuration solutions for sorbent-based CCS technologies not available with current production technologies that allow the maximum interplay between these three competing and complementary elements.
Position Papers can be found here and here
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
The Final report of the project can be found here
ACORN
Project title
ACORN
Project coordinator
Pale Blue Dot Energy Ltd
Project leader
Steve Murphy
Project period
September 2017 - August 2020
Support from ACT
€ 2 M
Web site
Summary
Project Acorn is a low cost CCS system in NE Scotland which could be operational by 2023. It will exploit redundant North Sea gas distribution assets. It is led by the CCS project development advisors Pale Blue Dot Energy and supported by expert partners from UK, Norway and the Netherlands who will explore options for similar projects around the North Sea basin. Centres of excellence from the USA (MIT) and China (UK-Guangdong CCUS Centre) will participate on the advisory board furthering global dissemination and impact.
This Phase 2 project is 18 months duration to ensure early positive impact and builds on previous research, including an appraisal of subsea CO2 storage sites and options to re-use gas distribution assets. Acorn is centred on the St Fergus Gas Plant north of Aberdeen. This is connected to offshore infrastructure which is potentially re-usable for CCS. St Fergus is also connected to the high emissions Central Belt region by a dedicated onshore pipeline. Acorn is a minimum viable development starting with CO2 capture from the Gas Terminal, and will explore options for build-out to other large-scale sources of emissions in the region and from CO2 tankers through Peterhead Port 5km to the south.
This Acorn Phase 2 is a small project in the Chain Integration theme. It will move the opportunity from proof-of-concept (TRL3) to the pre-FEED stage (TRL5/6). Leading edge research, aimed at increasing storage efficiency, integrity, policy development and life cycle analysis will be carried out. Norwegian and Dutch CCS policy experts will apply the lessons from the "real world" UK project to other North Sea regions.
At the end of this Phase 2, Acorn will be FEED ready and will deliver a re-usable blueprint for the decarbonisation of a region currently highly dependent upon the fossil fuel. Acorn has been identified by UK and Scottish Governments as a potential EU PCI project and is one of the most deliverable CCS projects in Europe.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation shown at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 6-7 November 2019
Press releases
December 2017: ACT Acorn partners pass first milestone in study to initiate CCS in the UK: The ground-breaking Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project has now begun a feasibility study after concluding funding from the European Union’s funding round Accelerating CCS Technologies (ACT). Read more.
January 2019: The groundbreaking Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project has today released findings from its international joint research project, which show how the UK can support decarbonisation of some of Europe’s carbon-intensive regions from the early 2020s through the phased roll-out of a low-cost, low-risk North Sea CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. Read more.
Final Report
The Final report of the project can be found here
ALIGN
Project title
Accelerating Low carbon Industrial Growth through CCUS: ALIGN-CCUS
Project coordinator
TNO
Project leader
Peter van Os
Project period
September 2017 - September 2020
Support from ACT
€ 14 M
Summary
The ALIGN-CCUS (ALIGN) project is a joint industry-led research initiative to accelerate the demonstration and implementation of the next-phase of European CCUS projects by addressing specific R&D gaps across the CCUS chain. The mission of ALIGN is to overcome hurdles for initial projects and to prepare for large scale, cost effective, implementation of CCUS. The proposal is structured to meet the immediate R&D needs of industry, combined with foresight to overcome challenges linked to the wider commercialization of the technology through capture at integrated industrial and power clusters. The ALIGN consortium offers pilot plants and other state of the art test facilities such as the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), RWE (Niederaussem, DE), UNIPER (Wilhelmshaven, DE), Tiller pilot rig (NOR) and the CO2 Corrosion Test Facility at IFE to test key components of the process with underpinning modelling and analysis.
In addition to testing at existing pilot plants, a pilot installation for the conversion of CO2 to transport fuels (DME/Methanol) will be installed and tested. Communicating the technical and economic feasibility, including evidence based environmental impact assessment to decision-makers and to the wider society, is crucial for the acceptance of CCUS, and an important element of ALIGN.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation shown at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 6-7 November 2019
Poster shown at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
The Final Report of the project can be found here
DETECT
Project title
Determining the risk of CO2 leakage along fractures in caprocks using an integrated monitoring and hydro-mechanical-chemical approach, DETECT
Project coordinator
Shell Global Solutions International B.V.
Project leader
Marcella Dean
Project periode
September 2017 - September 2020
Support from ACT
€ 2 M
Web site
https://geoenergy.hw.ac.uk/research/detect/
Summary
DETECT aims to significantly improve our ability to evaluate risks of leakage across faulted and fractured caprocks, so as to better inform operators, regulators and other stakeholders in their risk mitigation strategies. The results from this study will be incorporated into CCS industry leading guidance documents which will allow stakeholders to:
1. perform effective caprock and seal integrity risk assessment
2. communicate clearly and logically assessed caprock integrity risks
3. understand realistic leakage rates and related implications
4. select realistic and efficient leak rate modelling approaches
5. select reliable, cost effective and innovative containment monitoring technologies
6. demonstrate quantitative risk assessment applicable beyond investigated risks
All of these elements will substantially contribute to accelerating implementation of the CCS technology by providing pragmatic and reliable tools to reduce risks and costs for CO2 storage operations. Specifically, DETECT will deliver an integrated approach to (qualitatively and quantitatively) determine the risk of natural leakage across the primary caprock. Key targets of DETECT are:
Laboratory experiments to determine impact of:
reservoir stress changes on fracture flow properties
chemical reactions on fracture flow properties
swelling clays on fracture flow properties
Field studies to characterize fault and fracture network geometries
Hydro-mechanical-chemical modelling to determine:
Flow in a single fracture and connected matrix
Potential for upscaling of flow in fault damage zones
Fault zone leak path modelling of storage complexes
Containment monitoring technologies:
Identify monitoring technologies suitable to detect leakage across caprock and determine expected performance
Integrated qualitative and quantitative risk assessment:
Determine safeguards and generate guidance bowties for efficient risk assessment
Dissemination to assure uptake of results
Presentations
Presentation at the ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
Find the Final Report here
ECOBASE
Project title
ECO-BASE: Establishing CO2 enhanced Oil recovery Business Advantages in South Eastern Europe
Project coordinator
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF STAVANGER AS (IRIS)
Project leader
Roman Berenblyum
Project period
August 2017 - September 2020
Support from ACT
€ 1.2 M
Web site
Summary
CO2 storage is essential for reaching the below 2C target. Commercial utilization of CO2 is one of mechanisms to create a business case for the CO2 storage and CO2-EOR is currently the only process capable of continuously utilizing and later storing large CO2 volumes. ECO-BASE will develop revenue streams and business models for CO2-EOR in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) therefore supporting large scale CCUS deployment. The project is carried out locally in SEE countries: Turkey, Romania and Greece with support from TNO, the Netherlands and IRIS, Norway. The project team will access the whole revenue stream and focus on optimization of the CO2-EOR combined with permanent storage (EORStore) as an undividable process. Four key activities represented by sub-projects are:
1. Map CCUS potential in SEE and establish regional EORStore roadmaps. The sub-project will identify most promising case studies as input for sub-project 2.
2. Creating a business case for selected EORStore case studies. The objectives are to model and optimize EORStore, access technical, legal and regulatory incentives and bottle necks. Sub-project will deliver site specific reports for further actions and identify more generalized lessons learned.
3. Knowledge sharing and transfer between North West Europe (NWE) and SEE and beyond to boost and support CCUS activities in participating countries. Sub-project will organize courses for young specialists; arrange knowledge transfer to various stakeholders of CCUS community. An attempt to involve other countries of the Black Sea region (Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Russia) would be made.
4. Public awareness and acceptance. Creating favorable atmosphere for CCUS development among all stakeholders is crucial-there were projects stopped or cancelled due to "total lack of local support". The ECO-BASE is aiming at liaising with existing organisations (like CO2-GeoNet) and projects (like ENOS) in order to organise public events and raise awareness and acceptance of EORStore.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
The Final Report of the project can be found here
ELEGANCY
Project title
Enabling a Low-Carbon Economy via Hydrogen and CCS (ELEGANCY)
Project coordinator
SINTEF Energy Research
Project leader
Svend Tollak Munkejord
Project period
August 2017 - August 2020
Support from ACT
€ 8.9 M
Web site
Summary
As the only technology that can substantially reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuels, CCS is an essential component in essentially all IPCC scenarios that limit global warming to below 2.3°C. Indeed, without CCS, it will be extremely difficult to keep the rise in global temperature within the limits set by the Paris Agreement. Yet there is a large disconnect between policy ambitions and technology readiness - and industrial uptake. This is mainly due to the lack of a business model: costs are immediate, but the benefits are long term. Similarly, the introduction of hydrogen (H2) as a low-carbon fuel for heating, cooling, transport and industrial processes has been slower than desired. However, as the natural gas (NG) reforming for H2 production also produces CO2 using existing or new processes, this can provide the economic driver needed to fast-track CCS commercial deployment.
The ELEGANCY project will therefore provide three crucial benefits: 1) the decarbonization of heating and transport based on an existing fuel and infrastructure 2) a commercial model for industrial CCS and 3) the opportunity to broaden public awareness of CCS. This includes large-scale CO2 transport and storage infrastructure for use by other sectors, as well as infrastructure for the rapid introduction of H2 as an energy carrier, thus also opening the door for H2 generated from spare capacity in renewable sources. It will also enable Europe to export extensive knowledge, products and technologies worldwide.
ELEGANCY will apply all its research findings, technologies and tools to five national case studies in order to identify cost-effective opportunities for H2-CCS for each country represented in the consortium, providing key input for policy makers. ELEGANCY partners are world leaders in their respective fields, comprising not only highly-respected research institutions and legal experts, but technology vendors, NG grid operators and international energy and petrochemical companies.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
2-slide presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
The Final Report can be found here
GASTECH
Project title
Demonstration of Gas Switching Technology for Accelerated Scale-up of Pressurized Chemical Looping Applications, GaSTech
Project coordinator
SINTEF Materials and Chemistry
Project leader
Shahriar Amini
Project period
September 2017 - September 2020
Support from ACT
€ 1.65 M
Web site
https://www.sintef.no/gastech-act
Summary
Gas switching technology offers a promising alternative to chemical looping applications for highly efficient power or hydrogen production with integrated CO2 capture. Oxygen production for oxyfuel CO2 capture is also possible. In order to maximize efficiency, these processes need to operate at elevated pressures, creating serious scale-up challenges for interconnected chemical looping reactors. Gas switching reactors, on the other hand, are simple standalone units that can be scaled up and pressurized without facing unforeseen challenges.
The GaSTech project will accelerate the development of gas switching technologies by developing a business case for further technology scale-up. The business case will have two main components: 1) lab-scale demonstration (TRL 4) of gas switching reactor concepts and 2) large-scale technology implementation studies to evaluate techno-economic feasibility of process concepts incorporating gas switching reactors.
Specialized partners will be responsible for each individual project component. Experimental demonstration will utilize an existing reactor at NTNU that has been successfully used for demonstration of pressurized gas switching combustion. ETH will select and pre-test the oxygen carrier materials to be manufactured by ESAM for demonstration purposes. SINTEF will utilize existing large-scale gas switching reactor models to provide input to process simulations done by TUHH and UPM. Using this data, UBB will carry out economic assessments for the different processes and HAYAT will assess the business case.
GaSTech will investigate four gas switching technologies: combustion, reforming, water splitting and oxygen production. The clear similarities between these processes will allow for efficient parallel assessment in a single project. In this way, GaSTech will maximize the likelihood of developing the compelling business case required for an immediate follow-up project at TRL 6.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
Final Report
The Final report can be found here
Pre-ACT
Project title
Pressure control and conformance management for safe and efficient CO2 storage - Accelerating CCS Technologies (Pre-ACT)
Project coordinator
SINTEF Petroleum AS
Project leader
Peder Eliassen
Project period
September 2017 - August 2020
Support from ACT
€ 4.5 M
Web site
Summary
The main storage-related challenges for accelerated deployment of CCS are capacity, confidence and cost. Pre-ACT is an industry-driven research project with a strong focus on improving strategies for monitoring and management of pore pressure distribution to address these challenges.
Pre-ACT will develop pressure-driven decision support protocols (Pre-ACT Protocols) which will be a cost-efficient system for reservoir monitoring that helps the operator maximize CO2 storage capacity and quickly turn monitoring data into corrective action.
Pre-ACT has secured access to a wide and relevant set of monitoring data from key demonstration sites across the world to calibrate, verify and demonstrate the value of the pressure-driven decision support protocols created in Pre-ACT for specific challenges. The industrial partners in Pre-ACT (Statoil, TOTAL, Shell and TAQA) will be instrumental in securing the relevance and applicability of the tools and methodologies developed in the project and will bring their operational experience and perspective.
Pre-ACT comprises five technical work packages, designed to build the different elements in the pressure driven decision support protocols. WP1 deals with the development and demonstration of methods to model pressure build-up and distribution. WP2 and WP3 deal with development and demonstration of a modelling-monitoring loop for conformance assessment. Based on the compilation of a unique archive of existing and new data sets from relevant pilot and field sites, WP4 will derive recommendations for decision making procedures. In WP5, North Sea case studies will be carried out, demonstrating the value of the protocols developed in Pre-ACT. The project also includes first of a kind experiments at the ECCSEL Svelvik site.
Five countries with strong commitment to CCS are represented in the consortium: Norway, Germany, The Netherlands, UK and France. In addition, Pre-ACT has established a solid cooperation with US and Australia.
Presentations
Presentation shown at the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 24 October 2017.
Presentation at the 4th ACT Knowledge Sharing workshop 6-7 November 2019
