Final outputs from the ACT2 ERANET ALIGN-CCUS project

The ALIGN-CCUS project, funded through the ERA-NET ACT programme, focused on delivering tools and guidelines to support the quick and cost-effective delivery of large-scale *carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and the UK.

This international partnership of science and industry has concluded three years of multi-disciplinary research aimed at transforming Europe’s industrial regions into economically robust, low-carbon centres by 2025.

See Press Releases in English, Romanian, German, Dutch and Norwegian, respectively. Read more on the project website here.

Final report from ELEGANCY

Summary and key messages from ELEGANCY

ELEGANCY is an ERA-Net Cofund ACT project with the aim to help fast-tracking the decarbonization of Europe’s energy system via hydrogen and CCS. This has been achieved by overcoming specific scientific, technological and economic/legal barriers and by undertaking five national case studies adapted to the condi-tions in the partner countries Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the UK. ELEGANCY con-sists of 22 partners from industry and academia/research. More information can be found at the project web-site.

The final report from ELEGANCY is available here.

Key messages

• Europe is dependent on all main available decarbonization options – including hydrogen and CCS – to address the European-parliament declared climate emergency from November 2019 and reduce CO2 emissions be cut by 55% by 2030 and further to net zero by 2050.

• The European parliament has also supported greater action for implementing commercial-scale CCS.

• Hydrogen can be delivered at scale – fast-tracking the 2050 net-zero emission goal.

• Fuel-switching to hydrogen will:

o Curb emissions from distributed sources, such as transport, industrial processes, heating and cooling.

o Quickly decarbonize heavy industry in the EU and so maintain economic activity and jobs.

• Hydrogen produced both from renewable energy sources and from natural gas with CCS will be needed.

• Climate positive hydrogen from biomass with CCS can play an important role in compensating CO2 emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, despite limited sustainable biomass resources.

• CCS is an efficient and safe way to eliminate CO2 emissions.

• The Hydrogen Pathway needs appropriate financial, regulatory and political frameworks.

• Hydrogen should form part of the future European energy system.

• A comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure is required, also using existing assets.

• Open access infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage is required – being able to permanently store CO2 will enable new pathways to climate neutrality.

• Full-scale deployment of hydrogen with CCS should start now.

• Recommended key principles for market re-design are:

o Integrated energy system planning and governance tools.

o Efficient and coordinated permitting procedures.

o Access to the grid and gas grid conversion.

o Operation of transport networks and related infrastructures.

Final report from Pre-ACT

The Pre-ACT project brought together a partnership of 10 research institutes and industrial companies to target three key challenges for CO2 storage: capacity, confidence, and cost. The focus of the project was on improving strategies for monitoring and management of the pore pressure distribution within a storage complex

Details are available in the final report from the Pre-ACT project

ACT presentations at GHGT-15

There will be a lot of interesting presentations from ACT-projects at GHGT-15.

The presentations from the ACT projects are listed below in order to make easy for everyone to se what the ACT projects will be presenting.

ACT2 projects

ACTOM

The stoichiometric Cseep method: A process-based technique to simultaneously detect CO2 seepage at the seafloor and quantify any extra carbon dissolved in the sampled seawater, A. M. Omar et al.; Oral paper 490

The prediction of impact and anomaly criteria for leakage detection from offshore carbon storage sites through a comprehensive coupled network of hydrodynamic and biogeochemical models, Marius Dewar, Jerry Blackford et al.; Oral paper 570.

A toolbox to assist in designing marine monitoring programs for offshore storage sites, Jerry Blackford, Guttorm Alendal et al. ACTOM consortium.  Oral paper 579.

Practicing responsible innovation by engaging stakeholders with marine monitoring of storage sites, Dorothy Dankel et al. ACTOM consortium, Poster 553.

Marine Monitoring of Storage Sites, Potential Conflicts in Regulations and Technological Capabilities, Schütz, Omar, Carpentier et al. ACTOM consortium, Poster 546.

ANICA

Efficient CO2 Capture from Lime Production by an Indirectly Heated Carbonate Looping Process, Jochen Ströhle, Session 4G - Calcium Looping Tuesday, Mar 16, 2021

DigiMon

Digital monitoring of CO2 storage projects (DigiMon), Arvid Nøttvedt, Kirsti Midttømme,  Marie B. Holstad, Anna Stork, Martha Lien, Hanneke Puts

Modelling the DAS response for offshore CO2 storage sites, Vincent Vandeweijer, Bob Paap, Arie Verdel, Rob Mellors, Alan F. Baird, Anna L. Stork, Antony Butcher

NEWEST-CCUS

An initial assessment of the value of Allam Cycle power plants with liquid oxygen storage in future GB electricity system, Charlotte Mitchell, Vitali Avagyan, Hannah Chalmers, Mathieu Lucquiaud. Link to abstract.

Selective Exhaust Gas Recycling in Gas Turbines with CO2 capture: A comprehensive technology assessment, Mathieu Lucquiaud; Session 7D, Wednesday Mar 17, 2021

Negative Emissions in the Waste-to-Energy Sector: A Wasted Opportunity so far?, Mathieu Lucquiaud, Session 7B, Wednesday Mar 17, 2021

PrISMa

Process-informed design of tailor-made sorbent materials for energy efficient carbon capture (PrISMa)

Susana Garcia(a)*, Berend Smit(b), Jeffrey A. Reimer(c,d), Rahul Anantharaman(e)

a) Research Center for Carbon Solutions (RCCS), School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh,UK

b) Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

c) Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

d) Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

e) SINTEF Energy Research, Sem Sælandsvei 11, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway

Advanced methodology for screening of novel adsorption materials for cost-efficient CO2 capture

Charithea Charalambous(a)*, Luca Riboldi(b)*, Enrique García-Díez(a,c), Viktoriia Kulakova(a), John Young(a), Eva Sanchez-Fernandez(d), Elias Moubarak(c), Sauradeep Majumdar(c), Kadioglu Özge Kadioglu(c), F. Pelin Kinik(c), Christopher P. Ireland(c), Jabir Ali Ouassou(b), Simon Roussanaly(b), Chao Fu(b), Rahul Anantharaman(b), Mijndert van der Spek(a), Berend Smit(c), Susana Garcia(a)

a) Research Center for Carbon Solutions (RCCS), School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh,UK

b) SINTEF Energy Research, Sem Sælandsvei 11, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway

c) Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

d) Process Monkey, EH42 1TL, Dunbar, UK

Investigating H2O and CO2 co-adsorption on amine-functionalised solid sorbents for direct air capture

Poster presentation

REX-CO2

A Probabilistic Well Integrity Analysis Workflow for Leakage Risk Assessment and Re-use Selection, Bogdan Orlic, Al Moghadam, Logan Brunner, Marianne van Unen, Mariëlle Koenen, Kaj van der Valk, Jens Wollenweber

A screening tool for assessing feasibility of reusing existing oil and gas wells for CCUS operations, Rajesh Pawar, Logan Brunner, Laurent Cangémi, Bailian Chen, Alexandra-Constanta Dudu, Vivien Esnault, Erica Greenhalgh, Dylan Harp, Nils Opedal, Kaj van der Valk, John Williams

SENSE

How monitoring mm-scale ground surface can help safe storage of CO2? Bahman Bohloli

Authors: Bohloli B., Bateson L., Berndt C., Bjørnarå T.I., Eiken O., Estublier A., Frauenfelder R., Karstens J., Orio R.M., Meckel T., Mondol N.H., Park J., Soroush A., Soulat A., Sparrevik P., Vincent C., Vöge M., Waarum I.K., White J., Xue Z., Zarifi Z., Gutiérrez I.Á., Vidal J.A.M.

Presentation: Oral

SUCCEED

A CO2 storage and utilisation project aimed at mitigating against greenhouse gas emissions from geothermal power production

Poster presentation by Şevket Durucan, Anna Korre, Mahmut Parlaktuna, Erdinç Şentürk, Karl-Heinz Wolf, Athena Chalari, Richard de Kunder, Bergur Sigfússon, Flavio Poletto

ACT1 projects

DETECT

Modelling of long-term along-fault flow of CO2 from a natural reservoir ,

Jeroen Snippe(a)*, Niko Kampman(a), Kevin Bisdom(a), Tim Tambach(a), Rafael March(b), Tomos Phillips(b), Nathaniel Forbes Inskip(b), Florian Doster(b), Andreas Busch(b)

a) Shell Global Solutions International B.V., Grasweg 31, 1031 HW Amsterdam, The Netherlands

b) Institute of GeoEnergy Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, The Lyell Centre, Edinburgh, UK

ECOBASE

CO2EOR as a pathway to create a CCS infrastructure, Berenblyum, R.; Nermoen, A.; L. Kollbotn; Khrulenko, A.

CO2-EOR business opportunities in Romania and Turkey, Bos, C.; Dudu, A.; Synauc, C.; Nermoen, A. (poster)

GASTECH

Operating experience of a 50-kW scale pressurized Gas Switching Combustion cluster for power production with integrated CO2 capture

Combined Syngas and Hydrogen Production using Gas Switching Technology

3DCAPS

3D-Printing of Adsorbents for Increased Productivity in Carbon Capture Applications (3D-CAPS), by TNO, SINTEF and UBB.

PreACT

Impact potential of hypersaline brines released into the marine environment as part of reservoir pressure management, Blackford J., Dewar M., Espie T., Wilford S., and Bouffin N.

Pressure control and conformance management for safe and efficient CO2 storage – lessons learned in the Pre-ACT project, Eliasson P., Cerasi P, Romdhane A., White J.C., Schmidt-Hattenberger C., Carpentier S., Grimstad A.-A., Lothe A.E.

How to evaluate and quantify safe CO2 storage? Workflow demonstration on the Smeaheia area, offshore Norway, Lothe A.E., Bergmo P.E.S, Emmel B.U., Grimstad A.-A., and Eliasson P.

Quantitative decision analysis for CO2 storage conformance management: A synthetic case study at Smeaheia, North Sea, Romdhane A., Barros E., Bergmo P.E.S., Leeuwenburgh O., and Grimstad A.-A. (poster)

Pre-injection Site Investigations in a Poro-elastic Description of the Svelvik Ridge, Weinzierl W., Barros E., Grimstad A., Wiese B., Leeuwenburgh O., and Schmidt-Hattenberger C.  (poster)

ELEGANCY

Adsorption in the context of clean hydrogen production: process intensification by integrating H2 purification and CO2 capture, A. Streb

Tools and options for hydrogen and CCS cluster development and acceleration – UK case study, ELEGANCY project, M. Akhurst

Modelling of CO2 and H2O interaction during adsorption cycles on hydrotalcite for SEWGS applications, F. Sebastiani et al

Need for carbon removal technologies to meet stringent climate targets in Switzerland – an energy system model based analysis, C. Bauer

Hydrogen production from natural gas and biomethane with carbon capture and storage – a techno-environmental analysis, C. Bauer

Hydrogen production with CCS to accelerate the decarbonization of the European power, industrial and transport sector - Key findings from the ACT ELEGANCY project's national case studies, S. Roussanaly et al

ALIGN

Process integration of advanced amine-based solvents in power and industrial plants: A new benchmark for post-combustion carbon capture, by Heriot Watt University, SINTEF, and TNO

Analysis of flexible operation of CO2 capture plants: Predicting solvent emissions from conventional and advanced amine systems, by Heriot Watt University, RWE and TNO

ALIGN-CCUS: Results of the ERA-ACT project on the full CCUS chain to accelerate implementation of decarbonisation in industrial areas, by TNO, SINTEF, BGS, RWE, and LU

Impact of Dissolved Oxygen Removal on Solvent Degradation for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture, by TNO, NTNU, and SINTEF

Aerosol Growth in a Post Combustion CO2 Capture Absorber Using the 2-Amino-2-Methyl-1-Propanol/Piperazine (CESAR 1) Solvent, by NTNU and SINTEF

First Process Results and Operational Experience with CESAR1 Solvent at TCM with High Capture Rates (ALIGN-CCUS Project), by TCM

Atmospheric emissions of amino-methyl-propanol, piperazine and their degradation products during the 2019-20 ALIGN-CCUS campaign at the Technology Centre Mongstad, by TCM

CO2 Capture and work environmental sampling lessons learned, by TCM

Best practices for the measurement of 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol, piperazine and their degradation products in amine plant emissions, Poster by TCM

Communicating site technical, permitting and planning readiness for CO2 storage operations using the ALIGN-CCUS framework of storage readiness levels, Maxine Akhurst, Karen Kirk, Filip Neele, Alv-Arne Grimstad, Michelle Bentham, Per Bergmo 

CO2 pipeline transport and storage network cost modelling and muulti-period multi-scenario stochastic optimization, Zhenggang Nie, Anna Korre, Sevket Durucan, Denis Fraga, Tom Mikunda, Filip Neele

ALIGN-CCUS: Results of the 18-month test with aqueous AMP/PZ solvent at the pilot plant at Niederaussem – solvent management, emissions and dynamic behavior, by RWE, TNO, and HWU

ALIGN-CCUS: Production of dimethyl ether from CO2 and its use as an energy carrier - Results from the CCU demonstration plant, by RWE, MHPSE, AKEU, FZ Jülich, RWTH, FEV, and TNO

Life Cycle Assessment for full chain CCU demonstration in the ALIGN-CCUS project –dimethyl ether and polyoxymethylen dimethyl ethers production from CO2 and its usages in the mobility and electricity sectors, by FZ Jülich and RWE

Design of a multi-user intermediate storage facility, by SINTEF

Multi-period cost optimisation of multi-mode carbon capture and storage chains, by ICL

News from the 1st stage of the ACT3 Call

91 pre-proposals were received for the ACT3 call, which closed on 10 November 2020. Read more here

Final meeting for the GaSTech project

The GasTech project will have it’s final meeting 16 December 15:00 - 17:00 CET. Please contact the Project Leader, Shahriar Armini, if you are interested in participating at the meeting.

The GaSTech project have accelerated the development of gas switching technologies by developing a business case for further technology scale-up. Read more about the project here.

ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 2020

The ACT consortium organized the 5th ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop as a virtual meeting 16‑17 November 2020. The aim was to ensure fruitful knowledge sharing and increased collaboration between the ACT funded projects and other CCUS initiatives.

The workshop highlighted ongoing projects from the second ACT call. All presentations are available here.

Accelerating CO2 storage

Projects in the first ACT funding round came together in this event to share their outputs and learning on progressing the development of CO2 storage in the project partner regions. The focus of all the projects is not just to ensure that the capacity is there to enable industrial economies to decarbonise, Gt of storage, but that this storage is safe and secure.

Four ACT projects, ALIGN-CCUS, ELEGANCY, DETECT, and PreACT presented their findings at a webinar 26 November 2020. Read more here.

Huge interest for the ACT3 call – New record – 91 pre-proposals

ACT expanded its consortium in 2020 with funding agencies from Canada/Alberta, Denmark, Italy, India and the Nordic countries of Europe. Interest for ACT’s 3rd call is high with ninety-one pre-proposals submitted. Read more here

DigiMon online workshop, November 5-6, 2020

The ACT2 project “Digimon” is organizing an online workshop to present the project’s advances. The first day is open to all, whereas the second day is for the DIGIMON partners and ACT partners involved. Please find the Agenda here.

DETECT Final Virtual Dissemination Event, 1 December 2020, 13:00 to 16:15 (CET)

The webinar will provide an overview of the work and results achieved in the last 3 years. The format will include presentations followed by a moderated discussion session where written questions submitted by the audience will be answered. Read more here. Please register via this link. Joining instructions will be shared after registration.

Welcome to the ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop 16-17 November 2020

The ACT consortium will organise the 5th annual ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop as a virtual meeting 16-17 November 2020. The aim is to ensure fruitful knowledge sharing and increase collaboration between the ACT funded projects and other CCUS initiatives. 

The workshop will highlight ongoing projects from the second ACT call. Projects from the first ACT call will finalise by the end of 2020 and key messages will be highlighted at a separate workshop early 2021.  

You can sign up for the workshop by entering your contact details at this registration form.

The program is listed below and is also available from this bruchure togehter with details about all ACT funded projects.

Programme ACT Knowledge Sharing Workshop

16 November - CO2 Storage

Chair: Gunter Siddiqi, DETEC 

Introduction 

14.00 - Welcome, Ragnhild Rønneberg, ACT Coordinator 

14.05 - Impact and added value of ACT, Vassilios Kougionas, the European Commission 

CO2 Storage session 

14.15 - SENSE – Ground surface monitoring techniques to ensure storage integrity, Bahman Bohloli, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute 

14.30 - DigiMon – New technologies for cost effective monitoring of CO2 storage sites, Arvid Nøttvedt, NORCE 

14.45 - ACTOM – Offshore CO2 storage monitoring based on advanced mathematic, Guttorm Alendal, University of Bergen 

15.00 - REX-CO2 – Re-using Existing wells for CO2 storage, Jan Hopman, TNO 

15.15 - Break

15.25 - SUCCEED - Synergetic Utilisation of CO2 storage Coupled with geothermal Energy Deployment, Sevket Durucan - Imperial College London 

Interactive session 

15.40 - Interactive session. The ACT project leaders will answer questions from the audience 

Discussion chaired by Mark Ackiewicz, US Department of Energy 

Closing session 

16.10 - Wrap up and key messages by meeting chair Gunter Siddiqi, DETEC 

17 November - CO2 Capture and utilisation

Chair: Gerdi Breembroek, RVO 

Introduction 

14.00 - Welcome, Ragnhild Rønneberg, ACT Coordinator 

14.05 - Keynote presentation - Large-scale CO2 capture from the AVR waste-to-energy plant in Duiven, the Netherlands, Hans Wassenaar, AVR 

CO2 Capture and utlisation session 

14.15 - AC2OCEM – Oxyfuel technologies for CO2 capture at cement plants, Jörg Maier, Universität Stuttgart 

14.30 - ANICA – Carbonate looping technologies for CO2 capture at lime and cement plants, Jochen Ströhle, Technische Universität Darmstadt 

14.45 - NEWEST-CCUS – Waste handling plants with no CO2 emissions, Romain Viguier, Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage (SCCS) 

15.00 - FUNMIN – Mineralisation of CO2 to create valuable products, Devis Di Tommaso, University of London 

15.15 - Break 

15.25 - LAUNCH – More effective amines for CO2 capture, Peter van Os - TNO 

15.40 - MemCCSea – Towards a carbon neutral ship, Georgios Skevis, CPERI/CERTH 

15.55 - PRISMA – Molecular science to design new CO2 capture solutions, Susana Garcia, Heriot-Watt University 

Interactive session 

16.10 - Interactive session. The ACT project leaders will answer questions from the audience 

Discussion chaired by Mark Ackiewicz, US Department of Energy 

Closing session 

16.40 - Wrap up and key messages by meeting chair Gerdi Breembroek, RVO 

Webinar series, COOLING THE EARTH SUMMER SCHOOL II: FOCUS ON BIO-CCU, 29/9 - 1/10/2020

The Laboratory of Steam Boilers and Thermal Plants-School of Mech. Eng. NTUA , in the context of BIOCON-CO2 research project, is happy to announce that the postponed "COOLING THE EARTH SUMMER SCHOOL II: FOCUS ON BIO-CCU" summer school on CO2 capture and valorisation technologies will be hosted online between 29/9 - 1/10/2020 due to measures to tackle COVID-19 spread. Read more here

Webinar to present the ACT3 Call

The ACT3 call is now open for applications and a webinar presenting the call was arranged 26 August 2020.

The ACT3 call was presented by Aage Stangeland from the ACT Call Secretariat and the focus of the presentation was on how to build a consortium and how to submit an application to the ACT3 call.

A recording of the webinar is available here.

The slides presented at the webinar can be downloaded from this link.

A full description of the call is available from here.

Please keep in mind that the due date for submitting pre-proposals is 10 November 2020 at 13:00 CET (Central European Time)

The ACT Consortium welcomes Italy as partner and contributor to the ACT3 Call

Italy, represented by the Ministry of Universities and Research (MIUR), has recently joined the ACT Consortium and will be contributing with 600,000€ to the third ACT call. Read more here. Please find the revised call text here

Webinars about the ACT3 Call

The ACT3 call is now open for applications. There will be several webinars with information about the call:

Webinar 26 August 15:00 CEST about the ACT3 Call

The webinar will be arranged by the ACT coordinator as a Teams meeting. The webinar will include a 20 minutes presentation of the ACT3 Call followed by a Q&A session. The webinar will be recorded and published at the ACT website.

You can register for the webinar by sending a short email to the organiser, Aage Stangeland at ast@rcn.no

The webinar will mainly be a repetition of a previous webinar available from this link.

Webinar 28 August targeting applicants from India

A separate webinar targeting Indian applicants will be set up 28 August at 14.30-15.30 IST. More information is available from this link.

Webinar 31 August targeting applicants from the Nordic countries

This webinar is arranged by the Nordic Energy Research (NER) and is targeting applicants from the Nordic countries that are interested in learning more about NER's role in the ACT3 call. Read more and sign up here.

The ACT consortium welcomes India as partner and contributor to ACT3 Call

The ACT consortium welcomes India as partner and contributor to the ACT third call (ACT3). The Department of Science & Technology (on behalf of Indian Federal Ministry of Science & Technology) will make available funds of approx. 1,0 M€ to the ACT3 Call. Read more here. Please find the revised call text here

Webinar about the ACT3 call - 31 August 2020, 14.00-15.30 CEST

On the 31st of August an online seminar is organized by Nordic Energy Research to help all interested applicants to the ACT-CCS 2020 call to learn more about the programme itself and the Nordic Energy Research’s call. Read more here and register in advance here

Webinar on ACT3 Call, 5 June 2020, 10:00 CEST

The webinar, hosted by PNO and organized in collaboration with the Research Council of Norway (RCN), provides an overview of the ACT3 Call 2020. A recording of the webinar is available at the PNO web site, see this link. The slides presented by RCN are available in this link.

New ACT3 Call out now!

Following the successful ACT1 and ACT2 calls in 2016 and 2018 respectively, which resulted in twenty research projects being funded, the New ACT Call invites transnational research proposals that address the technological, environmental, social and economic challenges required to accelerate CCUS.

The intention is that new projects funded through the new ACT Call will make a significant contribution to establish CCUS as an international climate change mitigation tool.

The ACT community has welcomed new members since its first call. The following countries and regions participate in the new ACT Call: the Canadian province of Alberta, Europe’s Nordic Countries via Nordic Energy Research, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA.

Read more about the new ACT Call here.

Download the full Call Text for the new ACT Call.