Projects

Completed

Applied Research and Development

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
Caterpillar UK Ltd

Institute Project

ETI

04 May 2010

18 December 2012

31 months

£1,000,000

Technical Consultancy

East of England

Carbon Capture and Storage

Project Contact, Caterpillar UK Ltd

Project Contact, British Geological Survey (BGS) - NERC
Project Contact, University of Nottingham

CCS by mineralisation has been identified as a promising additional method of sequestering CO2 emissions. Minerals and CO2 can react together to permanently store CO2 as a solid carbonate product, which can then be safely stored, used as an aggregate or turned into useful end products such as bricks or filler for concrete. This 1m project, launched in May 2010 carried out a detailed study of the availability and distribution of suitable minerals across the UK along with studying the technologies that could be used to economically capture and store CO2 emissions. The project consortium involved Caterpillar, BGS and the University of Nottingham. The objective was to investigate the potential for CCS Mineralisation to mitigate at least 2% of current UK CO2 emissions and 2% of worldwide emissions over a 100- year period. The project has found that there is an abundance of suitable minerals available in the UK and worldwide to meet these mitigation targets. However, challenges remain to make the capture process economically attractive and to reduce its energy use. Significant niche opportunities exist where waste materials are used as feedstock and/or the process produces value-added products, but markets would not be at the level required to meet the mitigation targets.

16/08/18