Habitues of Random Thoughts will know that I have slightly more than a passing interest in CCS. Well, now I note that the Advanced Power Generation Technology Forum has recently launched what it claims to be a new strategy for CCS development in the UK. I won't claim to have read all 104 pages - I'm not that much of a geek - but I think it's worth pointing any interested reader to the list of some 150 (yes, 150) RD&D recommendations contained within the document.
The major thrust, as one might expect, is to remove uncertanties to make CCS an economically viable process. With this in sight the strategy has as one of its 3 time-specific goals to have 30 C-capture projects across a wide variety of industryial sectors by 2020. This seems to me to be fantastically ambitious considering that we are only just at the FEED stage of the two government-sponsored projects at White Rose and Peterhead. But I guess ambition is a good thing. At least this goal is specific. The other 2 talk in terms of CCS being "routinely used" to different degrees in 2030 and 2050. Hogwash.
To my mind the big issue with CCS is managing the expectations and interfaces between different industrial players across what is always going to be a complicated process chain. This becomes even more complicated if the chain is extended (as I think is very likely) to routinely incorporate EOR. Different players have different appetites for risk, and varying understanding of the risks inherent in other parts of the chain. Apportioning the cross-chain risks will always be one major headache.
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