The Columbia Climate Centerconvened a workshop, “Carbon Management Education and Practice” at Columbia University on November 3-4, 2011. Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder and Director joined over 30 participants from academia, NGOs, the private sector and government to discuss the emergence and contours of carbon management as a new educational and professional field. She provided a briefing on the RECS program and its unique approach to building a diverse CCUS workforce and supporting young scientists, engineers and professionals to help keep the U.S. on the leading edge of CCUS innovation. Dr. Klaus Lackner and Dr. Juerg Matter, RECS faculty from Columbia University also participated in the event. Other presentations provided insight into the challenges of managing carbon and the role of education to address these challenges. Participants agreed on the need for a workforce trained at the intersection of economics, finance, natural science, engineering and governance with an understanding of the complexity of the relationships between these elements. A full summary of the workshop will be posted here followed by a white paper by the Columbia Climate Center to further explore the topic of education for carbon management.
RECS Alumni from Tsinghua University Host CO2 Lab Tour and Lunch
Shu Luo (RECS 2010), a Ph.D. candidate in Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing and his advisor Dr. Ruina Xu (RECS 2008) gave Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder and Director a lab tour and hosted lunch. Dr. Xu is a leading CCUS researcher in China and is heading an investigation into “Fundamental Study of Migration of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide in Porous Media Under Conditions of Saline Aquifers.” The project includes experimental, computational and theoretical studies to improve fundamental understanding of CO2/brine two-phase flow in porous media.At Tsinghua University’s supercritical CO2 test facility, Shu Luo is conducting experiments on trapping mechanisms for CO2 storage using custom-built MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) with high pressure and temperature. Supercritical CO2 and water are injected into the sintered glass porous media structure by different mixture ratios, which is designed with a fissure defect. Visualization and analysis results simultaneously demonstrate that supercritical CO2 saturation and distribution vary with different ratios. Part of this project is a collaboration with Geoscience Australia, where Shu Luo was recently a Visiting Researcher working on the integration of numerical simulations of CO2 plumes in saline aquifers.
Gao Cheng, Pamela Tomski, Ruina Xu, Shu Luo and Desiree Petrilli enjoying lunch after a tour of Dr. Xu’sCO2 Lab in the Department of Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University.
RECS Alumni and Faculty Participate in the CSLF Ministerial in Beijing
In September 2011, a number of RECS alumni gathered at the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) in Beijing, China including: Dr. Ruina Xu, Tsinghua University (2008); Shu Luo, Tsinghua University (2010); Dr. Zihan Zhu, CNOOC (2010) and Chris Babel, Leonardo Technologies (2010). Dr. Xu represented China in the CSLF Technical Committee and Chris Babel provided support to the CSLF Secretariat. RECS Faculty participants included: Dr. George Guthrie, U.S. DOE, NETL (Chair, Risk Assessment Task Force); Dr. Stefan Bachu (Chair of the CSLF Projects Interaction and Review Team) and Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder and Director (Stakeholder in the CSLF Task Force on Capacity Building and Financing). Mr. Charles McConnell served as CSLF Policy Group Chair. He is the Chief Operating Officer in the U.S. DOE Office of Fossil Energy, primary sponsor of the RECS program.
U.S. DOE Secretary Chu attended the Ministerial session along with a number of other Energy and Environment Ministers from the organization’s 24 member countries.The Ministers agreed to extend and amend the CSLF Charter to include facilitation and deployment of technologies for utilization of captured CO2, a growing area of focus within the U.S. DOE and RECS program. More information on the CSLF Ministerial meeting maybe be found at the CSLF web site.
While in Beijing, Pamela Tomski also attended the China-USA Fossil Energy Protocol meeting where discussions continued on a range of CCUS issues, including a potential RECS-China program and ways to link RECS with education and training programs in China.
Barbara McKee, Deputy Assistant Secretary and Chuck McConnell, Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy, primary sponsors of the RECS program.
June 14th - RECS 2011 closed with a lovely evening at Bottega restaurant. Stay tuned to this blog for updates on the RECS 2011 group and the 200+ other RECS alumni and faculty that comprise the RECS network and are among the nation’s leaders in advancing CCS solutions.
RECS Founder and Director, Pamela Tomski with Greeshma Gadikota (Columbia University), Hang Deng (Princeton University) and Anjana Meel (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder & Director and Michael Ivie, Southern Company
June 10th - Just six days before the RECS visit, Southern Company put its 25 MW CO2 capture demonstration unit into operation at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry near Mobile, AL. The facility utilizes the KM CDR Process technology, jointly developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kansai Electric Power. Approximately 150,000 tons of CO2 will be captured annually over four years, transported 12 miles via pipeline and injected 9,500 feet below the Citronelle oil field operated by Denbury Resources. The storage component of the project is part of the U.S. DOE’s SECARB regional carbon sequestration partnership. Once fully operational later this summer, Plant Barry will be the world’s largest integrated coal-fired power project with CCS. Southern Company engineer Michael Ivie and his team took the RECS group on a tour of both the CO2 capture facility and Plant Barry. The 25 MW demo is a key step towards commercialization and the opportunity to visit was a real highlight of the RECS program.
Plant Barry CO2 capture demo unit barged to the site. Capture and compressor operations started on June 4th (Photos courtesy of Southern Company)
