"Clean Coal" - Carbon Capture and Storage

Left to right: Colin Snape, Sujatha Raman

This lecture took place on 4th July 2007 at the Arts Centre, University of Nottingham. The speakers were:

Prof Colin E Snape

Director of Energy Technologies Research Institute, School of Chemical, Environmental and Mining Engineering (SChEME), University of Nottingham.

Dr Sujatha Raman

Lecturer in Science and Technology Studies, Institute for Science and Society, University of Nottingham.

Chair - Bettina Lange

Transport 2000

The event was organised by Health in Your Environment with the support of Climate Action Network Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Council and Greater Nottingham Health and Environment Partnership.

One approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to modify the processes by which fossil fuels are burned so that CO2 can be separated out, compressed and transported to a storage location by pipeline or ship and injected into geological formations deep underground. But how reliable are the technologies for carbon capture and storage? Are they safe? How advanced are the technologies and can they be brought into effect quickly enough? How much will they cost - in energy and money? What are the wider implications of this technology for action on climate change? Professor Colin Snape spoke on the technical and economic issues, drawing on his work in this field. Dr Sujatha Raman presented a sociologist’s perspective, looking at public perceptions and policy approaches.

AUDIO CLIPS

You can listen to the speakers being interviewed by our reporter Catherine Adams.

• Colin Snape (06:39, 3.0MB mp3)
• Sujatha Raman (08:22, 3.8MB mp3)

Here are the speakers' presentations.

• Colin Snape's talk (31:45, 15.0MB mp3).
• Sujatha Raman's talk (27:06, 13.0MB mp3).

Audience questions (taken in groups of three):

• 1 - Retrofitting Ratcliffe power station; CCS' contribution to carbon reduction targets; value of CCS if coal is going to run out anyway (09:22, 4.4MB mp3)
• 2 - Form CO2 has to take for CCS; global capacity for storage; energy required to do CCS (08:15, 3.9MB mp3)
• 3 - Some fields of science seen as more controversial than others; public concern about CCS; whether government should put resources into sustainable sources of energy instead (06:33, 3.1MB mp3)
• 4 - Type of carbon captured, and how much of fossil fuel becomes CO2; ethical and legal side of CCS; risk of doing nothing (06:19, 3.0MB mp3)

RESOURCES

Presentations

Colin Snape's presentation (3.3MB pdf)

Sujatha Raman's presentation (0.8MB pdf)

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