Feasibility of geological storage

Researchers from Imperial's Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage have worked with international colleagues to produce a CCS discussion document. The document looks at the feasibilty of geological storage and is a reponse to Economides (SPE 2009, JPSE 2010).

• Read the full paper [pdf]

• Massive capacity for CO2 storage exists in the UK - Guardian article, 4 May 2010

Success for EFL student at poster competition

Chin Kin Ong has been award second prize at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology's annual Postgraduate Symposium. Chin Kin's work focusses on reactor design of photo-electrochemical cells for hydrogen production and characterisation and materials deposition of photo-anode materials, as part of the New and Renewable Routes to Solar Hydrogen project.

His award winning poster "Solar hydrogen via photo-electrolysis of water" is available to view here

Imperial team win BP Ultimate Fieldtrip 2010

Meltdown, a team of 2nd year undergraduates from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, have won the BP Ultimate Field Trip 2010 following the Grand Final held at The Natural History Museum.

Meltdown's submission aims to reduce carbon emissions from a gas-fired power station by utilising photosynthetic single cell micro-organisms (algae, bacteria). The three team members will now complete a 6-8 week paid internship with BP North Sea this summer working on a real business feasibility study.

Meltdown wowed the judging panel of senior BP executives with their innovative approach to answering the overall brief: "What innovative, scientific ideas can your team come up with to address the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from a typical power station using natural gas from the North Sea to generate electricity?".

Meltdown's concept uses a family of bacteria, which when in the presence of light, CO2 and calcium (gypsum) has the ability to produce a variety of components that can be sold to the chemical market, or burnt to produce green electricity. The main product of the process is a solid, calcium carbonate, a common substance found in rocks and the main component of eggshells or seashells, and can therefore be disposed of easily.

First Energy Futures Lab Visiting Professor appointed

The Energy Futures Lab is extremely pleased to announce that Alain Bucaille, Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at Areva has become it's inaugural Visiting Professor.

Prof Bucaille has recently authored a report entitled "A global legal framework to meet the Climate Change Challenges" in which he determines that most of the technologies required for dealing with the climate change challenges already exist, or are likely to exist by 2020. Hence the key issue is the definition of a framework that promotes their rapid implementation, whilst enabling new technology advances to be deployed over time. Further, the report highlights that we cannot expect drastic lifestyle changes to solve the climate challenge. The report concludes that we need to allow innovation to help countries move forward and address the climate change challenge, including the possible voluntary involvement of large companies in this process supported by an innovative framework.

Presentation by Dale Gardner, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA

Dale Gardner, Associate Laboratory Director, Renewable Fuels & Vehicle Systems at National Renewable Energy Laboratory presented his talk "U.S. Alternative Fuels/Vehicles: Federally-Funded R&D Status and Market Implications" to staff and students of Imperial College London on Friday 12th February.

Click here to view his presentation

Energy Futures Lab Annual Lecture 2009

On 8th December the Energy Futures Lab welcomed National Grid's CEO, Steve Holliday to Imperial to address staff, students and invited guests on National Grid's vision for 2050 for the Energy Futures Lab Annual Lecure

Mr Holliday's speech, entitled UK energy future - the road map to 2050, explored where and how National Grid would help the UK to meet it's emissions reduction targets for 2050 and he also highlighted the need for skilled engineers and scientists.

You can view his speech online here

Imperial Racing Green

25 August 2009: Imperial Undergraduate students are currently in third place after the second round of one of the world's greenest motor racing championships, Formula 0. Find out more...

Artificial Leaf in The Guardian Newspaper

The Guardian newspaper ran a full-page article describing our Artificial Leaf Grand Challenge on Wednesday 12 August 2009.

Artificial Leaf aims use sunlight to synthesise chemical fuels using chemical photoelectrodes and natural algal based systems, by mimicking the process of photosynthesis. This programme is also extending to address solar driven CO2 reduction. To read this article, please visit The Guardian website.

To find out more about this and other Grand Challenges, visit the Research page.