Innovation and Research

The science and engineering being studied within QCCSRC to tackle the world's largest environmental concern of global warming is cutting edge and requires ingenuity, adaptability and patience. Approaches being utilised within the programme include:
• Oxygen and carbon stable isotope analysis of carbonate rocks
• Strontium isotope dating of platform facies
• Rock imaging and spatial mineralogy mapping
• Pore-fracture network characterization of carbonate rocks
• Surface/interfacial tension at high temperatures and pressures
• New on-line fluid analysis methods
• High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) cells and flow-loop for fluid thermophysical properties (viscosity, density) at reservoir conditions
• Core-fluid injection cells, linked to imaging techniques, for investigating permeability, relative permeability and alternative fluid injection scenarios

Imperial have been at the cutting edge of carbon capture research for decades. For example, the carbon dioxide Pilot-Plant Laboratory Suite extends over four stories and some 900 m² of Imperial’s Chemical Engineering Department. It houses pilot-scale equipment and bench-top apparatus, used both for our flagship undergraduate programme and for various aspects of process research. The main pilot plant consists of a CO₂ amine solvent capture plant, consisting of a 15m solvent absorption column (where CO₂ is separated from a CO₂-N₂ gas stream using monoethanolamine - MEA), linked to a 15m stripper column which releases the CO₂ and regenerates the MEA solvent.  This was installed in the late 1960s as part of the then state-of-the-art new Chemical Engineering ACE Extension, but has now reached the end of its useful lifetime. Although not directly connected to the QCCSRC an £8.8M major refurbishment the entire pilot plant area is now underway to upgrade the teaching and research equipment installed there.

As part of this refurbishment a major new pilot plant for CO₂-capture is being installed, which will provide our students with direct experience of industrial-scale plant operations and safety in a modern process environment, on a process, carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is central to the continued clean use of fossil fuels, an essential element of meeting the world’s growing energy demands throughout the 21^st Century. The fully-instrumented pilot plant will feature an advanced wireless process control system operated from a purpose-built control room overlooking the plant, forming a key feature of the refurbished Departmental entrance hall. The plant will align closely with key themes such as sustainable energy supply and carbon management in both the undergraduate/MSc courses and the Department’s research activities, and address the aspirations of young students to tackle global challenges through the practice of chemical engineering.  The Suite will also accommodate other items of pilot-scale equipment exemplifying additional modern process operations.