Abstract
Over the past decade there has been a tremendous research activity in the field of CO2 capture. In 2010, the European Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants (ZEP) published a report entitled "Recommendations for research to support the deployment of CCS in Europe beyond 2020". The report covers research on CO2 capture, transport and storage and was written in a European context where the goal was to make a first generation of CCS technologies commercially viable by 2020, whilst recognizing that more R&D must be initiated immediately to enable rapid and wide deployment of CCS post-2020.
In the report, based on a structure established previously in the ZEP, the three capture routes were divided into technology blocks. For each technology block, where dedicated research is required to enable improvements in CO2 capture, a list of R&D topics was defined by ZEP experts. For each R&D topic, the estimated maturity in three time periods (up till 2020, 2020-2030, beyond 2030) was given according to a three-grade scale: Red/not validated; Yellow/partly validated and Green/fully validated. Altogether the report gave a comprehensive overview of topics relevant for R&D within CO2 capture.
Since 2010, R&D continues within CO2 capture but the prospects for commercial deployment of CCS by 2020 have changed, and it has been more important to do a prioritization of what R&D to pursue. Still, knowledge is continuously generated through R&D and perceptions are formed that some technologies may be better than others. A revision was initiated on the report "Recommendations for research to support the deployment of CCS in Europe beyond 2020" in May 2012, and as part of this revision, a methodology has been developed by the authors for structuring knowledge and perceptions within the field of CO2 capture and formulate recommendations for research prioritizations.
The ultimate goal for any R&D within CO2 capture must be that the technology is applied, i.e. that a power producer makes an investment decision and builds a power plant that applies the technology, therefore the methodology consists in the following steps:
1. Define investment decision parameters
2. Assign a weighting factor to each investment decision parameter according to its relative importance
3. Request input
4. Aggregate the results and analyze the data
Based on the analysis under item 4, it was possible to formulate recommendations for the directions of continued research on CO2 capture.
In the report, based on a structure established previously in the ZEP, the three capture routes were divided into technology blocks. For each technology block, where dedicated research is required to enable improvements in CO2 capture, a list of R&D topics was defined by ZEP experts. For each R&D topic, the estimated maturity in three time periods (up till 2020, 2020-2030, beyond 2030) was given according to a three-grade scale: Red/not validated; Yellow/partly validated and Green/fully validated. Altogether the report gave a comprehensive overview of topics relevant for R&D within CO2 capture.
Since 2010, R&D continues within CO2 capture but the prospects for commercial deployment of CCS by 2020 have changed, and it has been more important to do a prioritization of what R&D to pursue. Still, knowledge is continuously generated through R&D and perceptions are formed that some technologies may be better than others. A revision was initiated on the report "Recommendations for research to support the deployment of CCS in Europe beyond 2020" in May 2012, and as part of this revision, a methodology has been developed by the authors for structuring knowledge and perceptions within the field of CO2 capture and formulate recommendations for research prioritizations.
The ultimate goal for any R&D within CO2 capture must be that the technology is applied, i.e. that a power producer makes an investment decision and builds a power plant that applies the technology, therefore the methodology consists in the following steps:
1. Define investment decision parameters
2. Assign a weighting factor to each investment decision parameter according to its relative importance
3. Request input
4. Aggregate the results and analyze the data
Based on the analysis under item 4, it was possible to formulate recommendations for the directions of continued research on CO2 capture.
