New carbon capture and storage projects funded

A total of £368,792 has been awarded to the projects, which all support the UK government’s net zero objectives and will last between 3-9 months. For the first time, early career researchers (ECRs) were eligible to apply, with £100,000 ring-fenced for ECR applicants. Five of the successful proposals are led by ECRs.

Ruqaiyah Patel, joint head of Energy and Decarbonisation at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) said: “Further research into carbon capture and storage will enable us to capture, store and utilise greenhouse emissions from essential processes that cannot be decarbonised and potentially save the UK tens of billions of pounds over the next two decades.”

One of the projects to receive funding from the UKCCSRC is Heriot-Watt University’s ‘Rockit’ project, led by Dr Amir Jahanbakhsh from Heriot-Watt’s School of Engineering & Physical Sciences.

“Rockit is a multidisciplinary project developing a technique to eliminate CO₂ from the atmosphere safely and permanently,” said Dr Jahanbakhsh. “Mineralisation of carbon through the reaction of CO2 with rocks rich in calcium or magnesium converts CO2 into solid rock.