Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is broadly recognised as having the potential to play a key role in meeting climate change targets, delivering low carbon heat and power, decarbonising industry and, more recently, its ability to facilitate the net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, despite this broad consensus and its technical maturity, CCS has not yet been deployed on a scale commensurate with the ambitions articulated a decade ago. Thus, in this paper we review the current state-of-the-art of CO2 capture, transport, utilisation and storage from a multi-scale perspective, moving from the global to molecular scales. In light of the COP21 commitments to limit warming to less than 2 °C, we extend the remit of this study to include the key negative emissions technologies (NETs) of bioenergy with CCS (BECCS), and direct air capture (DAC). Cognisant of the non-technical barriers to deploying CCS, we reflect on recent experience from the UK's CCS commercialisation programme and consider the commercial and political barriers to the large-scale deployment of CCS. In all areas, we focus on identifying and clearly articulating the key research challenges that could usefully be addressed in the coming decade.

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS): the way forward

Recent advances on membranes and membrane reactors for hydrogen production

Hydrogen production with CO2 capture

Electrochemical cells and systems play a key role in a wide range of industry sectors. These devices are critical enabling technologies for renewable energy; energy management, conservation, and storage; pollution control/monitoring; and greenhouse gas reduction. A large number of electrochemical energy technologies have been developed in the past. These systems continue to be optimized in terms of cost, life time, and performance, leading to their continued expansion into existing and emerging market sectors. The more established technologies such as deep-cycle batteries and sensors are being joined by emerging technologies such as fuel cells, large format lithium-ion batteries, electrochemical reactors; ion transport membranes and supercapacitors. This growing demand (multi billion dollars) for electrochemical energy systems along with the increasing maturity of a number of technologies is having a significant effect on the global research and development effort which is increasing in both in size and depth. A number of new technologies, which will have substantial impact on the environment and the way we produce and utilize energy, are under development. This paper presents an overview of several emerging electrochemical energy technologies along with a discussion some of the key technical challenges.

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Emerging electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies.

Gas separation is one of the most critical and challenging steps for industrial processes, and metal–organic framework (MOF) membranes are potential candidates for this application. This review mainly focuses on the recent advances in improving the performance of MOF membranes, involving the issues faced with MOF designation and growth for practical applications. First, we discussed three strategies for permeability and selectivity enhancement of MOF membranes, in terms of obtaining ultra-thin two-dimensional (2D) MOF nanosheets, fine-tuning the pore size of the MOF framework and integrating with other species. Second, we reviewed the recent potential resolutions to the problems of MOF membranes for future practical applications including scale-up preparation and stability improvement. Finally, we summarized our work by providing some general conclusions on the state-of-the-art and an outlook on some development directions of molecule-sieving membranes.

P. Corengia

Papers

Recent advances on membranes and membrane reactors for hydrogen production

Preparation, testing and modelling of a hydrogen selective Pd/YSZ/SS composite membrane