UKCCSRC Strengthens International Links

From 24 May to 3 June, Jon Gibbins, Director UKCCSRC combined an invited conference attendance in Shanghai and a trip to MOU partner CO2CRC in Melbourne.

The pre-arranged visit to Australia coincided with the decision by the Australian Government to broaden the Clean Energy Finance Corporation mandate to allow funding for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) research, a policy change that has been welcomed by CCS institutes, globally.  Jon Gibbins commented, "It turned out to be a very exciting time to visit Australia, with major potential funding for CCS being announced. Obviously everyone in the UK CCS community wishes our Australian colleagues well for this new opportunity”.

After renewing the UKCCSRC’s MOU with the CO2CRC on 3 May 2017, the purpose of Jon's visit was to gain an understanding of the latest work at CO2CRC and discuss possible future collaboration opportunities. Jon was also able to visit AGL's Loy Yang A brown coal power plant in the Latrobe Valley.

In Shanghai, Jon joined Mohamed Pourkashanian, UKCCSRC PACT Director, to attend a symposium on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) in the steel industry. This area is a specialisation of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University CCUS centre, supported by local steel company, Baosteel. The event included a visit to the enormous Baosteel site in Shanghai, where attendees were lucky enough to see a new organic Rankine Cycle unit for low temperature heat recovery at an advanced stage of construction.

Jon Gibbins added, "The UKCCSRC has always worked to forge strong links with other CCS researchers across the world. It is important to collaborate internationally to share the costs and insights of research, and to gain access to facilities that may not be available in the UK. As such, it has been a both a great pleasure and learning experience to visit CCS centres in Australia and China."（UKCCSRC）