CRL Energy hosts British energy experts

15 April 2009

On 3 February, CRL Energy hosted a delegation of British clean and renewable energy experts at its Lower Hutt facility. The delegation was part of a ‘UK to NZ Energy Mission’ sponsored by the British High Commission and was in Lower Hutt as part of a business roundtable, which included GNS Science and IRL, to discuss carbon, capture and storage (CCS) projects in both countries, and to examine opportunities for collaborative research and investments in CCS R&D, and the sale and purchase of existing IP or products.

Delegates included Dr Steve Bouzalakos, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Innovation in Carbon Capture and Storage (CICCS), University of Nottingham. His research is focused on geological storage and mineral carbonation processes for CO2 sequestration. Dr Bouzalakos says he is interested in expanding the international collaboration and network of CICCS and developing innovative research projects on carbon capture and storage. He sees several New Zealand research providers as suitable candidates for that aim.

Phillip Cozens, Head of Technology Development, Progressive Energy Ltd, delivered a presentation on the Eston Grange integrated gasifier combined cycle gas turbine (IGCC) and CCS project at Teeside.

The project comprises high pressure gasification of coal followed by synthesis gas shift to recover carbon dioxide before combustion, combustion of hydrogen in a combined cycle power plant, and pumping, transport and storage of carbon dioxide in a saline aquifer beneath the North Sea, where there is the potential also to use the carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. With the knowledge acquired in developing this project over ten years, Mr Cozens says his objectives on the trip to New Zealand include promoting the merits of this type of low carbon energy concept and examining the potential for technical co-operation for deploying this concept in New Zealand, especially given the focus in New Zealand’s energy strategy for hydrogen use.

The delegation also toured GNS Science and IRL while in Lower Hutt.

Grid problems global

Dr Donald Hepburn, a UK electricity infrastructure expert from Glasgow University, says power systems all over the world are in a similar state to New Zealand’s. Most countries power grids were set up around the same time, in the 1950s and 60s. He says Britain’s power infrastructure is 40 years old and it could take up to 110 years to update it. Dr Hepburn says blackouts like the ones in Auckland recently also occur in London.