Major funding to help cut CO2 emissions

PA 126/09 The University of Nottingham is to share in £6.9m of research funding to investigate carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies which could drastically cut CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel power stations. The funding from E.ON and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is to support four university-led projects. CCS is a process that allows carbon dioxide to be captured from power stations and then stored underground to prevent it from entering the Earth's atmosphere. It's a technology that is advancing all the time and could well make fossil-fuelled generation a true low-carbon source of energy. Project teams led by the universities of Nottingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Leeds will investigate combustion and CO2 capture and transport technologies that could help make a crucial step towards meeting UK and global emission reduction targets. Dr Trevor Drage from the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at The University of Nottingham will lead a £1.6m research project involving a consortium of four universities to look at how the surfaces of materials can be chemically altered to enhance CO2 absorption or 'soak up' rates. This may be an alternative to chemical absorption using amines in post-combustion capture systems.