Seminar: "Growing an energy source and storing its waste"

Past Event

Date
 06 February 2012, 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Location
 Lecture Theatre, Oxford Martin School
34 Broad Street (corner of Holywell and Catte Streets), Oxford, OX1 3BD

This seminar is hosted by the Oxford Geoengineering Programme

Summary: Many governments and energy providers are turning to biomass as a renewable energy source. Biomass is biological material from living, or recently living organisms that can be used directly or converted into other energy products such as biofuel. BECCS (Biomass Energy and Carbon Capture and Storage) is an emerging technology that has been proposed to achieve negative carbon emissions. The idea is that we can burn biomass to generate electricity and then store away the resulting emissions - that is, capture the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground, rather than releasing it back into the air. However, many argue that much further research is needed to road-test the sustainability credentials of the technology as it scales. What kind of research has been conducted so far, and what are the practical, social and ethical issues associated with this technique?

Speakers:

  • Henrik Karlsson, Chief Executive Officer, Biorecro AB
  • Dr Jan Ole Kiso, Policy Analyst, Department of Energy and Climate Change
  • Professor Tim Lenton, Chair in Climate Change/Earth Systems Science, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Exeter University
  • Professor Nilay Shah, Professor of Process Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London

The presentations will be followed by a question and answer session to all the panel members.

Anyone unable to attend the seminars in person is encouraged to participate virtually via WebEx from anywhere in the world. At the time of the event simply visit http://oxgeoeng.webex.com, click on the event you would like to join, and use the password "martinschool" to join the event live. Participants will be able to view presentation slides, hear the panel discussions, and see the presenters themselves through the WebEx interface. Participants are also encouraged to ask questions of the presenters through the WebEx dialogue box. These questions will be monitored by OGP staff and may be posed to presenters during the event itself. No pre-registration or downloads are required, only access to the internet.