We started our morning by visiting the Department of Chem
ical Engineering at NTNU. Hanna Knuutila, a researcher in the department, spoke to us about the issues surrounding global climate change and explained her research on carbon capture technology. Her introduction really helped put things into perspective in terms of why global climate change is a problem and why not much progress has been made in hindering it. She explained that there are two main reasons: when the effects take place and who they effect. In an analogy to smoking, she showed us data on both number of smokers and instances of lung cancer. The number of smokers peaked in 1950, but the number of people with lung cancer didn’t reach its peak until about 30 years later. The same is true with burning fossil fuels. Drastic consequences haven’t shown up much yet, but in time they will and it will be too late to reverse them. The next reason is quite eye-opening. She showed us a map of greenhouse gas emissions and followed it with a map of predicted severity of climate change effects. The high points on each map were nearly opposite, meaning that the part of the world that emits the most will be influenced the least.
I felt that this introduction was a great way to show why her research is important. Clearly the major emitters, such as Europe, China, and the United States, have very little incentive to make huge changes since it probably won’t affect them much. But Carbon Capture and Storage is a method that allows people to continue their current lifestyle that is powered mainly by fossil fuels without polluting the atmosphere. Her research is mainly focused on post-combustion carbon dioxide separation and capture. She explained the process to us in detail, and made clear that the goals of the research were to devise a process that uses as little energy as possible and uses safe and efficient chemicals.
Next we heard from Ingrid Hauser of the Department of Biotechnology. Her research involved using biological processes to improve the efficiency of carbon capture and storage. A problem with CCS is the amines used eventually cannot be reused in the process and become a waste product. She explained how she can separate and reclaim usable amines from its degradation process, thus making the CCS system more efficient.
We finished our visit by taking a look into Hanna Knuutila’s lab. She showed us how she conducted her research and gave us a look into what goes on before the technology reaches a pilot plant scale and eventually an industrial scale. With all of this new information we were able to better understand and visualize the process and challenges of carbon capture.