Call for Papers for Carbon Capture Special Issue

INVITATION TO SUBMIT MANUSCRIPTS FOR A SPECIAL ISSUE
Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS): Technological Developments and Future Opportunities for Petroleum Industry

Dear Colleagues,
As you already know, the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial flue gases has become an important issue in the petroleum industry in recent years. For example, the IEA Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project (the world largest CO2 for EOR and CCS program) has been injecting over 2 million of CO2 per year for a coal gasification plant into the Weyburn oil field in Canada for more than 15 years.  In addition, there are a number of demonstration projects in China using CO2 for EOR and CCS applications as well as in many parts of the world.  Recently (November 2015), all major nations including USA, China and Canada have planned to significantly reduce the emission of CO2 in order to slow down the effects of climate change [1, 2].  At the major (and historic) UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris in November 2015, nearly 200 countries around the world have adopted the first global pact to fight climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions [3].

CCUS is an important research area for the petroleum industry for two major reasons.   First, it is an important processing step for most natural gas processing plants, petroleum refineries, and chemical and energy production facilities such as hydrogen production plants, synthesis gas plants, coal-gasification units, and oil-sand operations.  For these industries, the capture of CO2 from their flue gases is important for greenhouse gas reduction. It was reported widely in the media that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere has exceeded 400 ppm in 2013, and the extreme weather conditions we experience are widely attributed to global warming. Secondly, this area of research is important because the captured carbon dioxide can be used directly for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques, which are crucial for sustaining the current production of crude oil, a major energy source for many parts of the world, including China.  The large amount of CO2 being produced by coal-fired power plants needs to be captured and used as a flooding agent for EOR processes as well as a chemical feedstock for producing commodity chemicals such as urea fertilizer.  This function can provide double benefits.  Not only does the commodity chemical of the captured CO2 generate revenue, but using the captured CO2 in EOR processes also reduces the net CO2 released to the atmosphere and helps alleviate the serious environmental problem of GHG emissions at a minimal cost.  Recently, the US Department of Environmental Protection (US-EPA) has pressed ahead with tough requirements to limit carbon pollution from new coal-fired power plants in the USA, according to the Associated Press on September 21, 2013 [3]: “Climate change – caused by carbon pollution – is one of the most significant public health threats of our time”. Despite this urgent warning, only a few carbon capture and storage units have been installed, in part because of its high cost. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the research and development of cost-effective CCUS technologies, especially for the petroleum industry.

Petroleum, one of the pre-eminent international journal publications (managed by KeAi) for research related to the petroleum industry, is pleased to be dedicating a Special Issue to CCUS in order to promote the research, development, and application of CCUS, and also address the potential research challenges. This Special Issue, which will highlight the current status of technology options, will be of great value to engineers, scientists and decision makers working in academia, industry and government. Researchers are invited to submit papers for consideration for publication in this Special Issue.

SCOPE:
The scope of the issue will be original theory and applications of CCUS technologies. Papers may be based on work that is experimental or theoretical, mathematical or descriptive, chemical or physical. In addition to fundamental research papers on process design and development and product research and development, all papers with applications to CCUS are welcome. For details, please see the PETROLEUM website at: http://ees.elsevier.com/petlm/  

TOPICS:
Papers will be accepted based on their relevance to CCUS issues.  Emphasis will be placed on technology rather than policy.  Areas of consideration include the following:

• Recent progress and new development in CO2 capture systems
• Emerging CO2 capture systems
• CO2 Storage Efficiency and Capacity Issues
• CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery
• CO2 for shale gas development and coalbed methane development
• CO2 transport
• Environmental Impacts of CCUS
• CCUS Risk Assessment
• The Economics of CCUS (including CO2 for EOR).
• Future technology for using CO2 in the petroleum industry.
• Bench scale, pilot plant, and industrial sized demonstration projects.  
• Process optimization, integration and cost analysis.
• Intelligent monitoring, planning and control of CCUS processes.
• Other CCUS research areas related to the petroleum industry.

    
Some key researchers in the area of CCUS have been invited (and/or already accepted) to write about their experience and insights in CCUS and related areas:

• Dr. Malcolm Wilson (Member of the IPCC team awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, and Member International Advisory Board, Energy Academy Europe).  He will write about his experience on “The IEAGHG Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage & EOR Project”, which is storing about 2 million ton of CO2 per year.  It is considered the world’s largest CCUS project currently in operation.
• Dr. Zhiwu (Henry) Liang, Executive Director of the Joint International Center for CO2 Capture, Storage and Utilization (iCCS) at Hunan University.  He will write about the recent progress and new developments in CO2 capture research in China.
• Dr. Xiangzeng Wang (Yanchang Petroleum), Dr. Ruimin. Gao (Yanchang Petroleum), Dr. Feng Wang (Jilin Oil Company of PetroChina), Dr. Fanhua Zeng (University of Regina) and Prof. Liehui Zhang (SWPU).  They will be reporting on the recent developments of CCUS in China
• Dr. Raphael Idem (Director of Clean Energy Technology Research Institute (CETRI) will also be reporting on “Recent Experience from Large Pilot and Demonstration Carbon Capture Plants”.
• Dr. Fanhua (Bill) Zeng (Petroleum Systems Engineering, U of Regina) will report on using CO2 for shale gas and coalbed methane developments.
• Dr. Farshid Torabi (Petroleum Systems Engineering, University of Regina) will report on new technologies for CO2-EOR processes.
• Dr. Christine W. Chan (Canada Research Chair Tier I in Energy Informatics) will report on the advances of Artificial Intelligence Applications in the Carbon Capture research area.

    
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS
The deadline for manuscript submissions is September 30, 2016 (with the target publication date of December 15, 2016). For details on the online submission system, please see the journal website at http://ees.elsevier.com/petlm/

References:

1.    International Energy Agency (IEA), “Energy and Climate Change – World Energy Outlook Special Report”, November 2015.
2.    Asian Development Bank, “Roadmap for Carbon Capture and Storage Demonstration and Deployment in China”, November 2015.
3.    http://www.cop21paris.org/
4.    The Associated Press in LeaderPost, “Carbon control coming for new coal plants”, September 21, 2013.

Dr. Paitoon (PT) Tontiwachwuthikul
Honorary Editor-in-Chief and
Chief Editor for CCUS Special Issue
University of Regina, CANADA
Email: paitoon@uregina.ca