Research Associate in the Global Scaleup of CO2 Storage for Climate Change Mitigation

Location: South Kensington, London

Job Summary

Applications are invited for a Research Associate to investigate the global scaleup of subsurface CO2 storage for climate change mitigation. Energy systems models analysed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have suggested that CO2 storage must achieve rates of 10's of Gt CO2 per year by 2050, implying energy infrastructure at a scale matching that of current oil and gas infrastructure (Krevor et al., 2023). The use of CCS in these models is the leading control on the total costs of mitigating climate change. However, these models are lacking in realistic representations of CO2 storage. They do not constrain deployment rates, either with top down limitations on technological growth, or bottom up constraints from the physical limitations of the reservoir systems. Furthermore, there is an absence of centrally compiled data reported in a self-consistent way on the annual amounts of CO2 stored at industrial scale projects operating today.

Duties

The Research Associate will evaluate the potential for geographic, geologic, and techno-economic constraints to lead to bottlenecks in the development of large scale CO2 storage globally. The Subsurface CO2 Storage Research Group has developed a suite of models that evaluate the physical or techno-economic limitations to scaling up CO2 storage regionally (See De Simone & Krevor, 2021 and Zhang et al., 2023). Additionally, the researcher will work with a consortium and stakeholders to continue the work begun in Zhang et al., (2022), to establish a register of annual amounts of CO2 stored underground. Ultimately, we will construct models for plausible development trajectories that may be incorporated into energy systems models of the type used by the IPCC to outline techno-economic pathways for mitigating climate change.

The research will be carried out under the Royal Academy of Engineering funded Senior Research Fellowship programme. The Research Associate will join a highly collaborative and multidisciplinary team within the Subsurface CO2 Storage Research Group, which includes PhD students and postdocs associated with this project and others investigating various aspects of subsurface CO2 storage. Beyond the department, the researcher will interact with a vibrant community of academics at Imperial College working on technical, economic, and policy related aspects carbon capture and storage and climate change mitigation. The researcher will be able to participate in the activities of multiple cross-college centres including the Towards Zero Pollution Initiative, the Grantham Institute on Climate Change, and the Energy Futures Lab.

Essential requirements

Applicants should have completed or about to obtain a PhD, or equivalent, in the modelling and analysis of porous media flow or in a related field.  You should also be able to write computer programs and ideally have a background in fluid dynamics as well as expertise in using commercial simulation tools for the numerical modelling of porous media flows. It would be expected that the successful candidate would have a track record of publishing papers and giving presentations at international conferences.

Further Information

This is a full time fixed term post for up to 24 months.

Informal inquiries can be made to Dr Samuel Krevor ([email protected] ) or Professor Ann Muggeridge  [email protected] ).

Closing date: 29/05/2024