Financed by funding from Shell and FAPESP, the RCGI will have 16 new projects – all of which focused on carbon capture and storage (CCS).
The FAPESP-Shell Research Centre for Gas Innovation (RCGI), which is focused on innovations for natural gas, announce the creation of a new program with 16 more projects that will join the 29 that are already in the institution’s portfolio. The new program deals basically with carbon capture and storage (CCS), which, according to RCGI’s Scientific Director, Julio Meneghini, is growing in importance in terms of the reduction of emissions envisioned for the coming decades.
[custom_blockquote style=”green”] “Petroleum, natural gas, and coal are responsible, respectively, for 31.1%, 21.4%, and 28.9% of the world’s energy matrix. Even if we quintuple the use of biofuels, that will not be enough to meet the climate goals agreed upon the last Paris Climate Conference. That is why CCS technologies are so important,” Meneghini stated. [/custom_blockquote]
He says that with this fourth program, the current 150 RCGI researchers will be joined by another 100, including professors, post-doctoral students, PhD and Master’s degree candidates, and students just beginning their scientific studies. “We are entering a phase where we will investigate solutions that will be applied around the world,” Meneghini stressed.
Camila Brandão, Shell’s representative on the RCGI Executive Committee, says she has confidence in the investment being made by the Centre: “We have great expectations regarding our partnership with the RCGI. Our aim is to develop both internal expertise and partnerships that enable the Centre to take part in all of the phases of the petroleum and natural gas technology chain: the development of a new product and making it commercially available to the market.”
The new research studies of the RCGI highlight several subjects, including studies on the construction of salt caves for storing and separating CO2 and CH4 in the pre-salt region; on assessments of the environmental impacts of the activities for capturing and storing carbon in Brazil; and on the perspectives for storing carbon in nonconventional onshore petroleum reservoirs and in offshore sedimentary basins of Southeastern Brazil.
Click here to check the titles and the scope of the new projects.