Course syllabus for Carbon capture and storage: Pathways to negative emissions

The course syllabus contains changes
See changes

Course syllabus adopted 2024-03-18 by Head of Programme (or corresponding).

Overview

  • Swedish nameKoldioxidavskiljning och lagring: vägar till negativa utsläpp
  • CodeTRA205
  • Credits7.5 Credits
  • OwnerTRACKS
  • Education cycleSecond-cycle
  • DepartmentTRACKS
  • GradingTH - Pass with distinction (5), Pass with credit (4), Pass (3), Fail

Course round 1

  • Teaching language English
  • Application code 97123
  • Maximum participants30 (at least 10% of the seats are reserved for exchange students)
  • Open for exchange studentsYes

Credit distribution

0123 Project 7.5 c
Grading: TH		3.7 c3.8 c

In programmes

Examiner

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Eligibility

General entry requirements for Master's level (second cycle)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Specific entry requirements

English 6 (or by other approved means with the equivalent proficiency level)
Applicants enrolled in a programme at Chalmers where the course is included in the study programme are exempted from fulfilling the requirements above.

Course specific prerequisites

In addition to the general requirements to study at advanced level at Chalmers, necessary subject or project specific prerequisite competences (if any) must be fulfilled. Alternatively, the student must obtain the necessary competences during the course. The examiner will formulate and check these prerequisite competences.

The student will only be admitted in agreement with the examiner.

Aim

The aim of the course is to provide a platform to work and solve challenging cross-disciplinary authentic problems from different stakeholders in society such as the academy, industry or public institutions. Additionally, the aim is that students from different educational programs practice working efficiently in global multidisciplinary development teams.

In this course you will learn about a wide range of aspects related to carbon capture and storage and also work together with students from other programs in a research project, with the aim to investigate and solve a specific challenge related to CCS and/or negative emissions. Hence an important goal of the course is to develop skills with respect to working in teams to solve open-ended and interdisciplinary research projects.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

Valid for all Tracks courses:
  • critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced architectural or engineering problems
  • master problems with open solutions spaces which includes to be able to handle uncertainties and limited information.
  • work in multidisciplinary teams and collaborate in teams with different compositions
  • orally and in writing explain and discuss information, problems, methods, design/development processes and solutions
  • fulfill project specific learning outcomes
Course specific learning outcomes:
  • explain the factors affecting the global carbon budgets for limiting warming to 1.5ºC and 2.0ºC and have knowledge of approximate allowable carbon emissions in relation to current anthropogenic emissions.
  • describe the main technical and economic challenge with carbon capture processes
  • describe the technical function of the most common carbon capture processes and be able to describe their advantages and limitations.
  • explain the importance of heat integration for reducing capture cost in industrial processes
  • explain how hydrogen can be generated from different energy sources and utilized as an energy carrier with no emissions of CO2
  • describe the main features of a CO2 transportation system
  • explain the basic geology needed for geological storage and the main mechanisms and also identify possible risks and ways to minimize these risks
  • explain what type of materials are important for the most common CCS processes and be able to describe the most important properties needed for materials to be effective
  • explain the main techniques proposed for achieving negative emissions, and understand how Bio-Energy with Carbon capture (BECCS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC) functions and their possibilities and challenges
  • explain the main possible strategies for utilization of CO2 in products and chemicals and the limitations of such usage
  • explain how Life Cycle Assessment can be used to evaluate CCS/BECCS systems
  • explain the policy-related challenges for carbon capture and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and the level of governance these are best addressed.
  • describe how CCS/BECCS systems could be integrated into a future energy system portfolio
  • critically evaluate and conduct research with respect to a specific challenge related to CCS and also discuss the results and implications in relation to other areas, e.g. ecological, economic, ethical, and societal.

Content

The course includes teaching with respect to all aspects in tihe carbon capture value chain, from capture of carbon dioxide to storage and usage. This includes lectures and exercises on different technologies for capturing of the carbon dioxide from heat and power and industrial processes. As one major challenge with CCS is the high energy demand for the capture process, strategies on how this can be analyzed and optimized will be covered. Further, downstream processing and logistics of CO2 transportation will be covered as well as challenges and opportunities with respect to storage and utilization of the carbon dioxide is discussed in lectures. In addition to the technical focus, aspects related to governance and policy instruments, life-cycle assessment and how CCS can fit into a sustainable energy system is covered in lectures. Although the course is open to students from all M.Sc programs at Chalmers, it is an advantage to have some chemical or mechanical engineering background. Still, for students from other programs, there will be a lecture on fundamentals in the beginning of the course, in order to get all students up to speed. All lectures with these topics will be given in the first part of the course, and will be followed by open-ended projects in different areas of CCS covered in the lectures, and students will be able to pick projects which are most integrated with their interests.

Organisation

The teaching team is composed of experts from both Chalmers and other universities. The course is given in SP1 and part of SP2.
The main part of the course is a challenge driven project related to CCS and which will carried out in a group of students. The project will be supervised by a member of the teaching team, and the project will be closely coupled to research and societal challenges. In addition there will be a series of lectures given by experts, an industrial seminar and a lab tour to CCS facilities at Chalmers.

The course is composed of the following main elements,
1. Lectures (30 h)
2. Open-ended group project within CCS and Negative Emissions
3. Industrial seminar (half-day)
4. Lab tour to CCS facilities at Chalmers

Literature

Course literature will be provided to the students by individual teachers in relation to the lectures, and will mainly be in the form of scientific papers and reports. Relevant literature is retrieved and acquired by the students as a part of the project.

Examination including compulsory elements

In order to pass the course, it is necessary to
• Complete and pass all of the assessments related to lectures
• Complete project, method presentation, and poster presentation
The final grade (U, 3,4,5) will be based on the completion of all compulsory elements and a weighted assessment of the

The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.

The course syllabus contains changes

  • Changes to course:
    • 2024-03-17: Learning outcomes Learning outcomes changed by UOL
      Updated learning outcome
    • 2024-03-17: Organization Organization changed by UOL
      Updated information about organisation
    • 2022-03-17: Content Content changed by UOL
      Added information about the content of the course