UK Hosts Carbon (CO2) Capture Research and Deployment Forum

The forum was organized by a partnership between the University of Kentucky, Electric Power Research Institute, and Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company.

During the forum, 110+ participants from government agencies, academia, and industry discussed developing and deploying affordable CO2 capture issues in four topics: process intensification, solvent management and its impact, scale-up engineering and end-user perspectives.

There were also significant discussions about the challenges of applying carbon capture technologies in industry. For instance, developing carbon-neutral or negative emission electricity production continues to be a major scientific challenge that requires collaborative effort from academia, industry and government.

“There is currently extreme interest in CO2 removal from point sources and air, and the University of Kentucky has received many recent inquiries,” said Kunlei Liu, associate professor of mechanical engineering. “It is our honor and privilege to provide this platform for past and future collaborators to share their knowledge and collaboratively identify the technical gaps to be bridged. We at UK are fully committed to work with the funding agencies and collaborators to fulfill our environmental goal while managing the associated costs of carbon reduction.”

Over the past twenty years researchers at the University of Kentucky have been partnering with local and national industries to find solutions to one of the greatest challenges of our times, carbon capture. This work has resulted in numerous advances, patents, processes and scientific breakthroughs. Learn more about the University of Kentucky’s history in this field here.

“LG&E and KU, together with our parent company PPL, have set an ambitious goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To achieve this goal, we are working to advance new technologies, including carbon capture, through research and development in partnership with industry and research institutions,” said LG&E and KU Chief Operating Officer Lonnie Bellar. “We are proud of our partnership with the University of Kentucky and EPRI and the combined team’s continued innovation in this important decarbonization technology.”

“This event demonstrates the collaboration necessary to move technologies forward to support a low-carbon future,” said Abhoyjit Bhown, EPRI Program Manager, Advanced Generation and Carbon Capture and Storage. “Having diverse voices involved in the conversation provides an opportunity to focus our research and development activities and gain new insights to advance commercialization and benefit society.”