Course syllabus

Course syllabus

Last updated: 2023-06-10

 

The societal challenge

Emissions of CO₂ and ensuing global climate change is one major societal challenge. With unchanged present emissions of about 40 Gt_CO2/year, the carbon budgets for the 1.5ºC and 2ºC global warming limits will be exhausted within the near future. Consequently, it is necessary to reduce CO₂ emissions significantly and rapidly. Since approx. 80% of current primary energy use is based on fossil fuels, most of the IPCC emission scenarios that meet the global two-degree limit, require that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is deployed for major industrial sectors, such as heat and power and process industries. Considering the limited time available, it may also be necessary to actually remove carbon from the atmosphere, that is, overshooting the carbon budget at first, followed by removing the excess carbon from the atmosphere. This can be achieved by utilization of biomass together with carbon capture, often referred to as BECCS. In fact, negative emissions on a substantial scale appear to be indispensable to meet the climate targets decided in the Paris agreement. There is currently significant research and development in Sweden and globally to find efficient processes for carbon capture, both at universities and in industry.

 

Goals and aims

The course is part of the Tracks platform of courses at Chalmers, with the general aim of providing students with the possibility to learn about and conduct projects related to current societal and engineering challenges where a cross-disciplinary approach is needed. The course “Carbon capture and storage – pathways to negative emissions” is part of the theme “Emerging technologies” and here 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 objectives

The learning objectives of the course are divided into general and specific objectives as given below.

General objectives (Tracks)

After completion of the course, you should:

• be able to critically and creatively identify and/or formulate advanced engineering problems.
• be able to master problems with open solutions spaces which includes being able to handle uncertainties and limited information.
• be able to lead and participate in the development of new products, processes and systems using a holistic approach by following a design process and/or a systematic development process.
• be able to work in multidisciplinary teams and collaborate in teams with different compositions.
• show insights about cultural differences and to be able to work sensitively with them.
• show insights about and deal with the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context.
• be able to identify ethical aspects and discuss and judge their consequences in relation to the specific problem.
• be able to orally and in writing explain and discuss information, problems, methods, design/development processes and solutions.

Specific objectives

After the completion of the course, you should:

• understand the factors affecting the global carbon budgets for limiting warming to 1.5 ºC and 2.0 ºC and have knowledge of approximate allowable carbon emissions in relation to current anthropogenic emissions.
• understand the main technical and economic challenge with carbon capture processes.
• understand the technical function of the most common carbon capture processes and be able to describe their advantages and limitations.
• understand the importance of heat integration for reducing capture cost in industrial processes.
• understand how hydrogen can be generated from different energy sources and utilized as an energy carrier with no emissions of CO₂.
• understand the main features of a CO₂ transportation system.
• understand the basic geology needed for geological storage and the main mechanisms and identify possible risks and ways to minimize these risks.
• understand the main techniques proposed for achieving negative emissions and understand how Bioenergy with Carbon capture (BECCS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC) functions and their possibilities and challenges.

• to understand main possible strategies for utilization of CO₂ in products and chemicals and the limitations of such usage.
• to understand how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used to evaluate CCS/BECCS systems.
• understand the policy-related challenges for CCS/BECCS and the level of governance these are best addressed.
• to understand how CCS/BECCS systems could be integrated into a future energy system portfolio.

• be able to critically evaluate and conduct research with respect to a specific challenge related to CCS and discuss the results and implications in relation to other areas, for example, ecological, economic, ethical and societal.

 

 Content of the course

The course is composed of the following main elements,

1. Lectures (28 h), see schedule in Appendix
2. Open-ended group project within CCS and Negative Emissions
3. Industrial seminar (half-day)
4. Lab tour to CCS facilities at Chalmers

Lectures

There are 14 lectures planned within the eight modules,

Module I (M1): Background and “crash course” of important parameters

Module II (M2): Carbon capture technologies and capture in industry

Module III (M3): Hydrogen production with CCS and carbon dioxide utilization

Module IV (M4): Negative emissions and materials for CCS

Module V (M5): Transportation and geological storage

Module VI (M6): Energy systems and life cycle assessment

Module VII (M7): Policy and governance

Module Ⅷ (M8): Summary and project information

These lectures are concentrated to the first part of the course, in order to provide students with the necessary background to complete the projects in a good way. For each lecture there is some required and suggested literature which will be uploaded on the course website (Canvas) prior to the lecture.  In addition, there will be a short content question or exercise coupled with most lectures (12) which need to be completed and passed in order to receive a passing grade on the course. The aim of the content questions is to ensure that the student has grasped and anchored the main content of the lecture/literature.  For each answer which is submitted on time and graded “pass” in the first assessment,  0.5 points will be given which can be used as bonus points for the quiz, see matrix in last appendix for further details on the grading.  If you receive an ”incomplete” on assessment of content question, please resubmit as soon as possible in Canvas.  No re-submissions will be accepted after 9^th of November.

At the end of the lecture series there will be a short in-place quiz of 30 points which will be part of the final grade.  The quiz will be based on lecture content and required reading. A minimum of 50% (15 p) correct answers is needed in order to pass the course which does not include the bonus points from the content questions.

The lectures, assignments and quiz is expected to correspond to roughly 3 cr.

The content question will be posted prior to the lecture. The assignments need to be submitted via Canvas before the beginning of the following module, and adhere to the allowable number of characters, i.e. max. 2000 characters per question, including blanks, i.e. approximately 300 words. In certain cases it may be allowable to exceed this word limit.

We expect that students attend all the lectures, as this enhances your learning, gives you opportunity to ask questions and also shows appreciation for the many external guest lecturers in the course. Still, as all Tracks courses do not have a specific schedule block, we realize that there could be scheduling conflicts and difficulties to attend some lectures for all. Hence all lectures will be recorded and uploaded on Canvas, and we expect that all students will be able to complete the course in a good and fruitful way even if there are scheduling conflicts.

Open-ended projects

A major part of the course is a group project which will commence after the lectures, see schedule in Appendix. Each project will be carried out in groups of approximately 3 students with TA supervisors, or from the teaching team, depending upon the project.  A list of possible projects will be available during the start of the course, and the students will have the possibility to select which project he/she is most interested in, after which students will be assigned a project and group as well as supervisor(s). 

It should be emphasized that these are open-ended type of projects, which are directly related to a research question, and where choices of methodology and approach will need to be decided within the group. Hence, the solution may be very dependent upon the assumptions and methodologies used.  This type of project may have been encountered in previous project courses or bachelor thesis projects.  The learning objectives for the projects are highly related to the general Tracks learning objectives in addition to the last specific objective, see above.

The results of the project will be presented in the form of a poster which will be presented during a final poster session, where all project posters will be shown, and the group will also be able to present the poster to the group and teachers. Students who wish to utilize the Tracks Environment Audio and Video studio for preparing a short presentation will be able to do this, with the help of Tracks staff.

There will also be a first workshop after about three weeks into the project, with the main aim of presenting the planning, structure, and methodology of the project and first results, if available. The idea here is to get feedback from teachers and students. The projects are expected to correspond to roughly 4,5 cr.

In certain cases, and after agreement with supervisors it may be possible for the posters to be published in the Chalmers Open Database, in which case it will be necessary for all students to sign a publishing agreement.

Industrial workshop

There is an industrial workshop planned during the course, where it is expected that a few representatives from industries involved with CCS will present their plans and efforts in the area.

Lab tours

Students will be offered the possibility for a tour to the main facilities related to CCS at Chalmers.

 

Assessment

In order to pass the course, it is necessary to:

• Complete and pass all of the content questions related to lectures (12)
• Pass the quiz related to the lectures, with minimum 50% correct answers
• Complete project, methodology presentation and poster presentation

The final grade (U, 3,4,5) will be based on completion of all compulsory elements and a weighted assessment of the project, as given in matrix in Appendix.

 

Course administration

Examiner: Tobias Mattisson, tm@chalmers.se, 031-7721425

Responsible: Tobias Mattisson, tm@chalmers.se, 031-7721425

   Magnus Ryden, magnus.ryden@chalmers.se

 

Canvas:                               Hyunkyo Yu, hyunkyo.yu@chalmers.se

Student Assistants:            Xiaoyun Li, xiaoyun.li@chalmers.se

                                            Muhammad Nauman Saeed, mnauman@chalmers.se

 

Main teachers:                   Ivana Stanicic, stanicic@chalmers.se

     Simon Harvey, simon.harvey@chalmers.se

                                            Matty Janssen, mathias.janssen@chalmers.se

                                            Klas Andersson, klon@chalmers.se

                                            Henrik Leion, henrik.leion@chalmers.se

                                            Sina Hoseinpoori, sinaho@chalmers.se

 

Other lecturers:                 Filip Johnsson, filip.johnsson@chalmers.se

                                            Jan Kjärstad, kjan@chalmers.se

                                            Mattias Fridahl, mathias.fridahl@liu.se

                                            Gry Møl Mortensen, gry.mol.mortensen@ri.se

 

Appendix.  Overall schedule (preliminary)

Preliminary Schedule HT-2023 TRA205 Carbon capture and storage – pathways to negative emissions
When?	Time?	Where?	What?	Who?
Thu 31/8	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	M1, L1: Introduction to course	TM
Thu 31/8	15:15-17:00	SB-H3	M1, L2: Basic concepts	IS
Tue 5/9	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	M2, L3: Capture technologies	KA
Tue 5/9	15:15-17:00	SB3-L110	M2, L4: Capture in industry	SH (Simon H)
Fri 8/9	13:15-15:15	Meet in room Earth at SEE	Tour of CCS labs, Tracks at Chalmers	CL, KA, XL
Tue 12/9	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	M3, L5: Hydrogen production with CCS	MR
Tue 12/9	15:15-17:00	SB3-L110	M3, L6: Carbon dioxide utilization	MJ
Thu 14/9	13:15-15:00	SB-L110	M4, L7: Negative emissions	IS, SH (Sina H)
Thu 14/9	15.15-17.00	SB-H4	M4, L8: Materials for CCS	HL
Tue 19/9	13:15-15:00	SB3-L113	M5, L9: Transportation and logistics	JK
Tue 19/9	15:15-17:00	SB3-L113	M5, L10: Geological storage	GM
Fri 29/9	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	M6, L11: Life cycle assessment of CCS	MJ
Fri 29/9	15:15-17:00	SB3-L110	M6, L12: CCS and Energy Systems	FJ
Tue 3/10	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	M7, L13: Policy and governance of CCS	MF
Tue 3/10	15-17:00	SB3-L110	M8, L14: Summary and project info	TM
Tue 10/10	13:15-15:00	SB3-L110	Quiz	TM
Thu or Fri (12–13/10)	TBD with supervisor	TBD with supervisors	Project start-up	XL, NS or other supervisors
Thu 2/11	13:15-15:00 15:15-17	SB3-L112, SB3-L111	Workshop: Presentation of goals, aims, methodology, first results	All
Thu 9/11	13:15-17:00	TBA	Industrial seminar about CCS
Thu 7/12	13:15-17:00	Tracks foaje (Fuse)	Poster presentation of all projects	All
TM: Tobias Mattisson, Energy Technology, Chalmers MR: Magnus Ryden, Energy Technology, Chalmers KA: Klas Andersson, Energy Technology, Chalmers SH: Simon Harvey, Energy Technology, Chalmers MJ: Matty Janssen, Environmental System Analysis, Chalmers IS: Ivana Stanicic, Energy Technology, Chalmers HL: Henrik Leion, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers FJ: Filip Johnsson, Energy Technology, Chalmers GM: Gry Møl Mortensen, SGU JK: Jan Kjaerstad, Energy Technology, Chalmers SH: Sina Hoseinpoori, Energy Technology, Chalmers MF: Matthias Fridahl, Linköping University CL: Carl Linderholm, Energy Technology, Chalmers XL: Xiaoyun Li, Energy Technology, Chalmers NS: Muhammad Nauman Saeed, Energy Technology, Chalmers

 

Appendix. Criteria for grading

In order to pass the course, it is necessary to complete and pass i) the lecture content questions, ii) the quiz (50% correct) and iii) both project parts with minimum 16 p and 12 p for parts 2 and 3 below respectively.   

For the final grade, the major emphasis is on the project, and the final grade (U,3,4,5) will be assessed using the criteria in the table below, where total of >80 p for grade 5, 60-79 p for grade 4 and 40-59 p for grade 3.

Description	Assessment criteria	Max points	Grader
1. Quiz on lecture content.	15/30 p needed to pass the quiz. Bonus points are added for final grade (0.5 p for each correct answer on content question, max 6 p) count towards final grade. *	36 p	Examiner
2. Project process	Process of working with project, based on general learning objectives	40 p	Supervisor
3. Project quality incl. Method presentation and Poster w. pitch	Quality of method presentation, poster and poster presentation	30 p	Examiner
Max total points		106 p

• In order to receive bonus point on content question, it is required that the content question is passed after the first assessment. Any incomplete answers can be resubmitted in Canvas, but no bonus points will be given.