UT will be hosting the 12th International Greenhouse Control Technologies conference at the Austin Convention Center from Oct. 5-9.

According to Lauryn Feil, communications and marketing specialist at the Center for Lifelong Engineering Education at the Cockrell School of Engineering, the conference will discuss carbon capture and storage technologies and how to reduce carbon footprints from greenhouse gas emissions. 

“Carbon capture and storage is the process of capturing waste carbon dioxide from sources, such as fossil fuel plants, and typically storing it underground so that it does not enter the atmosphere,” Feil said in an email. “There are three aspects of [carbon capture and storage technologies]: the capture of CO2, transportation of CO2 and storage of the CO2 underground. Experts tend to focus on a specific area within one of those three aspects.” 

Research and industry experts from around the world will discuss important decisions regarding the fate of large-scale, billion-dollar demonstration plants at the conference.

“[They will discuss] the ongoing and contentious debate about the role of [carbon capture and storage] and other measures designed to foster a sustainable energy future, and how to effectively communicate the importance of CCS research and development to the public,” Feil said.

Several UT faculty members will be speaking during the conference about their research. Chemical engineering professor Gary Rochelle and UT students will discuss the latest capture technologies.

“I have 15 PhD students in chemical engineering who will present their results on the development of amine solvents for CO2 capture from coal-fired and gas-fired power plants,” Rochelle said in an email. “The students who perform experimental work will present results on CO2 solubility and rates of CO2 absorption, oxidation, and thermal degradation rates of amines and nitrosamine management in amine solvents.”

Rochelle has attended several conferences, beginning with the sixth conference in Kyoto, Japan, in 2002 and said he believes this conference will have a different focus.

“This conference will have more success stories of amine scrubbing pilot plants that have worked as expected and tests of storing CO2 in underground formations,” Rochelle said.