CME8419: Biorefining and Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage

• Offered for Year: 2025/26
• Module Leader(s): Professor Jonathan G M Lee
• Owning School: School of Engineering
• Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus

Semesters

Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.

Aims

This module will provide the knowledge and understanding required to critically analyse, evaluate, and design processes and technologies associated with a future net-zero carbon emissions economy, e.g. carbon dioxide capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), and biorefining. 

Carbon dioxide is the primary contributor to climate change, accumulating in the atmosphere due to emissions from the energy, industrial, transport and other sectors. To mitigate climate change, and achieve net zero, widespread deployment of CCUS technologies will be required. CCUS technologies may be targeted at point source emitters (e.g. power generation, cement, steel, chemicals) to slow the rate of release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Alternatively, CCUS can be used to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air, thus physically removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Once captured, the carbon dioxide may be utilised in the production of chemicals, fuels, and other consumer products (i.e. CCU), or stored in deep geological formations (i.e. CCS). 

Biomass is one of the most valuable resources in the planet, rich in carbon, and with a multiplicity of chemical compositions present in existing by-products and residues from multiple sectors readily available for valorisation. Biomass utilisation cycles provide us with a sustainable way to capture and store carbon. Biomass is a sustainable and essential feedstock for replacement of fossil fuels towards fuels, chemicals, and materials where carbon needs to be used in a circular way. This module aims to equip students to develop, design and implement novel biorefining processes that can efficiently tackle the complexity of biomass streams to fractionate biomass, and to convert and purify biomass fractions into platform molecules and final biorenewable products that will enable the circular bioeconomy of the future. 

Outline Of Syllabus

Biorefining: 

• Biomass feedstocks

• Biorefining concepts, pathways and platforms

• Pre-treatment and fractionation technologies

• Conversion technologies

• Purification technologies

• Biotechnology

• Biorenewable products 

• Case Studies

CCUS: 

• CCS processes: pre-, post-, and oxyfuel-combustion carbon capture and storage (CCS), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS). 

• Carbon dioxide capture technologies: liquid absorption, solid adsorption, and membrane processes, and application to CO2 sources: point sources and direct air-capture. 

• Carbon dioxide utilisation technologies: direct methods (i.e. not chemically changed) in consumer products and indirect methods (i.e. chemically transformed) in the synthesis of chemicals and fuels. 

• Carbon dioxide storage: the transport and storage of captured CO2 in pipelines, saline aquifers, depleted oil & gas reservoirs, and other deep geological formations. 

Learning Outcomes

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

At the end of this module students will be expected to be able to: 

• Assess biomass potential and derive pathways for valorisation

• Specify biomass feedstocks and compositions required for specific end products or processes

• Relate biomass composition with final products needs and specifications, to recommend selected technologies and produce a process specification 

• Apply basic knowledge of chemical engineering to design biorefining processes and equipment

• Appraise, compare, and critique the role of different CCUS processes and technologies in the context of climate change mitigation and net zero, including policy and public perception

• Specify, contrast, and discriminate different CCUS processes and technologies in terms of their operating principle(s)

Intended Skill Outcomes

Students will be able to: 

• Appraise and evaluate the performance of CCUS processes for a range of CO2 sources in terms of e.g. capture efficiency, energy demand, materials requirements, and cost per ton of CO2 captured. 

Teaching Methods

Teaching Activities

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Lectures will deliver the theory content of the module and will allow students to engage in classroom discussions. Tutorials will be used to practice problem solving and for group discussions, jointly with online discussions. Research site and industrial visits, jointly with guided literature reading and articles research will allow students to become familiar with information sources for novel technology developments, which are critical in this field. Guided independent study will allow students to solidify and strength their knowledge and skills and prepare for assessment. 

Assessment Methods

The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners.

Exam Assessment

Description	Length (mins)	Semester	When Set	Percentage	Comment
Written Examination 1	1800	1	A	75	N/A

Formative Assessment

Description	Semester	When Set	Comment
Computer assessment 1	1	M	Formative online informal quizzes and feedback in classroom activities

 

Other Assessment

Timetable

• Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/