RECS is building human capital for energy and climate change solutions.

RECS is the premier carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) education and training experience in the U.S. that is helping to prepare a world-class workforce, enhance U.S. competitiveness, nurture career networks and facilitate research opportunities and technology breakthroughs. The intensive 10-day, interactive program combines classroom instruction with group exercises, CCUS site visits and hands-on field activities that cover the range of science, technology, policy, and business topics associated with CCUS deployment. The RECS network represents the nation's best-in-class in the CCUS field.

News & Updates

Friday Sep 20 2013

Advanced Fossil Energy Technologies Roundtable Addresses CCS

The Atlantic Council and the Global CCS Institute convened a roundtable discussion in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2013, to explore the energy, environmental, and technology policy dimensions of the Kemper County Energy Facility — a state-of-the-art coal gasification power plant with CCS for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. The facility is currently being built by RECS partner, Southern Company, along with Mississippi Power, and KBR in Kemper County, Mississippi. It is one of eight large-scale integrated CCS demonstration projects supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

RECS Videographer, Bat-Sheva Guez and Emily Branham captured the event in a short video. A summary of the discussion is available here.

Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder & Director also serves as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. She organized the session and moderated the first panel, which was joined by RECS faculty including Dr. Darren Mollot, DOE’s Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal and Randall Rush, Gasification Manager, Southern Company. RECS alumni also had seats at the table including Dr. Stephen Comello, from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and Varun Mehra, from ARPA-E.

Monday May 20 2013

RECS Recognized in National Academy Report as "Concrete Action" to Address CCUS Workforce Needs

In 2010, President Obama’s Interagency Task Force on CCS issued a report that highlighted major concerns for near- and long-term CCUS deployment, including the need to integrate public information, education and outreach throughout the lifecycle of CCUS projects. The Task Force further detailed specific CCUS training and workforce capacity challenges:

“widespread cost-effective deployment of CCUS will require hiring, training, and retaining a large workforce of highly skilled professionals in the private sector to design, build, and operate facilities. Similar work and the need for a highly skilled workforce to design, build, and operate facilities.”

The National Academy of Sciences further elaborated on the CCUS workforce challenges in the 2013 report, Emerging Workforce Trends in the U.S. Energy Industry: A Call to Action. The Academy identified RECS as one of the current “concrete actions” that are addressing the workforce challenges faced by the CCUS community. The report:

“recommends that DOE, industry, institutions of higher education, and other involved organizations consider continuing support for DOE-initiated training programs for CCUS.”

Dr. Sally M Benson (RECS Faculty), served on the committee that authored the report. She is also the Director of the Global Climate Change and Energy Project at Stanford University, and a Professor of Research in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering in the School of Earth Sciences.

RECS is sponsored by the DOE, Office of Fossil Energy, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. It addresses CCUS workforce development needs through an intensive 10-day program which explores all aspects of CCUS, from science, technology, and policy to public engagement and communications, economics, and financing. The program uniquely combines classroom instruction with group exercises, and CCUS site visits, and provides participants with a unique opportunity for hands-on experience at operational CCUS field sites. Furthermore, the RECS program fosters a network of the nation’s leading scientist and engineers in CCUS that is an important aspect of career development.

The future CCUS workforce must be highly trained in an individual’s given area of expertise as well as have a broad foundational knowledge in all of the interdisciplinary aspects of CCUS. RECS offers participants a rare opportunity to not only deepen knowledge within their own specialty, but also to and further their career network, and gain insights into all of the necessary components of a successful CCUS project.

Wednesday May 15 2013

Dr. Mehdi Zeidouni (RECS 2009; Faculty 2013), a Research Associate-Reservior Engineer in the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin, sharing his poster, Analytical Model of Fault Leakage to Overlying Formations, at the 12th Annual

Friday May 03 2013

Junior Professional Legal & Regulatory Tutorial Group - Accepting Applications Until June 7

Pamela Tomski, RECS Founder & Director, will serve with Craig Hart as a tutor for the Global CCS Institute’s new Junior Professional Legal and Regulatory Tutorial Group. The focus will be on developing CCS legal and regulatory knowledge among junior professionals, recent graduates and students via four web-based tutorial discussions delivered once per week in July 2013. Each session will be structure like a university lecture and run for 1.5 – 2.0 hours. A different lecturer will present each week on a topic related to CCS legal and regulatory systems in the European Union, Australia and North America. Topics may include CCS and the Clean Development Mechanism, various jurisdictional approaches to implementing CCS legislation, as well as key legal issues for CCS and enhanced oil recovery. Lectures will be immediately followed with a tutorial discussion facilitated by Pamela Tomski and Craig Hart.

The Tutorial Group is free of charge and open to junior to mid-level professionals, recent graduates and students from all countries, who have an interest in CCS and work or study in a related field. The application process will be open until Friday 7 June 2013. Successful applicants will be notified by Friday 14 June 2013. The application form may be accesses here.

Monday Dec 10 2012

RECS in Force at GHGT-11

Sinead Treanor (2012), Richard Esposito (Faculty), Viviane Romeiro (2012), Jan Eide (2012)

The RECS community was out in force at the 11th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference (GHGT-11), the premier international conference on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). Held in Kyoto, Japan on 18-22 November 2012, GHGT-11 was attended by over 1,200 participants. A number of RECS alumni and faculty attended, many of whom presented talks or posters (listed below).

Jan Eide (2012), Viviane Romeiro (2012), Travis McLing (Faculty)

Keynote - CCS Projects are Becoming Reality: the US Demonstration Program — Jay Braitsch (RECS Faculty), Sr Advisor for Strategic Planning, US Department of Energy

CCUS via Stacked Storage: Case Studies from CO₂-EOR Basins of the US — Susan Hovorka, David Carr, Stuart Coleman, Khandaker Zahid (RECS 2012), Gordon Smith, Rebecca Smyth, Leslie Wood, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin

Post-Combustion Solvent Pilots: Pilot Plant Results with Piperazine — Eric Chen, Tarun Madan, Paul Nielsen, Darschan Sachde, Lynn Li, and Gary T. Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

Cost and Risk: Potential Cost of Leakage from Geologic Sequestration in the Michigan Basin — Melisa Pollak, Jeffrey Bielicki (RECS 2005), Elizabeth Wilson (RECS Faculty), University of Minnesota; Catherine Peters, Princeton University; Jeffery Fitts, Brookhaven National Lab

Pre-injection Baseline Data Collection to Establish Existing Wellbore Leakage Properties — ?Andrew Duguid, Robert Busch, Schlumberger Carbon Services; William Carey (RECS Faculty), Los Alamos National Lab, Michael A. Celia (RECS Faculty), James Wang, Princeton University, Nikita Chugunov, T.S. Ramakrishnan, Schlumberger-Doll Research, Viki Stamp, True Oil LLC, Sarah Gasda (RECS 2004), Integrated Petroleum Research, Uni Research, Bergen, Norway

Geomechanical Behavior of Wells in Geologic Sequestration — ?William Carey (RECS Faculty); George Zyvoloski, Kayla Lewis, Sharad Kelkar, Los Alamos National Lab?

Development of Reacted Channel During fFow of CO₂-rich Water Along a Cement Fracture — Nicolas Huerta, The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences and US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab; Quinn Wenning, Marc Hesse (RECS 2004), The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences; Christina Lopano, The University of Texas at Austin, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department; Brian Strazisar (RECS Faculty), US Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Lab

Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of N2-selective Membranes — Jennifer Wilcox (RECS Faculty), Ekin Ozdogan, Panithita Rochana, Stanford University

Early Operational Experience at a One-million Tonne CCS Demonstration Project, Decatur, Illinois, USA — Robert Finlay (RECS Faculty), Scott Frailey, Hannes Leetaru, Illinois State Geological Survey; Scott Marsteller, Schlumberger Carbon Services

Evaluating the Suitability for CO₂ Storage at the FutureGen 2.0 Site, Morgan County, Illinois, USA — Alain Bonneville, Tyler Gilmore, Vince Verneul, Delphine Appriou (RECS 2012), Bruce Bjornstad, Jake Horner (RECS 2011), Frank Spane, Battelle Pacific Northwest Lab; Mark Kelley, Jackie Gerst, Neeraj Gupta, Kaitlin McNeil, Mark Moody, FutureGen Industrial Alliance Inc.

Model Comparison and Uncertainty Quantification for Geologic Carbon Storage: The Sim-SEQ Initiative — Sumit Mukhopadhyay, Christine Doughty, Jens Birkholzer, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Jean-Philippe Nicot, Seyyed Hoseini, Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas Austin; Diana Bacon, Luke Gosink, Guang Lin, Ramya Ramanathan, Pacific Nortwest National Lab; Sarah Gasda (RECS 2004), Uni Research Norway

Oxidative Degradation of Amines with High-temperature Cycling — Alexander Voice, University of Texas and The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research; Fred Closmann, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), University of Texas

Deploying Combined EOR and CCS Projects — Kurt House (RECS 2005), Ernst van Neirop (RECS Faculty), Antonio Baclig (RECS 2011), Shipeng Fu, Mark Henly, Charles Brankman, Kelly Bergman, Robert Selover, C12 Energy

Assessment of Factors Influencing CO₂ Storage Capacity and Injectivity in Eastern U.S. Gas Shales —? Michael Godec, George Koperna (RECS Faculty), Robin Petrusak, Anne Oudinot, Advanced Resources International, Inc.

Leakage Fingerprints During Storage: Modeling Above-zone Measurements of Pressure and Temperature —? Qing Tao, Steven Bryant, Timothy Meckel (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin?

Maximizing the Value of Pressure Monitoring Data from CO₂ Sequestration Projects — Srikanta Mishra, Mark Kelley, Evan Zeller, Nick Slee, Neeraj Gupta (RECS Faculty), Battelle Memorial Institute; Indra Bhattacharya (RECS 2009), Mike Hammond, American Electric Power?

Identifying diagnostics for reservoir structure and CO₂ plume migration from multilevel pressure measurements —? Christin Strandli (RECS 2010), Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University

Energy Performance of Advanced Stripper Configurations — Peter Frailie, Tarun Madan, Brent Sherman, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin

Nitrosamine Management in Aqueous Piperazine for CO₂ Capture — ?Nathan Fine, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Mandana Ashouripashaki, Alexander Voice, Steven Fulk, Lynn Li, Omar Namjoshi, University of Texas, Austin

Drainage and Imbibition CO₂/Brine Relative Permeability Curves at In-situ Conditions for Sandstone Formations in Western Canada —? Stefan Bachu (RECS Faculty), Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures?

Multiphase Flow Properties of the CO₂/Brine System for Carbon Sequestration — Sam Krevor (RECS 2005), Imperial College London; Ronny Pini, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University

Evaluation of CO₂ Storage Potential in the Skagerrak/Kattegat Area — Per Eirik Strand Bergmo, Szczepan Polak (RECS 2004), SINTEF Petroleum Research, Per Aagaard, University of Oslo, Department of Geosciences, Peter Frykman, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Hans Hasken Haugen, Dag Bjørnsen, Tel-Tek, Porsgrunn, Norway

Assessment of Solid Sorbents as a Competitive Post-combustion CO₂ Capture Technology — Justin Glier (RECS 2012), Edward Rubin, Carnegie Mellon University

Justin Glier (RECS 2012)

Project Status and Research Plans of 500 TPD CO₂ Capture and Sequestration Demonstration at Alabama Power’s Plant Barry —Michael Ivie (RECS Faculty), Nick Irvin, Chethan Acharya, Southern Company, Yasuo Kubota, Hiromitsu Nagayasu, Takuya Hirata, Paul Wood, Takahito Yonekawa, Tatsuya Tsujiuchi, MHI

Carbon Capture and Storage and the London Protocol: Recent Efforts to Enable Transboundary CO₂ Transfer: Justine Garrett, Sean McCoy (RECS Faculty), International Energy Agency

Volatile Contaminant Control in Amine-based CO₂ Capture Systems — Steven Fulk, Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), The University of Texas at Austin

Integration and Operation of Post-combustion Capture System of Coal-fired Power Generation: Load Following and Solvent Storage - Robert Brasington (RECS 2010), Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Value of CCS in Power Systems with High Levels of Renewables Penetration — Sean McCoy (RECS Faculty), Dennis Volk, International Energy Agency; Joachim Bertsch, Stefan Nagl, Christian Growitsch, Institute of Energy Economics, University of Cologne; Mathias Finkenrath, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Applied Sciences Kempten; John Davison, IEAGHG

Quantification of Risk Profiles and Impacts of Uncertainties as Part of US DOE’s National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) — Rajesh Pawar (RECS Faculty), Philip Staufer, Los Alamos National Lab; Grant Bromhal (RECS Faculty), Robert Dilmore, National Energy Technology Lab; Curt Oldenberg, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab; Bill Foxall, Edwin Jones, Lawrence Livermore National Lab; Stephen Unwin, Pacific Northwest National Lab

Electrochemically-Mediated Gas Separation Processes for Carbon Abatement — Fritz Simeon, Mike Stern, Krisitn Vicari, Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), T. Alan Hatton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Thomas Hammer, Harald Landed, Siemens Corporate Technology

Four-site Case Study of Water Extraction from Carbon Dioxide Storage Reservoirs — Guoxiang Liu (RECS 2008), Charles Gorecki, Jordan Bremer, Ryan Klapperich, Robert Cowan, Yevhen Holubnyak, Damion Knudsen, Dayanand Saini, Energy & Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota, Kyung Won Chang, Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin and Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin; Marc Hesse (RECS 2005), Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin; Jean-Philippe Nicot, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas

Next-scale Chemical Looping Combustion: Process Integration and Part Load Investigation for a 10MW Demonstration Unit — David Riestenberg (RECS Faculty), Shawna Cyphers, Karine Schepers (RECS Faculty), George Koperna (RECS Faculty), BERTSCHenergy, Josef Bertsch Gesellschaft m.b.H. & Co. KG

Rethinking CCS – Developing Quantitative Tools for Designing Robust Policy in Face of Uncertainty — Jan Eide (RECS 2012), Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Mort Webster, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

9D Public Perception: Communication Activities and Experiences Visual Message Mapping for CCS Outreach — Daniel Daly, Energy & Environmental Research Center; Lydia Cumming, Pacific Northwest Lab; Gary Garrett, Southern States Energy Board; Marian Stone, Bevilacqua-Knight, Inc.; Mather Cather, New Mexico Tech; Lindsey Tollefson, Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership; Sarah Wade (RECS Faculty), WADE, LLC

Characterization of Novel Packings for Post Combustion Capture — Chao Wang, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin and Separation Research Program, University of Texas at Austin; Micah Perry, Frank Seibert, Separation Research Program, University of Texas at Austin; Gary Rochelle (RECS Faculty), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin

Enhanced Oil Recovery Method Using Carbonated Water Flooding — Lin Zuo, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University; Changyon Zhang, Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab

Coal-C02-Slurry Feed for Pressurised Gasifiers: Slurry Preparation System Characterisation and Economics — Cristina Botero, Howard Herzog (RECS Faculty), Ahmned Ghoniem, Massachusettes Institute of Technology

Capillary Heterogeneity in Sandstones Rocks During CO₂/Water Core-Flooding Experiments — Ronny Pini, Mike Krause, Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University; Sam Krevor (RECS 2005), Imperial College London

Integrated Geothermal-CO₂ Reservoir Systems: Reducing Carbon Intensity Through Sustainable Energy Production and Secure CO₂ Storage — Thomas A. Buscheck, Mingjie Chen, Yunwei Sun, Yue Hao, Chuanhe Lu, Thomas J. Wolery, Roger D. Aines, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Michael A. Celia (RECS Faculty), Princeton University

CO₂ storage contingencies initiative: Detection, intervention and remediation of unexpected CO₂ migration — Scott Imbus, Chevron Energy Technology Co.; Kevin Dodds, BP AlternativEnergy; Robert Trautz, Electric Power Research Institute; Claus Otto, Shell Global Solutions International; Charles Christopher (RECS Faculty), CO₂Store; Sally Benson (RECS Faculty), Stanford University

Vanessa Nunez-Lopez

Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin

Research Scientist Associate IV

RECS was such a valuable experience to me, certainly unique in its kind. I participated in 2005 and found myself in contact with the most current CCS research and the most renowned researchers in the field. A program that has engaged its remarkable faculty for so many years is a must for anybody loo…

RECS Sponsorship

Help prepare a world-class CCUS workforce to deploy CCUS solutions, reduce costs and establish a competitive advantage. RECS is made possible through support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.