BHP today announced a global collaboration with top international universities to accelerate a deeper understanding of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in a range of subsurface locations.

Working with the University of Melbourne, University of Cambridge and Stanford University, BHP will contribute approximately US$3 million towards research to improve global understanding of CO₂ storage and support the development of large-scale carbon capture and storage projects in the future.

BHP Vice President of Sustainability and Climate Change Dr Fiona Wild said the partnership would progress our understanding of how processes can securely trap carbon dioxide within porous rock.

“There is growing acknowledgement from industry, governments and society that to meet emissions reductions targets, and the world’s commitments to limit warming to below 2^oC, we are going to need to accelerate the use of CCS.

“We simply can’t do it quickly enough without CCS across both power generation and industry.

“CCS technology works and is proven. Our focus at BHP is how we can help make sure the world has access to the information required to make it work at scale in a cost effective and timely way.

“To do this we have established a number of collaborations to share learnings globally and BHP is excited to announce the latest such arrangement with some of the world’s best academic institutions,” Dr Wild said.

Stanford University Professor Sally Benson said the findings of this important partnership would be published to support the acceleration of the deployment of CCS globally.

“We believe research and lessons from existing pilot and commercial scale plants can help create a step change in the development and deployment of this critical technology,” Ms Benson said.

University of Melbourne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Jim McCluskey said the partnership was an opportunity to develop CO₂ reducing technologies in close collaboration with one of the world’s largest resource companies.

“The University of Melbourne is committed to working with key industry partners, like BHP, to tackle pressing societal issues,” Professor McCluskey said.

University of Cambridge Professor Mike Bickle said “Our research will improve the criteria used to evaluate the security of geological CO₂ storage as well as leading to fundamental advances in understanding the movement of fluids in the sub-surface.”

For more information about BHP’s views on CCS visit our latest Prospects blog.