Proactive Investors - Artificial intelligence (AI) could drastically reduce the energy needed for carbon capture while increasing effectiveness, researchers have said.
As carbon capture has emerged as a potential tool for reducing emissions from UK industrial hubs, University of Surrey academics suggested AI models could be the answer in effectively rolling out such projects.
“Usually, carbon capture systems run constantly at the same rate - regardless of the externally changing environment,” Surrey university professor Jin Xuan said.
“But, we showed that teaching the system to keep making small adaptations can produce big energy savings and capture more carbon at the same time.”
According to the researchers, such AI models could reduce the energy used in capturing carbon from a coal-fired power station by over a third.
Some 18% more carbon could be captured at the same time by using the AI technology, the group added.
The research comes after the government laid out plans last summer to develop carbon capture “clusters” in the Humber and Scotland.
This will see capture technology installed to industrial sites in each region to then be transported to depleted North Sea oil and gas reserves under projects involving Harbour Energy PLC (LON:HBR), Shell PLC (LON:SHEL) and BP PLC (LON:BP).
Drax Group (LON:DRX) has also laid out plans to install carbon capture at its Yorkshire biomass energy plant, with reports saying government approval could be granted imminently.
Researchers from the University of Surrey explained such carbon capture systems could be powered by renewables on site, but changing weather would often mean power was required from the grid.
The model, which was taught to alter carbon capture systems based on plant output and also available energy, could mitigate this, researchers added.