07AC91  ABB and Imperial College London expand their collaboration on carbon capture to support future practitioner training and energy transition

ABB and Imperial College London have signed a 10-year contract to continue their collaboration in carbon capture technology.

• Imperial College London's plant has provided training to meet net zero emissions targets, helping to address talent shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, and 4,500 students have used the facility since 2012.

As the only teaching facility of its kind in the world, the plant is equipped with more than 250 instruments and sensors that measure and transmit data to a distributed control system to simulate real-world operational scenarios.
The four-storey facility uses ABB Ability™ 800xA® systems for distributed process control and is equipped with more than 250 instruments to measure temperature, pressure, carbon dioxide and flow. The 800xA system automatically controls and coordinates all aspects of the plant process and is visualized on a display in ABB's control room, which students can monitor in real time and intervene if necessary.

The ABB Ability™ Verification tool and the Ability™ SmartMaster, a new verification and condition monitoring platform, are also used to teach students the skills needed to optimize instrument performance through predictive maintenance.

"When we started working with ABB, our goal was to encourage more people to enter and stay in chemical engineering," said Dr Colin Hale, Senior teaching Research Fellow at Imperial College London, "and one way to do that was to build this carbon capture plant to stimulate students' interest in the environmental topics they were previously learning about." ABB shares this collective vision."

"During my study at the Carbon capture pilot plant, I was actively involved in the process operation and gained a deeper understanding of the development and application of this technology," said Yiheng Shao, a senior student at Imperial College London. "This experience also strengthened my confidence in the role of carbon capture in achieving the net zero goal."

According to S&P Global, carbon capture and storage (CCS) can help decarbonize industry, reduce emissions and achieve net zero emissions, and the Global CCS Institute says the number of CCS facilities worldwide in 2022 has increased by 44% over the previous year.

To increase the scale of the CO2 capture and storage market, ABB is deploying technology solutions to reduce capital and operating investment costs and reduce the risk of integration with existing and new operations. In March 2023, ABB joined forces with London-based Pace CCS to make it easier to capture, transport and store industrial CO2 emissions. Key to this is the use of digital twins to provide virtual copies of real processes to test scenarios and provide proof-of-concept.

It comes after the UK government set out its policy of Powering Up Britain earlier this year. This set of net zero emissions commitments, including £20bn of funding to deliver more private investment and jobs in CCS, aims to deliver a cleaner and more affordable energy system.



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ABB is a global technology leader transforming society and industry for a more efficient and sustainable future. By integrating smart technology through software into electrical, motion control, process automation, robotics and discrete automation products and solutions, ABB continues to push the boundaries of technology and improve performance to new heights. With more than 130 years of excellence, ABB operates in more than 100 countries and employs 105,000 people.