Managing the energy transition towards 2100

Explore a vision for a clean fossil fuels future which maintains and improves quality of life globally without causing catastrophic climate change and enables us to manage a smooth transition to affordable, high capacity, renewable, zero CO2 emission energy systems later in this century.

Geoff Maitland is Professor of Energy Engineering at Imperial College London, with a career that has straddled industry and academia. 

He is a key member of the Clean Fossil and Bioenergy Research Group at Imperial, a diverse, world-class team leading research on the transition to a sustainable energy future.
Prof Maitland’s current research, established when he moved back to Imperial College London in 2005, centres on finding answers to the question ‘How can we continue to use fossil fuels for most of this century (as he believes we must) without causing catastrophic climate change?.’

The research covers clean and efficient fossil fuel production and use, with particular emphasis on carbon dioxide capture and storage processes, recovery of non-conventional hydrocarbons including methane hydrate production and energy-related reactor engineering.

The work aims to provide solutions for managing the transition from oil, gas and coal to more sustainable, renewable energy sources and vectors.

Hear from Prof Maitland how his research is built around three main themes and what they could mean for the future of the planet:
(a)    Carbon Capture and Storage
(b)    Exploitation of non-conventional sources of hydrocarbons
(c)    Renewable production of hydrogen using green algae and cyanobacteria.