Clean Technologies and
Carbon Management

Overview

For more than 20 years, we have served as trusted advisers to government energy agencies, global economic development agencies, state governments, and energy providers. SAIC has helped develop and evaluate some of the most recent carbon capture and engineered sequestration technologies. We have also helped assess and develop regulatory frameworks and approaches to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) in the United States and abroad, including in developing countries.

Our senior subject matter experts are sought by international agencies and corporations to help drive the research, development, and commercialization of clean technologies that will help large energy producers develop safer, more diverse energy alternatives for future generations.

Our expertise includes the following:

• Modeling carbon emissions and economic impacts of using various carbon management technologies and approaches
• Research and evaluation of carbon capture technology such as deep ocean and deep aquifer carbon dioxide (CO2) storage, next-generation decarbonization, and CO2 fixation
• Efficient coal combustion/gasification and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology
• Efficient coal engineering analysis
• Cost evaluation
• Reservoir and geologic analysis in support of carbon storage and sequestration
• Coal and biomass gasifier experience
• Policy and planning analysis for future energy requirements
• Modeling clean coal technology impact on coal and power markets

Success Stories

• R&D for Carbon Sequestration, Capture and Storage

  For more than 20 years, SAIC has provided broad-based technical support to the government's primary energy research and technology laboratory in areas related to sequestration technology management, modeling, design, and engineering. We conducted a study of the geological CO2 storage capacity of the entire United States. The study included technical issues, regulatory concerns, and economic estimates for storage using abandoned oil and gas reservoirs in Texas.

  SAIC analyzed separation technologies applicable for CO2 capture and identified promising technologies and research progress and trends. This effort included assisting the government's in-house research and development teams in setting up a research project in CO2 capture.

  SAIC created a comprehensive CO2 capture, transport, and sequestration information and technical database, which covered all aspects of CO2 capture from flue and fuel gas, transport of CO2 from a capture site to a disposal site, and various sequestration technologies.

  As part of the study, SAIC also prepared detailed descriptions of deep ocean and deep aquifer storage of CO2.

• Analyzing Next Generation Carbon Management Technologies

  On behalf of a leading global oil company, SAIC analyzed next generation decarbonization, carbon capture, and carbon sequestration technologies. We evaluated five technology pathways, including fossil fuel decarbonization, post-combustion CO2 separation and capture, carbon/CO2 sequestration and storage, novel combustion and energy conversion methods, and CO2 fixation and utilization. The evaluation was based on a multicriteria characterization of advanced technologies through the examination of design and performance data, resource requirements, energy consumption, construction materials, deployment cost estimates, technical and commercial developmental and deployment risks, ecological impacts, political and legal risks, and other potential benefits.

• Accounting for Sequestration Projects

  SAIC developed recommendations on accounting methods for assessing the GHG emission benefits from engineered sequestration projects, including enhanced oil recovery, enhanced gas recovery, and storage in saline aquifers. SAIC also helped develop technical guidance for the reporting of these projects to the enhanced Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases (1605(b)) Program implemented by the U.S. government.

• Underground Thermal Energy Storage

  SAIC has conducted feasibility studies and is currently developing several large-scale projects using the Earth to store solar thermal energy for more efficient management of energy resources. Potential benefits include reduced GHG emissions, reduced fossil fuel consumption, and shifting peak electrical loads from summer to winter.

• Clean Coal Technology

  SAIC is helping support the development and commercialization of clean coal technology that will transform coal with high levels of impurities and contaminants into an efficient, clean-burning energy resource in power plants. We are also helping assess proprietary technology that will pre-process coal and remove up to 90 percent of pollutants and excess moisture prior to use. These types of clean technologies will help enhance economic development while protecting the health and well-being of people in places like China, India, and the rest of the world.

• Supporting Clean Technologies in Developing Countries

  Curtailing emissions in developing countries will be a critical challenge to meeting United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change goals to stabilize GHG that impact the climate. The wide-scale deployment of low- to zero-carbon energy technologies in developing countries represents a key opportunity to reducing these emissions, and SAIC has been helping find and promote technologies that will enable many countries to succeed in minimizing emissions.