Heriot-watt uses AI for climate change science

multi-million-pound project led by Edinburgh’s Heriotwatt University is using artificial intelligence (AI) to slash the carbon capture and storage design time from 100 days to just 24 hours.

Researchers at the university’sglobalresearchinstitutefor netzeroaredevelopingspecialist AI techniques for scientific computing, material discova ery and financial forecasting, to enable efficient CO2 capture and storage in deep geological formations.

It is hoped the research will show how bespoke technologiescanenablecarboncapture and storage (CCS) to be a viable economic option for traditional industries wanting to decarbonise. Targets include industries such as steel, cement and chemicals.

The research forms one of the projects being delivered by Heriot-watt’s global research institute, which is focused on achievingnetzeroandbeyond. By using specialist AI simulators, standard techniques can be replaced for modelling flow migrations, and simulations on a supercomputer that may havepreviouslytakenupto100 days can now be achieved in as little as 24 hours.

Theccswork,inpartnership with colleagues from Imperial College London, is expected to leave a significant framework for future researchers to build upon and will play an important role in helping the UK government to reach its net zero target by 2050.

Ahmed Elsheikh, leader of the data and artificial intelligence research team, said: “Our research has the ability to really advance existing scientific research streams to source suitable options for safe storage of CO2 without consuming too much energy and without the need to deploy expensive and often time-consuming exploratory investigations.”