Indonesian and Austrian BECCS research initiative announced

The Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and the Institute for Applied System Analysis (iIASA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to begin a cross-disciplined research collaboration into Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).

According to a statement, the BECCS collaboration is expected to begin shortly. It is expected that scientists from both institutions will work together to ‘develop and implement’ a joint excellence research project with third parties’ funding.

This collaboration will include information exchange and joint scientific publications by scientists from the two institutions.

Indonesia's ITB is currently preparing the 'first' CCS Pilot Project in South East Asia and South Asia, where the CO2 source for the pilot project is obtained from oil and petroleum industries.

Austrian research institution IASA already cooperates with several centres and research groups in ITB , such as the Center for Energy Policy and the Center for New and Renewable Energy.  

 “The aim [of the MoU] is to protect all potential collaboration that has been initiated. IIASA fortunately have many interaction with several research centers in ITB so that the need for protection that integrates all those activities is important,” said Ping Yogawarna, from IlASA’s research staff.