Ireland day 0727. Monday 25 September 2023- CCS Lecture *

Ireland day 0727. Monday 25 September 2023- CCS Lecture

Today’s summary	Spent the morning and early afternoon on domestic chores and a short walk. After lunch, in late afternoon went to University College Dublin for a lecture on Carbon Capture and Storage
Today’s weather	Bright and breezy with some sun and no rain. Moderate south-westerly wind. Appx 16C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Although I stopped doing paid work on Carbon Capture and Storage over a decade ago, I still like to keep in touch with what’s going on (spoiler alert – progress is painfully slow). So when the opportunity to join a lecture at University College Dublin (UCD) by a respected authority on the subject came along, I seized the opportunity. (If nothing else – I was curious to have a look around the UCD campus, as I’d never been).

But before heading off to Dublin, Val and I had a number of domestic duties to attend to. And on top of those, Val went for a run round the demesne, and I got a haircut (a no. 4 + no.2 in case you were wondering). Once those tasks were completed, and we’d had lunch (fish goujons concocted by Val, which were delicious), we had a short walk together then I headed off in the Trusty Yaris to deepest Dublin to try and find UCD.

The quickest way there is to go down the M1, through the port tunnel, and then cross the Liffey over the east link toll bridge. The UCD campus is just off the N11 dual carriageway. Although the journey sounds complicated, it is actually quite straightforward and I was there in well under an hour, despite lengthy waits for DART trains to go across level crossings.

As I arrived a bit early, I took a few moments to have a look round the UCD campus. the bits that I saw were very nice. Clean, modern and seemingly well equipped. It felt like it would be a good place to study. The lecture itself was only moderately attended – I guessed there were about 20 or 30 CCS “professionals”, plus a few students who had dropped in to learn about something different. I appreciated the lecture room itself, which had excellent acoustics and was neatly laid out. It was situated in the also uber-modern Student Village building, and it was nice to be surrounded by young people for once. They are so much more positive and energetic than most people of my generation!

The lecture itself was quite interesting – though it was about a rather obscure topic related to reservoir management systems for CO2 storage. Probably of only limited interest in Ireland at the moment. But I had a good opportunity to speak with some interesting industry professionals over reception refreshments afterwards (though strangely there were no non-alcoholic drinks on offer, which was a bit frustrating as many attendees were driving so couldn’t drink).

After half an hour or so of networking, I said my thank-yous, took my leave, and drove back to Malahide. All in all I really enjoyed the evening. UCD was reassuringly impressive, and I do enjoy reconnecting with the world of work from time to time. Just not too often.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*“Real” Jasmine (Jasminum polyanthum) in Hanlon’s Lane*	*“False” jasmine, or Potato Vine (Solanum jasminoides) growing right next to the real thing, also in Hanlon’s Lane*

On the UCD campus. Modern buildings, clean and tidy grounds, polite and bright students. I was impressed	In the Student Village, where the lecture hall is located. Very nice facility



In the main lecture hall. A good venue, though people kept clattering in and out throughout the lecture, which was a bit distracting. Also, the room was booked out to another speaker immediately afterwards, so there was no time for a proper Q&A session