18 November 2025 18:00 - 19:00 Virtual and Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BG
18 November 2025 | 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual and Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BG
No Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) means there can be no Net Zero and without CCS there can be no permanent Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDR’s) created through either Direct Air Capture (DAC and CCS) or BioEnergy and CCS (BECCS) This is the attention-grabbing headline summary of a policy paper from a couple of years ago. This talk aims to discuss how CCS and CDR’s play such a vital role in any journey towards net zero.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and CCS enabled CDR’s (BECCS & DAC) have a critical role to play in meeting global climate targets by returning billions of tons of CO2 created from the past, present and indeed future use of fossil fuels to the geologic record (see the chart below for the scale of the challenge). Current climate scenarios project the annual volume of required CO2 storage to escalate from the millions of tonnes being stored today to several gigatons (Gt) by mid-century. This is driven by the need to capture emissions from hard-to-abate industrial sectors and remove the legacy atmospheric CO2 from the use of fossil fuels that has enabled our society to evolve to where we are today.
While CCS, DAC and BECCS are essential, their deployment faces substantial scaling challenges. Cost, energy demands, and the rapid construction of infrastructure are major hurdles, requiring significant Government policy support and capital investment. Globally, geological formations offer vast CO2 storage potential, estimated at thousands of gigatons. However, the rate of practical deployment is constrained by factors such as cost, creating value chains that cross multiple industry bodies, regional resource accessibility, and political & policy limitations, suggesting that ambitious growth scenarios may be both geographically restricted and challenging.
This Public Lecture will take place on Tuesday 18 November 2025.
This is a hybrid event, which can be attended in person at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, or online via Zoom.
17:30–18:00: Guests arrive for the Public Lecture
18:00–19:00: Talk takes place (including Q&A)
19:00–20:00: Drinks reception in the Lower Library
20:00: Event ends
Syrie Crouch
Syrie Crouch brings 30 plus years of in-depth knowledge of the Energy Industry, including almost 20 years of working on gas injection including Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), most recently as the VP for CCS in Shell. She has had accountability for Technical, Commercial, Business/Economics and operations across multiple Geographical regions. Since leaving Shell Syrie is a founding Director and CEO of Energex CCS which aims to provide strategic advisory services to organisations seeking to navigate the energy transition. Energex CCS has undertaken consultancy projects for a variety of clients including international organizations such as the World Bank, heavy industry, waste to energy, private equity including major infrastructure funds and major Corporations.
As VP CCS for Shell Syrie worked across the Upstream, Downstream and Integrated Gas Directorates to support their Net Zero Emissions (CCS, DAC, biofuels, blue hydrogen and sectoral decarbonisation ambitions). In this role Syrie was responsible for resetting Shell’s CCS strategy and then building an organization from inception and developing the capabilities to deliver across the full TECOP (Technical, Economic, Commercial, Organizational and Political) spectrum. This included governing Capital Investment for the global CCS project portfolio, covering Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), Direct Air Capture (DAC) and lowering the carbon intensity of both oil and chemical products.
The CCS team was responsible for working with multiple governments and regulatory bodies around the world to create business enabling CCS regulations and legislation. Syrie brings a unique skillset in this space having both managed a global portfolio of CCS hubs spread across Europe , Asia, Canada and the US with a combined CAPEX budget of US$1.5 billion and FEASEX of US$200mln but with a foundation in having delivered a working CCS project, as she took the Quest project in Canada through a public hearing and to FID in 2012, this project started-up in 2015 and has now injected over 8 million tonnes of CO2.
She also has experience at the VP level for both Exploration and Development where she was a member of Shell's Upstream International Operated Leadership Team responsible for Development, including all activities between discovery and production and responsible for a significant capital investment portfolio.
Syrie serves of the board of directors of two private companies: Climeworks, a Direct Air Capture Carbon Removal company responsible for the first working carbon removals project and ReCarber a company looking to enable BECCS projects.
We are proud to partner with KSAT, who are supporting our Public Lecture Program throughout 2025. This collaboration enables us to share cutting-edge insights and geoscientific discoveries with public audiences, broadening our reach and amplifying the impact of our science program.
This lecture is free to attend.
You can register for both in-person and virtual attendance by clicking on the Book Now button above.
If you wish to join our mailing list, please email conference@geolsoc.org.uk.