Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage : a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release

Flohr, Anita and Schaap, Allison and Achterberg, Eric P. and Alendal, Guttorm and Arundell, Martin and Berndt, Christian and Blackford, Jerry and Böttner, Christoph and Borisov, Sergey M. and Brown, Robin and Bull, Jonathan M. and Carter, Liam and Chen, Baixin and Dale, Andrew W. and de Beer, Dirk and Dean, Marcella and Deusner, Christian and Dewar, Marius and Durden, Jennifer M. and Elsen, Saskia and Esposito, Mario and Faggetter, Michael and Fischer, Jan P. and Gana, Amine and Gros, Jonas and Haeckel, Matthias and Hanz, Rudolf and Holtappels, Moritz and Hosking, Brett and Huvenne, Veerle A.I. and James, Rachael H. and Koopmans, Dirk and Kossel, Elke and Leighton, Timothy G. and Li, Jianghui and Lichtschlag, Anna and Linke, Peter and Loucaides, Socratis and Martínez-Cabanas, María and Matter, Juerg M. and Mesher, Thomas and Monk, Samuel and Mowlem, Matthew and Oleynik, Anna and Papadimitriou, Stathys and Paxton, David and Pearce, Christopher R. and Peel, Kate and Roche, Ben and Ruhl, Henry A. and Saleem, Umer and Sands, Carla and Saw, Kevin and Schmidt, Mark and Sommer, Stefan and Strong, James A. and Triest, Jack and Ungerböck, Birgit and Walk, John and White, Paul and Widdicombe, Steve and Wilson, Robert Euan and Wright, Hannah and Wyatt, James and Connelly, Douglas (2021) Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage : a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 106. 103237. ISSN 1750-5836 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237)

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Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO2 storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO2 leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO2 release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO2 from a subsurface CO2 storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO2 were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO2 in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.

ORCID iDs

Flohr, Anita, Schaap, Allison, Achterberg, Eric P., Alendal, Guttorm, Arundell, Martin, Berndt, Christian, Blackford, Jerry, Böttner, Christoph, Borisov, Sergey M., Brown, Robin, Bull, Jonathan M., Carter, Liam, Chen, Baixin, Dale, Andrew W., de Beer, Dirk, Dean, Marcella, Deusner, Christian, Dewar, Marius, Durden, Jennifer M., Elsen, Saskia, Esposito, Mario, Faggetter, Michael, Fischer, Jan P., Gana, Amine, Gros, Jonas, Haeckel, Matthias, Hanz, Rudolf, Holtappels, Moritz, Hosking, Brett, Huvenne, Veerle A.I., James, Rachael H., Koopmans, Dirk, Kossel, Elke, Leighton, Timothy G., Li, Jianghui, Lichtschlag, Anna, Linke, Peter, Loucaides, Socratis, Martínez-Cabanas, María, Matter, Juerg M., Mesher, Thomas, Monk, Samuel, Mowlem, Matthew, Oleynik, Anna, Papadimitriou, Stathys, Paxton, David, Pearce, Christopher R., Peel, Kate, Roche, Ben, Ruhl, Henry A., Saleem, Umer ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5902-6406, Sands, Carla, Saw, Kevin, Schmidt, Mark, Sommer, Stefan, Strong, James A., Triest, Jack, Ungerböck, Birgit, Walk, John, White, Paul, Widdicombe, Steve, Wilson, Robert Euan, Wright, Hannah, Wyatt, James and Connelly, Douglas;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)