Assuring the integrity of offshore carbon dioxide storage

Connelly, D. P. and Bull, J. M. and Flohr, A. and Schaap, A. and Koopmans, D. and Blackford, J. C. and White, P. R. and James, R. H. and Pearce, C. and Lichtschlag, A. and Achterberg, E. P. and de Beer, D. and Roche, B. and Li, J. and Saw, K. and Alendal, G. and Avlesen, H. and Brown, R. and Borisov, S. M. and Böttner, C. and Cazenave, P. W. and Chen, B. and Dale, A. W. and Dean, M. and Dewar, M. and Esposito, M. and Gros, J. and Hanz, R. and Haeckel, M. and Hosking, B. and Huvenne, V. and Karstens, J. and Le Bas, T. and Leighton, T. G. and Linke, P. and Loucaides, S. and Matter, J. M. and Monk, S. and Mowlem, M. C. and Oleynik, A. and Omar, A. M. and Peel, K. and Provenzano, G. and Saleem, U. and Schmidt, M. and Schramm, B. and Sommer, S. and Strong, J. and Falcon Suarez, I. and Ungerboeck, B. and Widdicombe, S. and Wright, H. and Yakushev, E. (2022) Assuring the integrity of offshore carbon dioxide storage. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 166. 112670. ISSN 1879-0690 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2022.112670)

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Abstract

Carbon capture and storage is a key mitigation strategy proposed for keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 °C. Offshore storage can provide up to 13% of the global CO2 reduction required to achieve the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change goals. The public must be assured that potential leakages from storage reservoirs can be detected and that therefore the CO2 is safely contained. We conducted a controlled release of 675 kg CO2 within sediments at 120 m water depth, to simulate a leak and test novel detection, quantification and attribution approaches. We show that even at a very low release rate (6 kg day−1), CO2 can be detected within sediments and in the water column. Alongside detection we show the fluxes of both dissolved and gaseous CO2 can be quantified. The CO2 source was verified using natural and added tracers. The experiment demonstrates that existing technologies and techniques can detect, attribute and quantify any escape of CO2 from sub-seabed reservoirs as required for public assurance, regulatory oversight and emissions trading schemes.

ORCID iDs

Connelly, D. P., Bull, J. M., Flohr, A., Schaap, A., Koopmans, D., Blackford, J. C., White, P. R., James, R. H., Pearce, C., Lichtschlag, A., Achterberg, E. P., de Beer, D., Roche, B., Li, J., Saw, K., Alendal, G., Avlesen, H., Brown, R., Borisov, S. M., Böttner, C., Cazenave, P. W., Chen, B., Dale, A. W., Dean, M., Dewar, M., Esposito, M., Gros, J., Hanz, R., Haeckel, M., Hosking, B., Huvenne, V., Karstens, J., Le Bas, T., Leighton, T. G., Linke, P., Loucaides, S., Matter, J. M., Monk, S., Mowlem, M. C., Oleynik, A., Omar, A. M., Peel, K., Provenzano, G., Saleem, U. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5902-6406, Schmidt, M., Schramm, B., Sommer, S., Strong, J., Falcon Suarez, I., Ungerboeck, B., Widdicombe, S., Wright, H. and Yakushev, E.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)