BLOG

As GHGT-13 drew so many from the CCS world together in one place for a week it is not surprising that many take advantage to organise launch events there. Two involved the launch of projects' datasets for wider use by the CCS community, one deep-focussed, one shallow-focussed. One was organised by Geoscience Australia and CO2CRC to launch their rel...

 A Discussion Panel was organised to celebrate the 20 years of successful injection by Statoil at Sleipner, and how best to transfer knowledge globally. Statoil have been doing a good job over the years of sharing their seismic data (via IEAGHG) and other monitoring results at IEAGHG and other meetings, with very many papers published also. So...

 USDOE's John Litynski chaired an absorbing session on "Large-Scale Carbon Capture Pilots" that certainly seemed to strike a chord. Several speakers provided the audience with the benefit of their extensive practical experience of managing or operating capture pilots at the 10+ MWe scale. They described how testing often progressed through two...

In his keynote speech, "Too late for 2°C?", Thomas Stocker, eminent environmental scientist from the University of Bern, made the very clear case for urgent action if the most damaging effects of climate change were to be averted. The IEA projects that we must aim for power sector emissions of less than 40 gCO2/kWh by 2050 if we are to have a reaso...

At the Site Characterisation session of GHGT-13, Nick Hoffman demonstrated how the CarbonNet project managed to design their plume mapping approach to successfully meet regulatory requirements. A prediction of plume paths with more than a 10% probability of occurrence are required by Australian GHG storage regulations. The probabilistic modelling a...

The GHGT-13 Student Reception, sponsored by G.E, was held last night, Wednesday 16th November, and began with a welcome from Sian Twinning (IEAGHG). Sian emphasised how beneficial the reception is to all attendees, as it enables students to meet and discuss what they have heard and learnt at GHGT-13 with their peers. It also allows then to connect ...

One of the latest CCS projects to begin operating in the United States is the Kemper County Energy Facility in the state of Mississippi. Richard Espoito, the Geosciences, Carbon Utilization and Storage Southern Company, programme manager, presented an up-beat account at the start of the GHGHT-13 conference on Thursday. Richard stressed the modern '...

One of the themes covered by GHGT-13 in Lausanne is the potential of combining CCS and geothermal energy. There are different ways in which geothermal energy might be used. One idea is to inject CO2 into a saline aquifer at one point and then extract heat energy from another location within the same aquifer. Doublet extraction and injection of cool...

Statoil have been operating at Sleipner since 1996 marking twenty years of injection monitoring at the site. The monitoring programme has been shown to be a success proving both conformance and containment as well as including contingency plans. Repeated seismic and gravimetric surveys have been conducted throughout the lifetime of the project alon...

 A total of 10 talks discussing trapping mechanisms for CO2 were presented at GHGT-13 on Tuesday. This included new research from Stanford University (Charlotte Garing et al.) which demonstrated, through micro-CT imaging experiments, the residual trapping effects that occur at pore-scale within the reservoir (and the impact of capillary pressu...

As part of the Risk Assessment session held at GHGT-13, Scott Frailey from the Illinois State Geological Survey spoke about the issues surrounding the variety of techniques currently used to calculate storage resource and their associated uncertainties. He announced that The Society of Petroleum Engineers CCS Technical Section is forming a multi‐so...

The GHGT-13 plenary session on Wednesday 16th November opened with an upbeat assessment of the Quest CO2 storage demonstration site in the Canadian province of Alberta. Tim Wiwchar, who is Shell Canada's Portfolio Manager Heavy Oil, presented a summary of the progress since this flagship project started operating in November 2015. Quest was built o...

 CO2 storage relies on the injection of the gas either via pre-existing wellbores or, in the future, new wells. CO2 is potentially corrosive and in certain conditions can induce rapid cooling. Both conditions are detrimental to wellbores so it's important to understand how these conditions occur and what mitigation options are available. The G...

 As I spoke to open GHGT-13 today COP22 is underway in Marrakech. It is worth reflecting on the historic agreement that was made at the preceding COP21 meeting held in Paris last year. Paris set us the added aspiration of a new global temperature target of below 20C, even though we are working towards a 20C target. We know very well that even ...

The 50th bi-annual IEAGHG ExCo meeting has come to a close in the beautiful Swiss city of Lausanne. The two day IEAGHG Executive Committee meeting began on Saturday 12th November and was held in the excellent Hôtel de la Paix. This regular meeting is held twice yearly, at different locations across the world each time, and gives IEAGHG an opportuni...

 The Swiss are making an important commitment to long-term CO2 storage through international collaboration and research. This is notably evident at the Mont Terri Rock Laboratory situated in the Jura Mountains about two hours drive north of Lausanne. This facility has been deliberately constructed within an impermeable shale called the Opalinu...

 The geomechanics session at GHGT-13 in Lausanne has covered a variety of topics including the value of studying natural analogues. Useful insights into CO2 migration within formations can be gained especially where fractures provide natural conduits for geochemical alteration. Exposures of the Jurassic Entrada formation in Utah provide an exc...

COP-22 got underway in Marrakesh in unseasonable heavy rain. Several thousand delegates are gathering at the tented city that is the conference centre for the work to start developing the implementation details of the Paris Agreement, in terms of frameworks, processes and mechanisms. Negotiations commenced under SBSTA on the Technology Framework in...

The Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) set up in 2003 is the implementing arm of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Technology Mechanism. The CTCN, promotes the accelerated development and transfer of climate technologies for energy-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient development. On November 4th 2016 the CT...

Fault zones are widely recognised as being important to the secure long term storage of CO2 as they could provide a leakage pathway out of the target reservoir. Fault characterisation within reservoirs, especially where they extend into caprock, and other overlying formations, needs to be thoroughly understood as part of any risk assessment for CO2...