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Evaluation of Barriers to National CO2 Geological Storage Assessments

• 1 February 2016
• Storage

This report is the published product of a study undertaken for the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) to assess barriers to high-level geological CO2 storage assessments for the Clean Energy Ministerial. This review was undertaken by the CO2 Storage team of the British Geological Survey on behalf of UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Korean Clean Energy Ministry to support the work of the CSLF. The review was funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change and the Korean Clean Energy Ministry. The project was managed by the IEA Greenhouse Gas Research and Development Programme (IEA-GHG). The survey responses expressed and analysed in this report are based on publicly available information and the views of respondents to a questionnaire and follow-up interviews. The responses do not necessarily reflect the view of authorities or government policies for the countries included in the survey.

Social Research Network 2015

• 1 January 2016
• Event Proceedings
• Public Perception

This work looked into adopting a place-based approach to better understand responses of the public to the siting of projects involving low-carbon technologies. The research examined public reactions to an offshore wind farm, a power line proposal and a tidal energy project in the UK. Theorising the concept of ‘place’ has two aspects to it – a place as a locus of attachment/identity and a place as a centre of meaning. With the latter, these meanings are not fixed and people have different thoughts or feelings about them. ‘Place attachment’ describes the emotional bonds between people and particular environments (which can be attachment or non-attachment), where ‘place identity’ refers to the ways in which places reflect and maintain identities for individuals or groups. This work argues the value of capturing place attachments and their related meanings to explain local responses to siting of infrastructure proposals, but notes that each in isolation is insufficient to explain why. It was felt that there is value in conducting and comparing multiple case studies across contexts and sectors to further examine the influence of place on consumers.

Monitoring Network Meeting

• 1 December 2015
• Event Proceedings
• Storage

The 45 presentations and 17 posters covered a range of topics, with sessions on cost-effective monitoring of large projects, permit requirements, induced seismicity, shallow monitoring, geophysical monitoring and CO2 relationships, pressure monitoring applications, monitoring tools for shallow, surface and deep monitoring, update on projects, and post-closure monitoring. As well as the new results and developments, new at this meeting was a group-work exercise created by Sue Hovorka of the University of Texas. This involved the groups designing monitoring plans for fictional but realistic storage sites, and then these being actually tested with leakage scenarios.

Oxy-combustion turbines

• 1 August 2015
• Capture

Post combustion capture is usually considered to be the leading option for capture of CO2 at natural gas fired power plants but there is increasing interest in the alternative of oxy-combustion turbines which use recycled CO2 and/or H2O as the working fluid instead of air. Large component tests have taken place and a 50 MWth demonstration plant is scheduled to be commissioned in 2017. Oxy-combustion turbines can also be combined with solid fuel gasification as an alternative to IGCC with pre-combustion capture. This study provides an independent evaluation of the performance and costs of a range of oxy-combustion turbine cycles, mainly for utility scale power generation. The study was carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano.

Integrated CCS Project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station

• 1 August 2015
• Capture
• Storage

On October 2, 2014, the first-ever, commercial–scale, coal-fired power plant incorporating amine solvent absorption carbon capture began operation near Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada. This was a global landmark event. Although carbon capture technologies had been pilot tested prior to this, a commercial– scale power plant now exists that has demonstrated that a number of high-risk technology and business issues have been overcome. This report summarizes the experience and learnings of SaskPower in a way that will hopefully provide insight to other clean-coal initiatives

Review of Offshore Monitoring for CCS Projects

• 1 July 2015
• Storage

This report reviews offshore monitoring practice for CO2 storage projects in terms of tool capabilities, logistical practicalities and costs. The focus is on large-scale ‘commercial’ storage monitoring and draws together published experience from existing large offshore CO2 storage sites as well as monitoring research at experimental test sites and in areas of natural CO2 seepages. The strengths and limitations of monitoring techniques, strategies and methodologies are discussed, and relevant experience from onshore sites are also included. Monitoring over the full life-cycle from pre-injection (baseline) through injection and post-injection phases to transfer of responsibility to the competent authority is considered. The review draws on selected examples of current or planned monitoring practice.

CCS deployment

• 1 July 2015
• Policy & Regulation

Meeting the long-term goal to limit global temperature rises to 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels requires large-scale deployment of low carbon technologies such as CCS. According to the most recent assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), without additional efforts to reduce emissions, global mean surface temperatures are likely to increase between 3.7 and 4.8oC by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels. Scenarios that keep the atmospheric concentration of CO2 to around 450 ppm by 2100 (66 per cent chance) are consistent with holding a rise in global temperatures to below 2°C – the long-term goal of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Such scenarios involve deep cuts in GHG emissions over the coming decades, requiring radical changes to energy systems and a step-change in the uptake of low carbon technologies.

Criteria of Fault Geomechanical Stability

• 1 April 2015
• Storage

Faults typically consist of two sub-structures: a fault core; and a wider fault damage zone. Faults in low porosity rocks tend to have a fine-grained fault core whereas faults in coarse-grained, high porosity rocks, usually have low porosity deformation bands that can develop into high permeable slip surfaces. Fault zone permeability increases with increasing fluid pressure but permeability varies both across and along faults. Hydraulic properties also vary between the damage zone and the core where gouge material is concentrated. This concentration of fine grained minerals also reduces the mechanical strength of faults. Mechanical failure or reactivation occurs either when shear stress exceeds normal strength or when hydraulic fracturing is induced. Fault deformation can be either brittle or ductile. The former leads to the formation of cataclastite (fine grained granular) and shear fractures which dilate under low effective normal stress that can cause permeability enhancement. With increasing shear deformation, fracture asperities are sheared off leading to gouge production and a reduction in permeability. Thus, in brittle deformation permeability will generally increase under low effective stresses and small displacements but decreases with increasing effective stress and magnitude of displacement. Shear fractures created in ductile deformation contract during shearing and tend not to lead to an increase in permeability. Reactivation of faults can be assessed using both analytical and numerical approaches, but assessment is usually based on the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. This method can be used to determine the critical injection pressure. Numerical modelling can provide predictions of fault stability at different scales and incorporate different parameters such as the geometry of different faults. Numerical methods can be effective for identifying leakage potential and seal failure especially where dilatancy and stress dependent permeability changes occur. Experimental tests on minerals and rock samples exposed to CO2 tentatively indicate that the coefficient of friction is not radically changed, however, this conclusion is based on limited exposure to CO2. There is limited observational data on stress regimes and direct pore pressure measurements from core samples from cap rocks and fault zones. Acquisition of key data would enhance stress regime modelling and fault behaviour.

Carbon Storage FY2015 Peer Review

• 1 April 2015
• Storage

Between March 2nd and 6th, IEAGHG convened a panel of five leading academic and industry experts to conduct a five-day peer review of 12 research projects supported by the NETL Carbon Storage Program. At the conclusion of each project review, these recognized technical experts provided recommendations on how to improve the management, performance, and overall results of each individual research project. The panel was supported by Tim Dixon (Facilitator), James Craig and Samantha Neades, IEAGHG. The Carbon Storage program is focused on developing and advancing technologies to enable safe, cost-effective, permanent geologic storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) both onshore and offshore in different depositional systems. The technologies being developed will benefit both industrial and power sector facilities that will need to mitigate future CO2 emissions. The program also serves to increase understanding of the effectiveness of these advanced technologies and management approaches in different geologic reservoirs appropriate for CO2 storage, and improve the ability to understand the behavior of CO2 in the subsurface.

Carbon capture and storage cluster projects: review and future opportunities

• 1 March 2015
• Capture
• Storage

The study was based largely on literature in the public domain and a few enquiries to ascertain current status. Some valuable additional material was also obtained from expert reviewers of the study. Sufficient information was found to review 12 clusters in depth and a number of other less developed clusters at a more general level. Based on the results the gaps, risks and challenges faced by those developing CCS cluster projects are described. Some criteria for selecting additional cluster locations are developed and recommendations for increasing the likelihood of success are put forwards. The data and references were gathered in a working database to facilitate comparisons. A CCS cluster is taken to mean a location where the opportunity to cluster sources and/or sinks for CCS has been identified in published literature.

Monitoring Network and Modelling Network – Combined Meeting

• 1 February 2015
• Event Proceedings
• Storage

The objective of this project is to test near surface monitoring of CO2 during a controlled release experiment. By monitoring released CO2 the sensitivity of monitoring systems could be determined. Data could then be used to test and calibrate migration models under controlled conditions enabling results to be up-scaled to full-scale storage sites. The results can also be used to develop a monitoring protocol. Although this is a near-surface (<20m controlled release) deeper (100m – 300m) releases are planned.

Impurities in the CO2 Stream: Effecton the Storage Complex and Well Materials

• 16 January 2015
• Transport