A new tool to ensure the safety of injecting CO2 underground

01. Sequestering carbon dioxide underground is likely to play a key role in meeting reduction targets set at the IPCC conference in Paris last year. Researchers at EPFL have developed a simulation tool to evaluate the impact of the injection process on the host rock. Over the course of four and a half years, the ground surrounding the In Salah gas-fired power plant in the Algerian desert rose by sixteen millimeters. This rise was triggered by the injection of the carbon dioxide emissions captured at the plant into a deep aquifer, 1800 meters underground. The heaving of the bedrock at In Salah was benign, but injecting excessive amounts of gas into the subsurface could potentially fracture the impermeable rock layers keeping the gas in place. Researchers at EPFL have developed a computer model that simulates the geological impact of injecting CO₂ underground and assess how much gas a reservoir can safely accommodate.