Finding the Goldilocks sites to store CO2 underground

To implement carbon capture and storage (CCS) successfully, each underground repository will need careful appraisal based on its unique history and setting, according to a new study co-authored by researchers from the University of Bristol. Carbon capture and storage has been heralded as a new technology for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In an effort to help slow climate change, human-produced carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured at point-source emitters like power stations and sequestered in underground rocks. In porous rocks like sandstone, the CO2 is trapped in tiny spaces or pores, which act like a sponge and soak up the injected fluid. In 2000, one of the first commercial examples of this technology was conducted in Weyburn, Saskatchewan Province, Canada where approximately 3 megatonnes of CO2 (the equivalent of emissions from 500,000 cars) are successfully sequestered every year. Scientists at Bristol have played a key research role in developing methods for monitoring the CO2 migration and storage in this vast oil and gas reservoir. In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr James Verdon and colleagues from Bristol, the Geological Survey of Canada, the British Geological Survey and BP Alternative Energy compare results from the world's three largest CCS projects.