CO2STORE - New Project to Build on Existing Research

A new European Commission funded project called CO2STORE has now commenced. The project started in February 2003 and will run for 3 years. One of the key activities of the new CO2STORE Project is to utilise the knowledge gained from the SACS project to study new CO₂ storage opportunities in Europe (Greenhouse Issues, number 48).  It is planned to investigate the properties of a number of new storage reservoirs in Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the UK.  In each situation a case study will undertake the following:

• a detailed geological  characterisation of the prospective storage site,
• geochemical modelling of the reservoir and cap rock,
• and simulation and modelling studies to determine the long term fate of the CO₂ in the reservoir.

The procedures used will be based on the recommendations in the SACS Best Practise Manual.  The cases to be considered are summarised below.

• The Danish study will consider a deep saline aquifer known at the Havsnó reservoir which occurs in the North Western corner of the island of Sjælland in eastern Denmark.  The reservoir is a large domal structure lying partly on-shore and partly off-shore. The reservoir is close to two major point sources, the Kalundborg refinery and the 1300MW Asnæsværket power plant which burns both coal and Orimulsion. The combined emission from these two sources is about 6 Mt CO₂ per year which represents 10% of the total Danish CO₂ emissions.
• The German component will study an onshore deep saline aquifer in North Germany, and currently the federal states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg- Vorpommern are being investigated.  In this region, there is a lignite-fuelled power plant, Schwarze Pumpe. It consists of two blocks, each having a capacity of 800 MW. In total, both blocks emit around 10 Mton CO₂ per year. Over an expected service life of 40 years, 400 Mton CO₂ would be available to be stored. Consequently, the project targets a reservoir that has a storage potential of 400 Mt CO₂.
• The Norwegian study will consider offshore deep saline aquifer opportunities in mid Norway, in particular the south eastern part of the Tróndelag platform.  This area is adjacent to a number of existing and planned large CO₂ emission sources.
• The UK study will consider offshore storage opportunities in deep saline aquifers in the UK sector of St Georges Channel.  The CO₂ would come from a new IGCC plant that is planned to be constructed in South Wales.  It is expected that 1-2 Mt CO₂ per year will become available by 2006 (Greenhouse Issues, number 65).

The Kalundborg refinery and Asnæsværket power plant, Denmark.
Courtesy of Energi E2

It is also planned in CO2STORE that a risk assessment analysis will be undertaken on each of the case studies considered. The project groups working on the 4 case studies will aim to harmonise their approaches to the risk assessment activities.

In addition to the reservoir work, the case studies will also characterise the plant emissions, evaluate the CO₂ transmission issues from the emission source to the reservoir, consider planning permission requirements and undertake a techno-economic assessment of each case.

Schwarze pumpe lignite fuelled power plant
Courtesy of vattenfall

The CO2STORE project will also continue some of the works of the SACS project, in particular works on the long term fate of CO₂ injected into the Utsira formation will continue as well as monitoring of the injected CO₂ using repeat seismic and high resolution gravity monitoring.

Like the SACS project, CO2STORE is being co-ordinated by Statoil. Further details on the project can be obtained by contacting Hans Askel Haugen at hakha@statoil.com