• Energy Research

The focus of the GeoCapacity project is GIS mapping of CO2 point sources, infrastructure and geological storage in Europe. The main objective is to assess the European capacity for geological storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers, oil and gas structures and coal beds. Other priorities are further development of methods for capacity assessment, economic modelling and site selection as well as international cooperation, especially with China. The results of GeoCapacity will include 25 countries and comprises most European sedimentary basins suitable for geological storage of CO2. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

AbstractMapping efforts over the past decade has resulted in fairly good knowledge about the wide range of CO2 storage options that exists across Europe. Several research groups in Europe are currently maturing this knowledge further with the end-goal to maturing the knowledge about suitable sites to the level where there is significant certainty of storage capacity. This paper present work that contribute to this effort, where regions offshore Denmark and Germany not previously mapped have been investigated for storage capacity. These regions are the i) Danish sector of the southeast part of the North Sea, ii) the Danish sector of the Southwest part of the Baltic Sea, and iii) the German sector of the Southwest part of the Baltic Sea (partly extending into the Polis sector). The results show that there are important near-shore potential storage sites available, though the certainty is limited about their actual storage capacity.

AbstractEuropean research projects mapping and assessing geological storage capacity have indicated a large potential in the Nordic region accounting for 59% of the total mapped European storage capacity of 358 Gt. These studies, however did only include storage capacities from Denmark and Norway and thus failed to review the capacities from Finland, Iceland and Sweden. A new Nordic expertise centre for CCS named NORDICCS will in the coming years attempt to improve the mapping of CO2 storage sites and storage capacity estimations within the Nordic region. Preliminary results indicate that large sedimentary basins in the Baltic Sea, the Skagerrak area, the North Sea and the area offshore mid-Norway will be able to store large amounts of CO2 in deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas fields. In addition early research results from Iceland indicate a large potential for in-situ mineralisation of CO2 in porous basalts, and a minor potential for mineral trapping in ultramafic rocks in Finland. Data from all five Nordic countries underlines results of the previous European projects; the total updated assessed geological storage potential in selected areas is 76 Gt for in saline aquifers, 29 Gt for hydrocarbon fields and between 62-333 Gt for areas with potential for mineral trapping.

AbstractAn attempting to single out the most attractive storage areas among a large number of mapped CO2 storage formations, units and traps in the Nordic region, has resulted in a characterisation and ranking procedure for saline aquifer. The ranking methodology is kept simple and divided into four main groups with the most important criteria for reservoir properties, seal properties, safety and data coverage. Based on the ranking 18 of the most prospective CO2 storage sites have been selected. Furthermore, the critical factors determining if a basalt area is suitable for CO2 injection is illustrated by an injection site on Iceland.

Abstract Ranking of CO 2 storage sites in the Nordic countries has previously been reported from the NORDICCS project. The ranking was based on geological characteristics of reservoir and seal, data coverage and safety evaluation of the storage complex. Estimated storage capacity were included but not taken into account in the ranking except if two storage sites were equally ranked. This paper presents a method for evaluating knowledge gaps for a storage site based on characterisation and assessment criteria presented in the EU CCS Directive, and a new updated ranking is presented where knowledge gaps are taken into account.

The Nordic CCS roadmap is developed in the NORDICCS project, a collaborative research project between leading CCS research institutions in the five Nordic countries. The roadmap will outline jointly developed Nordic strategies for widespread implementation of CCS in the Nordic countries in order to help Nordic industries meet a carbon constrained future with a high price on carbon emissions. It will identify pathways and milestones for large-scale Nordic implementation of CCS resulting in beneficial economies of scale that will increase the likelihood of implementation. Several novel cases will be presented that reveal future Nordic opportunities, including industrial CCS where emitters have large point sources of CO2 localized in clusters, and natural gas sweetening with the potential for use of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) to defray the costs. Recommendations will be made for actions relating to joint political work in the Nordic region for improving the framework conditions for CCS.