Canadian CO2 Capture and Storage Alliance
Many countries have or are struggling with the effects of fossil fuel emissions. One possible solution is capturing carbon dioxide at its source (power plants or industrial facilities), transporting it and storing it, thus eliminating its release to the atmosphere. The long-term storage of CO2 is a fairly new concept.
The most efficient place to store CO2 is in deep geological formations, which are abundant in North America and many parts of the world. Geologic storage is the method where CO2 is injected directly into deep formations in oil fields, gas fields, unmineable coal seams or saline aquifers, for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery and/or CO2 storage. Highly impermeable cap-rock and geochemical, geological and hydrodynamic trapping mechanisms would prevent the carbon dioxide from escaping to the surface.
The science of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) has been expert reviewed and documented in a comprehensive report, Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC Special Report is available to be downloaded on the IPCC website at www.ipcc.ch.
CCS projects, while relatively recent, have already successfully stored millions of tonnes of CO2 without detectable leakage for a number of years. For example, the Sleipner project off the east coast of Norway has been injecting about 1 million tonnes of compressed CO2 annually into the deep Utsira saline aquifer since 1996 with no leakage. Similarly the IEA GHG R&D Weyburn-Midale CO2 Storage and Monitoring Project in Canada has injected over 7 million tonnes of CO2 into a producing oil field since 2000. At Weyburn, extensive monitoring by an international team of scientists has detected no leakage. Other projects are now underway and many new projects are planned throughout the world which will come on-stream in the years to come.
Domestic and International Markets
As the world moves towards a carbon constrained environment, so does the concern over greenhouse gas emissions. Our goal is to offer our expertise essential to developing successful CCS projects. Our expertise lies in the following areas:
- Combustion and gasification
- CO2 capture and credits
- Surface facilities including pipelines
- Carbonate, siliciclastic and coal geology
- Groundwater and sedimentary basin hydrogeology
- Geophysics, geomechanics and geochemistry
- Drilling, logging and laboratory testing
- Completions, simulation and well testing
- Reservoir engineering and modelling
- Injection and production engineering
- Monitoring and field validation
- Risk and performance assessment
- Database and project management
- Life cycle economics
- Environmental management
- Training and regulatory
For more Contact
Sam Wong
Chair, Canadian CO2 Capture and Storage Alliance
Alberta Research Council
Tel: (780) 450-5269
Fax: (780) 450-5083
E-mail: sam.wong@arc.ab.ca
CO2 Capture and Storage Around the World
The challenge facing every nation is how to make deep GHG reductions while continuing economic growth. The task will be complex as there are direct linkages between economic growth, fossil energy use and GHG emissions.
The Canadian government has announced a national objective to reduce emissions by 20% from current levels by 2020 and 60 to 70% by 2050. CCS is a viable way to achieve significant domestic GHG reductions. Learning by doing is essential and we will start by building and operating the first commercial scale projects. Investing in CCS now allows Canada to compete in a carbon-constrained world (The ecoENERGY Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force Report, 2008).
Alberta has aggressive plans for CCS. "Our success with this technology platform will ultimately be a valued and exportable resource into itself" (Alberta's Provincial Energy Strategy 2008). It has made a commitment to provide $ 2 billion in public support for three to five CCS projects which are expected to store about five million tones of CO2 a year by 2015.
The United States has signaled that combating climate change is a key component of the nation's new environmental agenda. CCS is high on the list of technologies that will be demonstrated and deployed.
The EU is committed to reducing its overall emissions to at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020. CCS is one of the technologies that can help EU to meet this goal. It has identified two major tasks for the deployment of CCS: (1) developing an enabling legal framework and economic incentives for CCS within the EU; and (2) encouraging a network of demonstration plants across Europe and in key third countries.
Carbon capture works as evidenced by three programs currently underway, in Norway, Algeria, and North Dakota. In addition, Australia has already begun the Otway Project, this country's first demonstration of geologic storage.
CCCS is a growing field and the CCCSA can help you realize your carbon reduction goals.