UK (Commonwealth Union) – Offshore carbon storage is currently emerging in many parts of the world as a form of storing liquified carbon dioxide below the seabed. A new report has indicated that the UK will need to step up research and deployment of new offshore carbon storage wells to reach the goal of the capacity needed to fulfil its net zero emissions plans.
The Locked Away – Geological Carbon Storage, which appeared in the Royal Society, were led by the University of Cambridge researchers, who looked into the findings and technical considerations for permanent transfer of CO2 to the deep saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields offshore.
The nations Committee on Climate Change identified carbon capture and storage (CCS) as an essential technology to achieve net zero. However, the levels of CCS deployment worldwide have not kept up to speed as indicated in the report.
Professor Andy Woods from Cambridge’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF), chair of the report’s working group stated that geological carbon storage will be a vital part of the continuing energy transition, for storing emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industries, as well as longer-term removal of CO2 via direct air capture.
“The UK’s access to potential storage sites in its offshore waters, along with a strong industrial base and regulatory and assurance environment, mean this could be an important industry,” he said. “But thousands of wells are likely to be needed globally, and each new subsurface reservoir can take years to develop to ensure its suitability.”
The report specifically emphasizes the requirement to understand the storage capacity and properties of various geological formations, critical pressure which may cause seal rocks to fail and leak, various monitoring strategies for identifying CO2 leaks, new understanding of some of the geochemical processes and the potential to raise capacity in old wells.
