Due to COVID-19 precautions, the US Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) CCUS Integrated Projects Review meeting was held as a virtual event over 17-19 August, instead of at its usual location in Pittsburgh. These events provide very informative updates on the DOE NETL funded CCUS projects. The online attendance w...

One of the challenges that faces CCS is how to transport significant volumes of compressed CO2 from point sources to sites established for large-scale storage, especially offshore. Pipelines are one solution, but their viability depends on the volume to be transported and if the CO2 comes from a variety of dispersed sources.The other option is to u...

The CO2 DataShare is a digital platform for sharing reference datasets from pioneering CO2 storage projects like Sleipner. The platform, which has now been launched, allows researchers based anywhere in the world, to download datasets from representative CO2 storage sites. Equinor, one of the World's leading companies in the advancement of CO2 stor...

Aquistore, the CCS combine capture and storage demonstration project in south-east Saskatchewan, recently summarised five years of successful research.The site receives CO2 from the adjacent coal-fired Boundary Dam power-plant. Some of this CO2 is supplied to the local oil and gas operators for enhanced oil recovery.Periodically CO2 is sent to the ...

The primary aim of this study was to explore the role of the 'clean refinery' concept and how it could contribute to the Paris Agreement's long-term objective to curb peak global greenhouse gas emissions.  Various options for refineries are available depending, not only on the complexity and degree of integration, but also on whether a refiner...

The US Government's commitment to the large-scale development of CCUS has been recently ramped up with the introduction of the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise abbreviated to CarbonSAFE. The aim of this initiative, represented by a number of NETL research teams at this year's CCUS conference in Pittsburgh, is to develop geological stora...

During the CCUS meeting organised by NETL, a series of sessions on the development of monitoring technologies, are being held.NELT is supporting a series of R&D projects to develop and test monitoring technologies which can detect the presence of CO2 in the subsurface.US national research labs including Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkely (LBN...

The annual gathering of research groups directly engaged in CCUS R&D from across the United States is being held in Pittsburgh.This meeting, organised by the US National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), ensures that US Department of Energy (DOE) projects are reviewed by that department's project managers and a wider international audience.P...

Faults are naturally occurring structures within the subsurface where there has been dislocation between adjacent rock formations.They can be a few metres to several kilometres in length and can have fracture zones of variable width.Evidence from the petroleum industry shows that they can act as seals or conduits for fluid flow.These structures can...

CaMI is a research site set up by the University of Calgary near the town of Brooks in southern Alberta.Prior to the combined Monitoring and Environmental Research network meeting organised by IEAGHG and the University of Calgary, delegates benefited from a guided tour of the site and its experimental monitoring activities.The CaMI site was establi...

The drive towards CCUS implementation across the Asia-Pacific region was highlighted recently as part of the Asia Clean Energy Forum hosted by the ADB. Delegates from several Asian companies and research orientated institutions, as well as representatives from the IEA, World Bank, US DOE, International CCS Knowledge Centre, Canada, UK-China (Guangd...

The close of the GHGT-14 conference, held in October in Melbourne, presented an excellent opportunity to visit the Otway test facility operated by CO2CRC.The site, which is approximately 245 km (~152 miles) from Melbourne, was visited on two consecutive days by conference delegates who were given guided tours and background briefing on CO2CRC's act...

The second day of the GHGT-14 Conference in Melbourne opened with an up-beat plenary session from three prominent figures directly engaged in Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS). All three are influential in CCUS technological advances their respective portfolios. Steve Winberg, Assistance Secretary for Fossil Fuel in the US Department o...

On Day 2 of the GTGT-14 Conference in Melbourne, the second panel discussion covered the important topic of unlocking CCUS Investment. The distinguished panel, chaired by Samantha McCulloch from the IEA, included representatives from the US Department of Energy, Shell, Total and the World Bank. Samantha set the scene by explaining how the IEA's cli...

  A highlight of the recent combined Modelling and Risk Management Network meeting was the inclusion of a keynote address from Lynn Helms, who is the head of North Dakota's Industrial Commission.Lynn's contribution was exceptional because the state's Industrial Commission now has Primacy for all six classes of wellbore disposal and is the only...

As part of the latest IEAGHG combined Modelling and Risk Management Network meeting, hosts EERC organised a field trip to a brine extraction and pressure management test site (BEST) near Watford City, North Dakota.One of the challenges presented by CO2 injection into saline formations is an increase in reservoir pressure. Brine extraction can be us...

IEAGHG, together with hosts the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC), has just held another combined Modelling and Risk Management Network meeting, in Grand Forks, North Dakota.EERC is part of the University of North Dakota, and is an active participant in CCS research, notably the lead organisation of the PCOR Regional Carbon Sequestrat...

In the latest PTRC news-letter the Saskatchewan based research organisation announced that the week of 13th – 16thMarch marked the fourth seismic imaging run conducted over the Aquistore site. This technique is an integral part of the sites's monitoring and measurement programme. Since injection began in 2015 over 140,000 tonnes have been stored. T...

One of the highlights from the US DOE Carbon Storage and oil and natural gas Technologies Review Meeting between 1st and 3rd August 2017, was a summary from, Robert Vagnetti of NETL on the current US geothermal FORGE programme (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy). This energy source is not only relatively abundant in the US it a...

The US DOE annual Carbon Storage Review meeting, held in Pittsburgh 1-3 August, included presentations on the latest technology innovations currently under development in the country. One of the challenges of secure subsurface storage is the ability to track CO2 in deep reservoirs. Fibre-optic distributed acoustic sensors (DAS) are attracting incre...