CCS Research Blogs: The Latest Developments in Critical Climate Technology

Collectively known as CCS, CO₂ capture, transport and storage technologies are set to play a major role in reaching the global climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

That’s the view of the energy experts at SINTEF, and it’s one shared by the International Energy Agency (IEA) which calls CCS “an important emissions reduction technology that can be applied across the energy system.”

Ongoing industry projects dating back as far as 1996 have proven CCS to work. Since 1996, around one million tonnes of CO₂ has been stored at the Sleipner field in the North Sea.

But research is needed to improve the technology and processes to make the technology economically feasible at scale. SINTEF hosts the Norwegian CCS Research Centre (NCCS), which works to fast-track CCS deployment by addressing the major barriers identified within the industry demonstration projects.

Here are some of the latest research blogs from the world of SINTEF and NCCS:

The Safety of CO₂ Storage

Over its years of development, CCS has faced questions about its technical feasibility, which have largely been answered. But many questions have also been asked of its safety, especially for the underground storage element of CCS.

We took a scientific approach to answer these questions with this comprehensive blog post. We draw on scientific research to address the key issues of safety and risk of a full-scale CCS implementation in Norway.

Read in full: The Safety of CO₂ Storage

The Liability Regime for CO₂ Shipping

One often overlooked area of CCS is transport. Pipelines are an obvious choice on land, but to transport captured CO₂ to offshore locations, a shipping solution is also needed. But existing regulatory initiatives are designed to cover pipelines. As shipping is expected to play a central role in the North Sea storage ecosystem, a legal framework covering cross-border shipping issues is required.

Read in full: The Liability Regime for CO₂ Shipping

DeFACTO: Underground Testing of CO₂ Transport and Injection

Injection technology–when the CO₂ is pumped into the rock formation to be permanently stored–has come a long way, but many questions on the process remain open.

To help answer some of these questions, the DeFACTO project has built a test facility for CO2 flow assurance and injection at NTNU in Trondheim, that reaches 90 metres underground.

Read in full: DeFACTO: Underground Testing of CO2 Transport and Injection

NCCS Interview: Award-Winning CO₂ Hydrate Research

NCCS recently announced two joint winners of the Best NCCS Paper award for 2019. To find out more about the work behind award-winning papers, we spoke to one of the co-authors of the second paper, Peter Betlem.

A PhD candidate in (Arctic) Geology at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) and University of Oslo, Peter investigates the multi-physical detection limit of fluid flow through caprock sequences for Carbon Capture and Storage purposes, supplementing proven and traditional workflows with experimental techniques and modern technologies.

Read in full: NCCS Interview: Award-Winning CO₂ Hydrate Research

We hope this post gives you an idea of the breadth of CCS research taking place both at SINTEF and in NCCS. To keep up to date with all news and new blog posts, join the NCCS Newsletter.