Periodic Reporting for period 3 - ENOS (ENabling Onshore CO2 Storage in Europe)
Reporting period: 2019-05-01 to 2020-08-31
ENOS aimed to provide crucial advances to help foster onshore CO2 storage across Europe through:
1) Developing and demonstrating key technologies in onshore contexts, with consideration of their social aspects and using research and development at testbeds and pilot sites to advance technologies for safe and environmentally sound storage.
2) Contributing to the creation of a favourable environment for onshore storage across Europe, by:
a. supporting knowledge sharing,
b. integrating research results and setting out good practices,
c. supporting the preparation of new pilot projects,
d. bringing innovation to society through dialogue and communication,
e. demonstrating and presenting the role for CCS through training and education.
The main objective to enable onshore CCS was to strengthen the confidence of the public, operators, emitters, investors, policy-makers, and regulators, through:
- Demonstrating, through practical experience, that injection operations can be run safely and efficiently onshore, supporting development of an enabling regulatory environment;
- Ensuring that estimated storage capacities are reliable and affordable, to enable investment;
- Demonstrating our capacity to understand, detect and manage potential leakage risks, which is key for regulatory issues and to demonstrate CO2 storage is being carried out in a manner which is environmentally sound and safe;
- Integrating CO2 storage into the local economic activities to create financial incentives and local benefits, thereby supporting early storage projects;
- Engaging and collaborating with the local population, without which project development is impossible.
Due to the cancelation of CO2 injection at the Hontomin site in Spain, ENOS was interrupted and not all planned activities could be performed. The project nevertheless produced sound research outcomes as summarised below.
Ensuring storage capacities and cost-effective site characterization:
- Concept for a low-cost drilling rig adapted to CO2 storage needs
- Smart characterisation tool to optimize exploration costs
- Assessment of reliability of storage capacity appraisals
Understanding, detecting and managing potential leakage risks:
- ENOS aligned with national funding to support development of two test injection sites, in Italy (SFL) and the UK (GTB)
- Baseline data acquired at these sites
- Development and improvement of a portfolio of monitoring tools and techniques using natural seepage sites
Integration of CO2 storage into local economic activities
- Technical design for seasonal CO2 buffering, along with cost and production simulation (Q16 Mass)
- Definition and simulation of novel concepts for CO2-EOR, demonstrating the possibility for carbon neutrality (LBr-1)
- Development of socio-economic models for the 2 test cases
Development of storage projects with the local population
- Illustrated materials presenting the project and CO2 storage in lay terms
- Development of a coordinated approach for engaging the public, with results from the citizen groups in the UK and the Netherlands
- Exploration of cooperation pathways for citizen groups, policy makers and industrial operator in the Netherlands
ENOS also helped prepare a favorable environment for deploying CO2 storage through initiatives in the following fields:
Knowledge and experience sharing within the European and international CCS community:
- Experience-sharing webinars with recordings available online
- Launch of the Shallow Migration Network to link initiatives injecting CO2 in shallow environments worldwide
- Identification of new CO2 storage pilot opportunities in Europe
- Upscaling study on CO2-EOR with subsequent CO2 storage in the Vienna Basin
Education and training:
- Launch of an International Master Course on CO2 storage with completion of the first cycle in 2020
- Annual Spring School for early career researchers
- E-lectures available online
The safety of CO2 storage has been further ensured, thanks to the development of more responsive and more sensitive monitoring tools and techniques which have already been tested at natural seepage sites and are waiting to be further tested at the field research sites during controlled shallow injection of CO2.
The work performed in assessing reliability of storage capacity estimations, exploration strategies and on the development of a low-cost drilling rig, will help reduce uncertainty when considering a potential CO2 storage project and help minimise investment needed before a final investment decision.
In order to increase public confidence and interest in CO2 storage, ENOS adopted a dual approach: building interaction between researchers and local communities and highlighting examples of integrating the storage project into the local economy to create local benefits. ENOS has explored how this can be achieved by coordinating project development with local communities and by including the integration of local needs into storage implementation procedures. ENOS thus generated new understanding on how the requirements of the local stakeholders and population can be taken into account in CO2 storage development, through early and open engagement with local community members to discuss their concerns on the management of CO2 storage sites.
Two pathways for integration into the local economy have been studied: 1) coupling buffer and long-term storage of CO2 for use in greenhouses and 2) CO2-EOR exploitation with subsequent CO2 storage. In both cases a technical design has been developed and legal and economical implications considered. The buffer concept was assessed in principle as economically viable by local industry.
ENOS published a series of documents for raising public and stakeholders’ awareness. They explain key aspects of CO2 storage technology and are complementary to existing materials. Online dissemination materials are openly accessible including the ENOS E-learning course.
ENOS also strongly contributed to training and capacity building. A Joint Postgraduate International Master in “CO2 Geological Storage” has been launched. It is the first experience of an international course completely dedicated to CO2 Storage in Europe. Spring Schools for early career researchers have been performed annually.
By developing technologies (from TRL4/5 to TRL6)across the storage lifecycle, feeding the resultant knowledge and experience into training and education, cooperating at pan-European and global levels, ENOS will have a decisive impact on scientific innovation and help build the confidence needed for enabling onshore CO2 storage in Europe.