Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release

Anita Flohr; Allison Schaap; Eric P. Achterberg; Guttorm Alendal; Martin Arundell; Christian Berndt; Jerry Blackford; Christoph Böttner; Sergey M. Borisov; Robin Brown; Jonathan M. Bull; Liam Carter; Baixin Chen; Andrew W. Dale; Dirk de Beer; Marcella Dean; Christian Deusner; Marius Dewar; Jennifer M. Durden; Saskia Elsen; Mario Esposito; Michael Faggetter; Jan P. Fischer; Amine Gana; Jonas Gros; Matthias Haeckel; Rudolf Hanz; Moritz Holtappels; Brett Hosking; Veerle A.I. Huvenne; Rachael H. James; Dirk Koopmans; Elke Kossel; Timothy G. Leighton; Jianghui Li; Anna Lichtschlag; Peter Linke; Socratis Loucaides; María Martínez-Cabanas; Juerg M. Matter; Thomas Mesher; Samuel Monk; Matthew Mowlem; Anna Oleynik; Stathys Papadimitriou; David Paxton; Christopher R. Pearce; Kate Peel; Ben Roche; Henry A. Ruhl; Umer Saleem; Carla Sands; Kevin Saw; Mark Schmidt; Stefan Sommer; James A. Strong; Jack Triest; Birgit Ungerböck; John Walk; Paul White; Steve Widdicombe; Robert Euan Wilson; Hannah Wright; James Wyatt; Douglas Connelly

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237

Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO₂ release

Anita Flohr^*, Allison Schaap, Eric P. Achterberg, Guttorm Alendal, Martin Arundell, Christian Berndt, Jerry Blackford, Christoph Böttner, Sergey M. Borisov, Robin Brown, Jonathan M. Bull, Liam Carter, Baixin Chen, Andrew W. Dale, Dirk de Beer, Marcella Dean, Christian Deusner, Marius Dewar, Jennifer M. Durden, Saskia ElsenMario Esposito, Michael Faggetter, Jan P. Fischer, Amine Gana, Jonas Gros, Matthias Haeckel, Rudolf Hanz, Moritz Holtappels, Brett Hosking, Veerle A.I. Huvenne, Rachael H. James, Dirk Koopmans, Elke Kossel, Timothy G. Leighton, Jianghui Li, Anna Lichtschlag, Peter Linke, Socratis Loucaides, María Martínez-Cabanas, Juerg M. Matter, Thomas Mesher, Samuel Monk, Matthew Mowlem, Anna Oleynik, Stathys Papadimitriou, David Paxton, Christopher R. Pearce, Kate Peel, Ben Roche, Henry A. Ruhl, Umer Saleem, Carla Sands, Kevin Saw, Mark Schmidt, Stefan Sommer, James A. Strong, Jack Triest, Birgit Ungerböck, John Walk, Paul White, Steve Widdicombe, Robert Euan Wilson, Hannah Wright, James Wyatt, Douglas Connelly

^*Corresponding author for this work

Mechanical And Aerospace Engineering

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Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO₂ storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO₂ leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO₂ release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO₂ from a subsurface CO₂ storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO₂ were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO₂ in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.

Original language	English
Article number	103237
Number of pages	20
Journal	International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
Volume	106
Early online date	23 Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237
Publication status	Published - 1 Mar 2021

Funding

The STEMM-CCS project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 654462.Other work which contributed to this experiment has been funded by the UK's Natural Environmental Research Council: the SPITFIRE project, grant number NE/L002531/1; the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science project, funded through the single center national capability programme grant number NE/R015953/1; the Carbonate Chemistry Autonomous Sensor System (CarCASS) project, grant number NE/P02081X/1. Further funding was received from Bayesian Monitoring Design (BayMoDe), funded by the Research Council of Norway through the CLIMIT programme, project 254711; Act on Offshore Monitoring (ACTOM), funded through the ACT programme (Accelerating CCS Technologies Project) Horizon2020 project No 294766; and the Max Planck Society for Advancement of Science, Germany. The STEMM-CCS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 654462 . Other work which contributed to this experiment has been funded by the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council: the SPITFIRE project , grant number NE/L002531/1 ; the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science project, funded through the single center national capability programme grant number NE/R015953/1 ; the Carbonate Chemistry Autonomous Sensor System (CarCASS) project , grant number NE/P02081X/1 . Further funding was received from Bayesian Monitoring Design (BayMoDe), funded by the Research Council of Norway through the CLIMIT programme, project 254711; Act on Offshore Monitoring (ACTOM), funded through the ACT programme (Accelerating CCS Technologies Project) Horizon2020 project No 294766; and the Max Planck Society for Advancement of Science, Germany .

Keywords

attribution, detection and quantification
carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS)
CO leakage
marine field experiment
monitoring
offshore carbon storage

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

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Cite this

Flohr, A., Schaap, A., Achterberg, E. P., Alendal, G., Arundell, M., Berndt, C., Blackford, J., Böttner, C., Borisov, S. M., Brown, R., Bull, J. M., Carter, L., Chen, B., Dale, A. W., de Beer, D., Dean, M., Deusner, C., Dewar, M., Durden, J. M., ... Connelly, D. (2021). Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO₂ release. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control , 106, Article 103237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237

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title = "Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release",

abstract = "Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO2 storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO2 leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO2 release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO2 from a subsurface CO2 storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO2 were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO2 in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.",

keywords = "attribution, detection and quantification, carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS), CO leakage, marine field experiment, monitoring, offshore carbon storage",

author = "Anita Flohr and Allison Schaap and Achterberg, \{Eric P.\} and Guttorm Alendal and Martin Arundell and Christian Berndt and Jerry Blackford and Christoph B{\"o}ttner and Borisov, \{Sergey M.\} and Robin Brown and Bull, \{Jonathan M.\} and Liam Carter and Baixin Chen and Dale, \{Andrew W.\} and \{de Beer\}, Dirk and Marcella Dean and Christian Deusner and Marius Dewar and Durden, \{Jennifer M.\} and Saskia Elsen and Mario Esposito and Michael Faggetter and Fischer, \{Jan P.\} and Amine Gana and Jonas Gros and Matthias Haeckel and Rudolf Hanz and Moritz Holtappels and Brett Hosking and Huvenne, \{Veerle A.I.\} and James, \{Rachael H.\} and Dirk Koopmans and Elke Kossel and Leighton, \{Timothy G.\} and Jianghui Li and Anna Lichtschlag and Peter Linke and Socratis Loucaides and Mar{\'i}a Mart{\'i}nez-Cabanas and Matter, \{Juerg M.\} and Thomas Mesher and Samuel Monk and Matthew Mowlem and Anna Oleynik and Stathys Papadimitriou and David Paxton and Pearce, \{Christopher R.\} and Kate Peel and Ben Roche and Ruhl, \{Henry A.\} and Umer Saleem and Carla Sands and Kevin Saw and Mark Schmidt and Stefan Sommer and Strong, \{James A.\} and Jack Triest and Birgit Ungerb{\"o}ck and John Walk and Paul White and Steve Widdicombe and Wilson, \{Robert Euan\} and Hannah Wright and James Wyatt and Douglas Connelly",

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Flohr, A, Schaap, A, Achterberg, EP, Alendal, G, Arundell, M, Berndt, C, Blackford, J, Böttner, C, Borisov, SM, Brown, R, Bull, JM, Carter, L, Chen, B, Dale, AW, de Beer, D, Dean, M, Deusner, C, Dewar, M, Durden, JM, Elsen, S, Esposito, M, Faggetter, M, Fischer, JP, Gana, A, Gros, J, Haeckel, M, Hanz, R, Holtappels, M, Hosking, B, Huvenne, VAI, James, RH, Koopmans, D, Kossel, E, Leighton, TG, Li, J, Lichtschlag, A, Linke, P, Loucaides, S, Martínez-Cabanas, M, Matter, JM, Mesher, T, Monk, S, Mowlem, M, Oleynik, A, Papadimitriou, S, Paxton, D, Pearce, CR, Peel, K, Roche, B, Ruhl, HA, Saleem, U, Sands, C, Saw, K, Schmidt, M, Sommer, S, Strong, JA, Triest, J, Ungerböck, B, Walk, J, White, P, Widdicombe, S, Wilson, RE, Wright, H, Wyatt, J & Connelly, D 2021, 'Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO₂ release', International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control , vol. 106, 103237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237

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T1 - Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage

T2 - a real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release

AU - Flohr, Anita

AU - Schaap, Allison

AU - Achterberg, Eric P.

AU - Alendal, Guttorm

AU - Arundell, Martin

AU - Berndt, Christian

AU - Blackford, Jerry

AU - Böttner, Christoph

AU - Borisov, Sergey M.

AU - Brown, Robin

AU - Bull, Jonathan M.

AU - Carter, Liam

AU - Chen, Baixin

AU - Dale, Andrew W.

AU - de Beer, Dirk

AU - Dean, Marcella

AU - Deusner, Christian

AU - Dewar, Marius

AU - Durden, Jennifer M.

AU - Elsen, Saskia

AU - Esposito, Mario

AU - Faggetter, Michael

AU - Fischer, Jan P.

AU - Gana, Amine

AU - Gros, Jonas

AU - Haeckel, Matthias

AU - Hanz, Rudolf

AU - Holtappels, Moritz

AU - Hosking, Brett

AU - Huvenne, Veerle A.I.

AU - James, Rachael H.

AU - Koopmans, Dirk

AU - Kossel, Elke

AU - Leighton, Timothy G.

AU - Li, Jianghui

AU - Lichtschlag, Anna

AU - Linke, Peter

AU - Loucaides, Socratis

AU - Martínez-Cabanas, María

AU - Matter, Juerg M.

AU - Mesher, Thomas

AU - Monk, Samuel

AU - Mowlem, Matthew

AU - Oleynik, Anna

AU - Papadimitriou, Stathys

AU - Paxton, David

AU - Pearce, Christopher R.

AU - Peel, Kate

AU - Roche, Ben

AU - Ruhl, Henry A.

AU - Saleem, Umer

AU - Sands, Carla

AU - Saw, Kevin

AU - Schmidt, Mark

AU - Sommer, Stefan

AU - Strong, James A.

AU - Triest, Jack

AU - Ungerböck, Birgit

AU - Walk, John

AU - White, Paul

AU - Widdicombe, Steve

AU - Wilson, Robert Euan

AU - Wright, Hannah

AU - Wyatt, James

AU - Connelly, Douglas

PY - 2021/3/1

Y1 - 2021/3/1

N2 - Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO2 storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO2 leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO2 release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO2 from a subsurface CO2 storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO2 were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO2 in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.

AB - Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO2 storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO2 leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO2 release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO2 from a subsurface CO2 storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO2 were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO2 in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.

KW - attribution, detection and quantification

KW - carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS)

KW - CO leakage

KW - marine field experiment

KW - monitoring

KW - offshore carbon storage

U2 - 10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237

DO - 10.1016/j.ijggc.2020.103237

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85099990273

SN - 1750-5836

VL - 106

JO - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

JF - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

M1 - 103237

ER -