H2 News: Carbon Sequestration

Shell Unveils Carbon Capture Project in Canada’s Alberta Province

Shell said it plans to build a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project near Edmonton, Alberta, joining a number of other companies proposing clean energy initiatives in Canada’s main oil-producing province.

Canada Invests $25m in Carbon Capture Technology Company

Global governments are increasingly realising the role that carbon capture technology can play in meeting sustainability goals, evidenced by the Canadian government’s recent investment of CDN$25 million (US$20 million) in Vancouver-based company Svante. The investment was made through the Strategic Innovation Fund’s Net Zero Accelerator, a state initiative launched in 2020 whose aim is to accelerate the use of clean technologies to help decarbonise the Canadian economy.

Exxon and Shell join Scottish Carbon Capture Project ACORN

Large-scale CCS initiative Acorn now involves most of the big oil and gas groups in the North Sea. The Acorn project aims to join up a cluster of industrial hubs close to the North Sea that account for about 80% of all Scotland’s industrial carbon emissions. Exxon said the Acorn Project :has the potential to provide more than half of the 10M tons per years of CO2 targeted by the UK government

UK East Coast Cluster Stands Ready to Remove 50% of the UK’s Industrial Cluster CO2 Emissions

The bid is on behalf of the East Coast Cluster, a collaboration between leading companies from across Teesside and the Humber which aims to advance the government’s world-leading ambition to establish the first ‘net zero’ carbon industrial cluster in the UK by 2040. These two regions account for nearly 50% of all UK industrial cluster emissions.

European Union Commits to Reducing Emissions of Greenhouse Gases 55% by 2030

The most radical, and possibly contentious, proposal would impose tariffs on certain imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection rules. The proposals also include eliminating the sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, and raising the price of using fossil fuels. The trade disputes are likely to center on the so-called carbon border-adjustment tax, which the European Union sees as a way to protect its own industries from unfair competition from countries with less stringent and less costly environmental standards; others call the proposed tax protectionist. The plan, at least so far, would include imports on items like steel, cement, fertilizer and aluminum and could impact goods from such countries as China, Russia and the United States.

Ineos and Petroineos Joins Acorn CCS Project in Scotland

British chemical firm Ineos and Petroineos have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to join the Acorn CCS Project, Scotland’s first carbon capture and storage (CCS) system. The investment at the Grangemouth site will allow the annual capture and storage of approximately one million tonnes of CO2 by 2027, with the scope for significant additional volumes.

Iowa Governor Reynolds Creates Carbon Sequestration Task Force

Iowa is a recognized leader in renewable fuel and food production, and this is another opportunity to lead and be innovative, invest in Iowa agriculture and facilitate new sources of revenue for our agriculture and energy sectors.

Optimism Grows in Iowa Around Future of Carbon Sequestration

Carbon capture pipelines can help Iowa ethanol plants “maintain a competitive advantage,” Durham said, as many states and some countries implement low-carbon fuel standards that gives better pricing to lower-carbon fuels.

Gulf Coast Ready to Develop Carbon Storage Hub

The paper describes how the existing CO2 infrastructure could be leveraged and expanded to boost carbon storage outside of enhanced oil recovery — with the researchers highlighting the subsurface geology offshore of the Gulf Coast as a suitable spot for permanently storing CO2.

How To Scale Up Carbon Capture And Storage

Renewables alone can’t resolve the net zero emissions challenge. We have to think in terms of carbon avoidance and carbon removal. Policy support is a pre-requisite to support the economics, including a minimum carbon price of US$90/tonne for most industrial applications at scale. ‘Coopetition’ is the way forward, joining forces with the competition to identify concentrated clusters of carbon emissions, shared transport infrastructure and basin-wide storage.

ExxonMobil, Shell get $2.4 Billion in Subsidies for Carbon Storage Project

The Dutch government has granted a consortium that includes oil majors ExxonMobil and Shell around $2.4 billion in subsidies for what will be one of the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the world. The project aims to capture CO2 emitted by factories and refineries in the Port of Rotterdam area and store it in empty Dutch gas fields in the North Sea. It is worth noting that the Dutch Climate Agreement, agreed to some two years ago, already includes CCS and the government believes that its 2030 target can’t be reached without it.

Carbon Capture Bills Gathering Steam in Congress

Several bills creating benefits and financing for carbon capture have been introduced in Congress and are seeing movement through bipartisan support. Carbon capture, also known as carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS), is the process of gathering carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, typically from sources such as coal-fired power plants. Once captured, the greenhouse gas is usually stored or reused so it does not enter the atmosphere, where it is harmful to the environment.

The Importance of Scaling Carbon Capture to Market

To go fast enough and big enough on climate change, we need to unleash innovations in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and put the power of markets behind scaling them up. The U.S. commitment to cut emissions 50-52 percent by 2030 and get to net-zero economy-wide by 2050, are big, transformative goals. But as special climate envoy John Kerry said, “Even if we get to net-zero by 2050, we still have to suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere … That means we need the innovative technologies to do that.”

NETL Wellborne Integrity and Mitigation

The Carbon Storage Program’s Wellbore Integrity and Mitigation Technology Component comprises efforts to improve wellbore construction materials to ensure safe and reliable injection operations and long-term containment of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the storage complex. In addition, the Wellbore Integrity and Mitigation Technology Component also addresses the need to prevent and correct any release of CO2 from its intended geologic storage complex.

NETL Storage Complex Efficiency and Security

Storage Complex Efficiency and Security provides improved tools to design effective injection operations, optimize injection rates, manage pressure, make efficient use of reservoir storage space, and ensure the sealing capability of caprocks, both onshore and offshore. Development of these tools relies upon an understanding of carbon dioxide (CO2) plume and brine pressure front movement and stabilization, along with knowledge of the geomechanical and geochemical impacts of CO2 injection on storage complex in diverse geologic settings. The movement of CO2 in the reservoir, and accompanying changes in pressure are affected by many factors, such as the magnitude and distribution of various hydrologic properties of the reservoir rock, reservoir size, structural features such as baffles and fractures, sedimentary variations, the in-situ stress state, and diverse geochemical reactions.

NETL Monitoring, Verification, Accounting and Assessment

Monitoring, Verification, Accounting (MVA), and Assessment research is focused on three key technologies: subsurface monitoring, atmospheric and near-surface monitoring, and intelligent monitoring. The combination of atmospheric, near-surface, and subsurface monitoring technologies provides a multilevel approach to confirm permanent storage of carbon dioxide (CO2). Intelligent Monitoring Systems (IMSs) that provide real-time, actionable information for operational control of storage projects will reduce the costs associated with carbon storage.

NETL Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSP) Initiative

To support the development of regional infrastructure for carbon capture and storage (CCS), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created a network of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs).

The RCSP Initiative began in 2003 with characterization of each region’s potential to store carbon dioxide (CO2) in different geologic formations. Characterization activities in the Carbon Storage Program originally started as Phase I of the RCSP Initiative (the “Characterization Phase”) and included cataloging regional CO2 sources, characterizing CCS prospects, and prioritizing opportunities for future CO2 injection field projects. In 2005, validation of the most promising regional storage opportunities was initiated through a series of small-scale field laboratory projects (Validation Phase). The Validation Phase led to the successful completion of 19 small-scale field projects in a variety of storage complexes (8 in oil and gas fields, 5 in un-mineable coal seams, 5 in saline formations, 1 in basalt), providing information on reservoir and seal properties of regionally significant formations, testing, and initial validation of modeling and monitoring technologies. In 2008, the RCSP focus turned to large-scale field laboratories in saline formations and oil and gas fields with a target of injecting at least 1 million metric tons (MMT) per project in the Development Phase of the RCSP Initiative. Numerous applied research technologies have been integrated into these projects and the results have been essential in further technology development of CCS.

NETL Characterization and Field Projects

Characterization field laboratory projects focus on storage complex that can support the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in both onshore and offshore settings. A key gap in the critical path toward CCS deployment is the identification and detailed characterization of geologic storage sites for the storage of 50+ million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources. The Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) Initiative has been deployed to focus on development of geologic storage sites for the storage of 50+ MMT of CO2 from industrial sources.

NETL Fit for Purpose Projects

Fit-for-Purpose projects are focused on developing specific subsurface engineering approaches that address research needs critical for widespread deployment. Data from Fit-for-Purpose field projects will validate National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) tools for reservoir modeling and assessing site-specific risks of leakage and induced seismicity at the 50+ million metric tons (MMT) scale. The research and development (R&D) performed in these projects will have crosscutting benefits to integrated subsurface science, including sharing technology testing data and information, project field sites to test technologies developed, best practices, and modeling and simulation capabilities as part of a network of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) field test sites for various applications (geothermal, nuclear waste isolation, shale gas, and unconventional oil).