By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 23 -- The Scottish Center for Carbon Storage Research (SCCSR) has been established in Edinburgh to conduct a 4-year investigation into the storage of carbon dioxide in underground reservoirs such as deep saline aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, and deep coal seams.
Worldwide, about 25 gigatonnes (Gt)/year of CO2 enters the atmosphere, according to the International Energy Agency. About 400-10,000 Gt of CO2 could be locked away in deep saline aquifers, 920 Gt in oil reservoirs, and 40 Gt in coal structures, IEA estimates.
The Scottish Higher Education Council, Heriot-Watt University, and the University of Edinburgh have provided £1,399,815 toward the project.
SCCSR will examine the use and development of seismic, geochemical, and other techniques to monitor behavior of stored gas and ensure that the storage structure provides an effective, long-term seal.
The center's partner laboratories will investigate application of CO2 injection, long used for onshore enhanced oil recovery, in offshore regimes such as the North Sea.
SCCSR will use research data from the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt, work with the School of Geological Sciences at University of Edinburgh, and interact with the British Geological Survey at Keyworth, the joint research institute Edinburgh Collaborative in Subsurface Science and Engineering, and other international groups.
