This poster on the UKCCSRC Call 1 project, Chemical Looping for low-cost Oxygen Production, was presented at the Sheffield Biannual, 08.04.13. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-39.

This review details the laboratory experiments that have investigated leakage of geologically stored CO2 (as of June 2013). These experiments have covered a range of leakage factors. Knowledge of these factors can both compliment and help inform any future experiments at the QICS site. As such, the report details what experiments have been performed in the lab to date, how lab experiments can inform QICS and how QICS could inform laboratory experiments. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-31.

This is a blog (Update, 01.11.13) on the UKCCSRC Call 1 project, Oxyfuel and EGR Processes in GT Combustion. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-26.

This poster on the UKCCSRC Call 1 project, Tractable Equation of State for CO2 Mixtures, was presented at the Cambridge Biannual, 02.04.14. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-22.

While chemical looping (combustion, CLC) is a promising technology for carbon capture, however many questions still remain as to its applicability at an industrial scale. In Chemical looping combustion a metal oxide is shuttled back and forth between a fuel and air reactor, picking up oxygen in the air reactor and transferring it to the fuel reactor. The fuel is never mixed with the nitrogen from the air, so a stream of CO2 and H2O is produced directly from the fuel reactor; this potentially makes the integrated power production and CO2 capture system highly efficient. Most CLC and CLOU schemes envisage using fluidised beds in which the solid fuel is intimately mixed with the oxygen carrier, or mixing of the solid fuel particles. This project aims to push forward chemical looping within the UK and integrates both experimental work and theoretical analysis to result in the first large-scale demonstration of CLC within the UK. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-39.

Fault risk remains a key parameter in evaluating the potential for trapping CO2 in the subsurface, yet very little is known about the conditions under which CO2 and CO2/hydrocarbon mixtures are retained by faults. The project will investigate the roles and properties of faults in their capacity to retain CO2. Natural and engineered accumulations of hydrocarbon and CO2-hydrocarbon mixtures will be examined across a wide self-similar province (to minimize geological variability) to develop a knowledge base of fault flow properties. Fault geometries, orientations, seismic attributes, proven vertical trapping and lateral pressure retention values and column-heights will be documented. High-quality data-rich examples will be selected for analysis with established software tools to predict and calibrate CO2 column height and pressure retention. Differences between prediction and observation will be reconciled by checking site-specific geology and optimising the petrophysical property values assigned to the faults, reservoir, seals and fluids (within realistic ranges) to produce an understandable pragmatic and calibrated fit. The fault properties knowledge-base and the newly calibrated tools will be applied to selected key reservoirs from the ETI UK Storage Assessment Project (UKSAP). This will provide improved and evidence-based assessment of storage in regional UK North Sea aquifers such as the Bunter Sandstone, Forties, Tay and Captain. These are some of the largest and promising early developments for storage and are vital to reducing storage costs via multi-user storage. The Bunter Sandstone has 8Gt CO2 unrisked capacity - but only 1Gt may be considered viable because of fault risk. The Captain, Forties and Tay sandstones total 11.5Gt CO2 unrisked capacity, of which only 1Gt may be currently considered viable. The impact of the research will be to upgrade parts of the UKSAP assessment and to assist the development of the large capacity element in these formations that does have perceived fault risk. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-14.

This presentation on the UKCCSRC Call 1 project, Oxyfuel and EGR Processes in GT Combustion, was presented at the GasCCS, 25.06.14. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-26.

UKCCSRC Call 1 Project (C1-27) - 'Experimental investigation with PACT facility and CFD modelling of oxy-coal combustion on recycling real flue gas and vent gas of compression and purification units' - Methodologies and Data

This poster on the UKCCSRC Call 1 project, Determination of water Solubility in CO2 Mixtures, was presented at the Cranfield Biannual, 21.04.15. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-21.

This report has been superseded by the paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750583617301081. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C1-31. The NERC-funded QICS controlled CO2 release experiment (located offshore Oban, Scotland) mimics the formation of a new CO2 seep in the marine environment. At the site, CO2 is injected at an onshore well head, and a stainless steel pipe transports the CO2 under the seabed. Approximately 350 m offshore, the CO2 is released through a perforated screen into the 12 metres of overlying marine sediment, which is at approximately 10 metres water depth. During spring/summer 2012, 4.2 tonnes of CO2 was released at the QICS experimental site. A key element of risk assessment for the subsurface storage of CO2 is the monitoring of leaks from the subsurface in to the marine or terrestrial environments via sediments and soils. Chemical 'fingerprinting' of injected CO2 is widely considered a low cost, highly effective monitoring option, since effective application of tracers in CCS could provide information on (i) the movement, interaction and fate of injected CO2 in the subsurface and (ii) the detection (and quantification) of CO2 that has leaked from the storage complex to the surface. There is a need to develop geochemical techniques to differentiate between CO2 from natural processes, and the QICS site may provide excellent opportunity to trial geochemical tracers. This work aims to determine which chemical tracers are most suitable for CO2 tracing at the QICS facility and the research questions that tracer application can address. As such, this report includes: i. A review of current potential chemical tracers for CCS and their applications. ii. An analysis and comparison of costs, availability, environmental impact and detection limits for potential tracers. iii. An assessment of the above in the context of QICS (i.e: considering the CO2 will be released from the seabed (having passed from dense to gas phase), and having passed through water saturated sediment of the seabed, and into the water column. iv. An overview of the legal considerations for tracers in the UK. v. The injection method for tracers at the QICS site. vi. Required strategies for sampling the selected tracer. vii. Identify knowledge gaps in tracer studies which experiments at the QICS site could address.