Microseismic Monitoring and Geomechanical Modelling of CO2 - bris

Both China and India are aggressively pursuing alternative energy strategies, principally encouraging
efficiency and renewable energy - hydropower 3 and wind in China, and solar and wind in India.
However, even the best case scenarios, assuming maximum penetration of renewable energy technologies
and maximum efficiency, predict that Chinese energy demand will still increase by 90% 4 , and that
65% of electricity generation will still come from coal 5 . In short, as they seek to provide improved
living standards for their people, the energy demands of these two nations will by far outstrip what
can be supplied by renewable sources, and fossil fuels will continue to be burned in large quantities.
If the resulting CO 2 emissions are to be avoided, adopting CCS on a large scale is left as the only
option. It is for this reason that the majority of analyses agree that CCS must be used to abate
between 15-50% of the world’s CO 2 emissions 6 .
Many environmental groups dislike the CCS paradigm. It is seen as tainted by the mistrusted
fingers of big corporations, and an excuse for those who don’t care about climate change to continue
‘business-as-usual’ while paying lip-service to environmental issues. They are also concerned that CCS
will be used as an excuse to abandon renewable energy development. The numbers show why CCS
cannot be viewed as such, by either side. This is not a choice of either renewables or CCS. If we
are serious about controlling global CO 2 emissions then we must do both! Harvest renewable energy
wherever possible, and capture and store the CO 2 that is emitted from the fossil fuel power stations
that remain.
Opponents of CCS often argue that the technique has never been demonstrated on a commercial
scale, and therefore that we don’t know how to do it, and that it can’t be relied on. The short answer
is that there must be a first time for everything! Even so, CCS is not the unknown quantity that it is
often made out to be. Since the 1970s the oil industry has injected CO 2 into many oil fields, as this
can increase oil production. Hence, much of the infrastructure needed to transport and inject CO 2 is
already well developed. Furthermore, the soft drinks industry brings huge experience of transporting
and dealing with CO 2 . In fact, the principal reason why CCS has not been taken up on a commercial
scale is the lack of financial incentives for doing so. There is abundant funding available for research
on CCS. However, if companies are to make the large investments necessary for the deployment of
CCS there needs to be certainty over how much they will be recompensed for doing so. It is this lack
of economic certainty, derived from a lack of political will-power, that has stalled the development of
CCS 7 .
Even so, there are sites where CO 2 is being stored on a large scale. In order to avoid the Norwegian
offshore CO 2 tax, Statoil have been injecting CO 2 into the Utsira formation at Sleipner since 1996
at a rate of ∼1 million tonnes per year.
Many different geophysical and geochemical monitoring
techniques have shown conclusively that the CO 2 is moving through the target reservoir with no
3 The 3 Gorges Dam being the most famous (and controversial) example
4 IEA World Energy Outlook, 2007, p361
5 IEA World Energy Outlook, 2007, p373
6 e.g., IEA Energy Technology Perspectives, 2008, Metz et al., 2005, p13, James et al., 2007, p10, Kuuskraa, 2007,
p7
7 Pew Center Congressional Policy Brief, 2008, p7
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