Deakin study into gas site
DEAKIN University engineers have begun a major research program at the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project near Port Campbell.
The CO2CRC’s Otway National Research Facility is Australia’s first demonstration site for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Professor Wendy Timms, from the School of Engineering, said the project by Deakin’s water tracer technology team would help demonstrate the environmental performance of the deep geological storage site.
“CO2 has been safely stored at the Otway facility for more than 10 years,” she said.
“Our research will focus on reducing the cost of long-term CO2 storage monitoring.”
The site includes more than 1.5km of rock that acts as a natural barrier to deep saline aquifers and buried carbon dioxide.
Prof Timms said the research team would develop new ways to track variations in water quality in the shallow groundwater above the natural rock barriers.
“Part of our research will track the normal variation in CO2 activity in the soil and shallow groundwater because this can change over time, depending on rainfall and land use activities,” she said.
“This understanding of natural patterns will allow us to detect other changes that occur below the surface for any reason.
“The information we gather will improve monitoring of soil gas and shallow aquifers and lead to more cost-effective technologies.”
The Otway National Research Facility was established in 2008 to demonstrate that CO2 could be safely captured, transported, injected and stored in different geological formations underground.
The process involves injecting CO2 into a sandstone reservoir at depths of greater than 1.5km where it is trapped in the pore spaces of the rock and gradually turns into rock minerals over geological periods.
The International Energy Agency has identified CCS as a technology essential to achieving global emissions reduction targets at the lowest cost.
There are 59 large-scale CCS facilities globally — 21 in operation, three under construction and 35 in various stage of development.