CO2 storage project hits milestone

Contentious plan moves ahead

A CONTROVERSIAL carbon capture and storage project that hopes to trial injecting liquid CO2 into the Great Artesian Basin has reached a new milestone.

Carbon Transport and Storage Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Glencore, believes it should have final scientific studies completed within months, and hopes to apply for environmental permits to inject 60,000 tonnes of liquid CO2 a year into the Great Artesian Basin’s Precipice Sandstone Aquifer at Wandoan by the year’s end.

The “super-critical” liquid CO2, with half the density of water, would dissolve into the aquifer’s water, acidifying it to a pH of 5. Water has a pH of 7.

The Chronicle can reveal CTSCo has completed a key modelling study that shows the plume of acidified water would remain within the confines of its Glencore-owned property, 15km west of Wandoan.

If the modelling had shown the plume escaping the boundaries of the property, the trial project would not have gone ahead.

A CTSCo spokeswoman said the modelling “was carried out using commercial oil and gas reservoir modelling software” with a range of data from the property, government agencies, and from other CO2 injection projects around the world.

“The modelling shows how the plume moves as CO2 is injected and long after injection stops. The modelling carried out, in all cases, shows the plume remaining well within the boundaries of the Glenhaven property indefinitely,” the spokeswoman said, adding the company could stop the injection if the plume did not behave as predicted.

The company is eyeing off 2021 as the year of its first injection.

CTSCo is currently in talks with the Millmerran Power Station, owned and operated by Intergen, to provide CO2 for the project.