Carbon capture, utilisation and storage

As part of our funding competition, we are targeting CCUS technologies that will enable the delivery of the UK’s net zero ambitions. The technology focus areas are transportation and storage, geological behaviour of CO2 and site monitoring and containment, read below to find out more.

Pipeline transport - While CO2 transportation is technically well understood, new pipelines are expensive. Existing oil and gas pipeline infrastructure offers the potential for repurposing for CO2 transportation, but a clear understanding of the cost and methodology to retrofit legacy pipelines is required. The focus of this area aimed to seek technology solutions for; 

• Corrosion – specifically the characterisation and coating/material solutions to prevent corrosion from impurities in CO2.  
• Crack propagation – predictive maintenance solutions to prevent crack propagation 
• Pressure control – low-cost control valves to maintain consistent pressure, especially in longer pipelines 
• Impurities – impact of impurities in CO2 on compression, transportation and injection 

More robust Modelling – Modelling software exists, but there is room for improvement. The industry needs standard methods to model CO2 migration and interactions in different rock structures to improve understanding of CO2 behaviour to inform decision making throughout the life of the storage site, from site selection, injection strategies, operational lifetime and after sealing the injection site. This is particularly critical around existing wells, which could present a higher risk of leakage. 

Geological behaviour of CO2 – CO2 behaves very differently in its different phases, which can significantly affect trapping mechanisms post-injection. Therefore, improved characterisation of in situ CO2 behaviour across different rock types in various injection sites, especially in depleted gas fields, across the UKCS is required. 

Site monitoring and containment – Monitoring is an essential component of a CO2 storage site. Monitoring is necessary to define a baseline, to ensure conformance to predicted behaviour and to verify containment of stored CO2. This area aims to seek technologies that provide low-cost solutions to monitoring and containment of CO2 at all storage sites levels (well, near wellbore, reservoir, overburden) and throughout the lifecycle of the storage site (injection, post-injection, post-closure and transfer).