Abstract
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is an essential tool in the fight against climate change. Any prospective storage site must meet various criteria that ensure the effectiveness, safety and economic viability of the storage operations. Finding the most suitable site for the storage of the captured CO2 is an essential part of the CCS chain of activity. This work addresses the site selection of a second site for the Acorn CCS project, a project designed to develop a scalable, full-chain CCS project in the North Sea (offshore northeast Scotland). This secondary site has been designed to serve as a backup and upscaling option for the Acorn Site, and has to satisfy pivotal project requirements such as low cost and high storage potential. The methodology followed included the filtering of 113 input sites from the UK CO2Stored database, according to general and project-specific criteria in a multi-staged approach. This criteria-driven workflow allowed for an early filtering out of the less suitable sites, followed by a more comprehensive comparison and ranking of the 15 most suitable sites. A due diligence assessment was conducted of the top six shortlisted sites to produce detailed assessment of their storage properties and suitability, including new geological interpretation and capacity calculations for each site. With the new knowledge generated during this process, a critical comparison of the sites led to selection of East Mey as the most suitable site, due to its outstanding storage characteristics and long-lasting hydrocarbon-production history, that ensure excellent data availability to risk-assess storage structures. A workshop session was held to present methods and results to independent stakeholders; feedback informed the final selection criteria. This paper provides an example of a criteria-driven approach to site selection that can be applied elsewhere.
Highlights
The 2015 Paris Agreement set the path for the world to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions to try to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 ◦C (IPCC, 2018; UNFCCC, 2015)
It is important to appraise and select suitable sites that comply with various criteria that relate to different aspects of storage operation including geological, engineering, economic, logis tical and safety aspects
This paper presents the methodology developed for the selection of a secondary CO2 storage site in the North Sea for the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project
Summary
The 2015 Paris Agreement set the path for the world to reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions to try to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 ◦C (IPCC, 2018; UNFCCC, 2015). This goal cannot be achieved without the capture and subsequent storage of CO2 (Carbon Capture and Storage: CCS) from fossil fuel-fired power stations and industrial sour ces, such as steel manufacturing, cement works and petrochemical re fineries, or the unlikely short-term cessation of these activities (Alcalde et al, 2018; Bui et al, 2018; Haszeldine et al, 2018; Wennersten et al, 2015). It is important to appraise and select suitable sites that comply with various criteria that relate to different aspects of storage operation including geological, engineering, economic, logis tical and safety aspects
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