North Sea CCS study

Scientists at the University of Strathclyde have secured funding for a four-year project to study the ability of complex rock strata beneath the North Sea to trap carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂) securely. Their findings will help to provide the tools for selecting the most suitable CO₂ storage sites as part of the large-scale development of carbon capture and storage (CCS), a key climate change technology. These tools could also greatly expand the potential for CO₂ storage worldwide.

The study will look at how CO₂, when injected into rocks deep below ground, could migrate upwards through the overlying strata, or overburden. The greenhouse gas can become trapped by dissolving into water-filled spaces between the rock grains. In more complex geology, where the fluids flow through complex pathways, there may be more potential for trapping CO₂ as it rises, thereby minimising the risk of it escaping to the surface. However, fault zones cutting geological layers could potentially provide shortcuts past the layers where CO₂ could be trapped. The project team will investigate how the faults and rock strata interact to change the pathways for CO₂ flow through the overburden.

The researchers from Strathclyde will work with scientists from the Universities of Cambridge and Imperial, and the British Geological Survey as part of a larger research project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).