EU GeoCapacity

Research area: 6.1.3.2.4 Capture and sequestration of CO2, associated with cleaner fossil fuel plants

Area: Geological Sequestration of CO2

1. Project Summary

Assessing European Capacity for Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide EU GeoCapacity

With the increase in EU member countries to 25 comes an increase in the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions Europe wide. Especially for Kyoto Protocol Annex 1 countries, whose challenge is to cut CO2 emissions by 8% by 2008-2012 and probably deeper cuts thereafter. At the same time energy demand is rising and our reliance on fossil fuels is unlikely to diminish in the near to medium term.

As a result the big challenge is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels using geological storage. CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) could make huge cuts in CO2 emissions in the near to mid term. In order for CCS to be adopted on a large-scale assessment of the storage potential Europe wide is essential. The GeoCapacity project will focus on countries in eastern, central and southern Europe not previously covered in detail.

This project will provide the data required for the Europe wide adoption of CCS. The project will focus on applying advanced evaluation techniques (DSS & GIS) and complementing the datasets by emission, infrastructure and storage site mapping as well as undertaking economic evaluations. This will enable source-to-sink matching across Europe. Site selection criteria, standards and methodologies will be created and applied to the project. Locating potential CO2 storage sites may be essential to the emergence of the hydrogen economy. Production of hydrogen will be heavily reliant on fossil fuels at least in its early development and will have to consider CO2 reduction strategies.

GeoCapacities will also begin to build towards a framework for international cooperation especially with other CSLF countries beginning with China (later with India and Russia). Focusing on technology transfer facilitating the countries to undertake similar studies, as these countries perhaps face an even greater challenge to reduce CO2 emissions due to their rapidly growing energy demands.

This project will be built on east – west and international cooperation, helping us find solutions to a global challenge.