About the Project

REPP-CO2 started in January 2015 with support by Norway Grants. Being the first stage of a broader pilot project, REPP‑CO2 is limited (in particular given its rather short duration of not more than 16 months) to the assessment and characterisation of the potential storage complex, static and dynamic modelling and risk analysis. The subsequent stages of the pilot project, involving the obtaining of a licence for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, injection of gas, and related monitoring, will require additional financial and project instruments.

Low-Carbon Europe

CCS (Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage) is one of the key elements of the European Union’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan), playing a significant role in the European strategy for the transition to a low-carbon economy. In the Czech Republic, CCS projects so far focused solely on R&D projects, including surveys of geological structures potentially suitable to act as an underground carbon dioxide storage, and legislative efforts to transpose European CCS legislation into Czech law. (The latter reached an important milestone with the enactment of Act No. 85/2012 Sb., on carbon dioxide storage in natural geological structures.)

During the debates on binding European climatic and energy policy targets for the period ending in the year 2030 the European Commission proposed that every member state prepare its national decarbonisation plan; in doing so, member states are required to describe the strategy they envisage employing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), the pollutants significantly contributing to the climate changes occurring on Earth.

CCS may play an important role in the Czech Republic’s decarbonisation efforts. This applies in particular to the energy industry and certain other production sectors (such as steel, cement and chemicals), where CCS is the only known method of achieving a significant decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.

Therefore, despite the ongoing debates and reshaping of the Czech Republic’s energy policy, CCS research is considered a strategic investment with promising future benefits. As such, geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide has been supported as an auspicious line of research, development and innovation efforts in the area of ‘more efficient use of fossil energy sources’.

As an important step towards a low-carbon Czech Republic, the project of a geological carbon dioxide storage and the required groundwork activities follow up the results of previous R&D efforts in the area of CCS conducted in the Czech Republic as part of various research programmes, including EEA and Norway Grants 2004–2009 (the TOGEOS project), the EU’s 6th and 7th Framework Programme (such as the GeoCapacity and CO2NET EAST European projects), the TIP Programme of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, or TACR’s Alfa Programme.

Expected Benefits

The Project should significantly support further growth of CCS in the Czech Republic, a goal fully corresponding with the main objective of the CZ08 Norway Grant Programme, i.e. responding ‘to the need of knowledge increase and information relating to the capture, transport and storage of carbon dioxide as one of the activities to mitigate climate change’. Geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide is the last link in the CCS process chain, and the availability of a well‑prepared and safe geologic storage is a basic prerequisite for successful CCS applications.

Hence, the Project is a crucial leap forward in these endeavours, helping to increase the Czech Republic’s technological readiness level (TRL) in the CCS domain from TRL 4 (technology validated in lab) to TRL 5 (technology validated in relevant environment). Speaking of geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide, TRL 5 means validating the theoretical assumptions in situ, i.e. in a geological structure similar to those suitable for future industrial-scale storage complexes.

The REPP-CO2 project consortium has set the following project targets:

• Assess the suitability of the selected geological structure, a depleted oil and gas reservoir in southern Moravia, as a potential carbon dioxide storage to be used in a follow-up research pilot project of a geological carbon dioxide storage while using the processes and methods set out in Czech Act No. 85/2012 Sb., on carbon dioxide storage in natural geological structures;
• Further the Czech–Norwegian cooperation in the area of geological carbon dioxide storage and related R&D efforts. In addition, it is expected that the Project will enable significant knowledge transfer from Norway to the Czech Republic;
• Test the aptness of the storage complex characterisation and assessment methodology, processes and criteria set forth in Act No. 85/2012 Sb., on carbon dioxide storage in natural geological structures, in real-life conditions and during the preparation of an actual storage complex;
• Prepare a geological model of the storage complex and perform carbon dioxide injection simulations;
• Prepare a risk analysis of the storage complex, including an assessment of potential conflicts of interest, and develop a proposal of risk mitigation measures and a storage monitoring plan;
• Re-assess the potential of Carpathian structures in the Czech Republic for CO2 storage purposes;
• Increase the expertise of the Czech Project partners by means of methodical research, knowledge exchange and joint learning with the Norwegian partner; and Increase the public awareness and knowledge of CCS and geological sequestration of carbon dioxide.

The attainment of the above Project goals will make a significant contribution to the fulfilment of the aforementioned strategic European objectives in the Czech Republic.

Project Partners

The Project follows up a long-lasting Czech-Norwegian research partnership between the Czech Geological Survey and the International Research Institute of Stavanger. In addition to these two key members, the project consortium includes five additional stakeholders from the Czech Republic—VŠB–Technical University of Ostrava (VŠB-TUO), ÚJV Řež, a.s., Miligal, s.r.o., Centrum výzkumu Řež, s.r.o., and the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Masaryk University in Brno. In total, the Project team will include more than 100 researchers and engineers capable of covering all the tasks and activities involved in the assessment of the future storage complex.

The Project will be coordinated by the Czech Geological Survey, the long-term leader and pioneer of Czech CO2 storage research efforts. CGS boasts a strong administrative base and extensive experience with similar large projects.

Project Activities

Focusing mainly on the first stage of the research groundwork for the geological CO2 storage, the Project is divided into ten intertwining Activities, which are further broken down into several Tasks and Sub-Tasks. The Project team will gather the required geological data and parameters, develop a 3-D geological model of the storage complex, a dynamic model of the processes occurring in the storage complex during operation, and prepare for the site a risk analysis and monitoring plan. These Project deliverables may later serve as the basis for the drafting of a license request to be submitted in one of the follow-up stages of the pilot project. In addition, the Project team will conduct further research in critical CCS areas, work on improving the expertise of Czech Project partners, carry out awareness-raising activities and publish the results of the Project in scientific journals. All Project deliverables and outputs, including processed legacy and newly obtained data, maps, models, reports, etc., will be stored in structured geodatabase to ensure that they are easily available for further use during the follow-up stages of the pilot storage development efforts.