Pearl River Mouth basin under review as CO2 store

Offshore staff

EDINBURGH, UK – Scottish and Chinese scientists are examining whether storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in deep subsurface rocks is feasible in China’s Pearl River Mouth basin.

This could substantially reduce CO₂ emissions and improve air quality in one of the country’s most industrialized regions.

A team from the University of Edinburgh has been studying the geology below the river mouth basin, which has potential for storing CO₂ but a limited ability to provide a long-term sealing mechanism.

They are analyzing three depleted oil fields in the Huizhou area: their aim is to identify potential for decades of secure CO₂ storage offshore for full-chain carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) projects in the region, including the Haifeng CCUS project at a coal-fired power plant.

The research, supported by the Scottish Funding Council, EPSRC and NERC, suggests that ‘dispersion trapping’ could be feasible, dispersing the injected CO₂ as microscopic droplets throughout the deeply buried geology.

This would unlock large volumes of pore space in storage sites, which lack a single-seal cap rock.

China is one of the world’s largest emitters of CO₂ due to its dependence on coal for energy.

Dr Niklas Heinemann, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “The Pearl River Mouth basin reservoirs have excellent storage potential but we need to ensure that they provide long-term containment of CO₂.”

Prof Stuart Haszeldine, also from the university, described dispersion trapping as “like having a damp sponge of CO₂ spread throughout the rock. None of the CO₂ can escape, even though there is no single seal.

“All the pore space can be used if injection is planned differently to disperse CO₂ widely at many levels within the geology. This is like creating direct entrances into several floors of a residential tower block, rather than just using one floor.

“The work is applicable to many reservoirs in China, and globally, and can upgrade storage resources, which are currently unavailable.”

03/15/2018