Bristol seismologists join carbon capture research initiative

Ways to improve monitoring of carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites are being investigated by three University of Bristol seismologists as part of a new international collaborative research initiative. The initiative, funded by the UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre (UKCCSRC), recently got underway at CMC Research Institutes' field research station in Alberta, Canada. The collaboration aims to investigate and improve monitoring for CCS sites where carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured as it is produced - for example at a power station or oil or gas well - and then injected deep below the surface to be stored permanently in geological formations. The aim of CCS is to prevent CO2 being released to the atmosphere, thereby mitigating climate change. Storage reservoirs are usually more than 1.5km deep and so sophisticated monitoring methods, such as geophysical and geochemical surveys, are required to ensure the CO2 remains at this depth. Dr Anna Stork , Dr Anna Horleston and Professor Michael Kendall from the Bristol University Microseismicity Projects (BUMPS) group in the School of Earth Sciences have been at the site, located 20km southwest of Brooks, Alberta, Canada, installing three broadband seismometers to record seismic events over the next year. The project was one of four awarded funds by the UKCCSRC to support international collaborative research at the field research station (FRS), a site being developed for CCS research in affiliation with the University of Calgary.