Global CCS Academic Leaders Collaborate on OITC Project
In October, representatives from the University of Cambridge, Stanford University, and University of Melbourne, along with CO2CRC Limited, convened in Melbourne to review the latest progress in the GeoCquest Program and CO2CRC’s Stage 4 GeoCquest Field Validation (GFV) Project.
Among those in attendance were the lead project research collaborators: Professor Sally Benson and Professor Peter Cook, both renowned contributors to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
The Professors with their teams from the universities of Melbourne and Stanford, along with Cambridge, have been working with CO2CRC on the challenge of storage optimisation in saline formations for more than a decade and bring significant thought leadership and deep research and industry experience to the project.
The workshop marked a critical moment, with a review of the final reports from the BHP funded GeoCquest Program for storage optimisation ready to be released, and a final review of operations and project readiness before the next CO2 injection at the Otway International Test Centre (OITC), scheduled for late October as part of CO2CRC’s Stage 4 project.
The scientific work delivered for the GeoCquest Program has provided the foundation for assessing the suitability and efficiency of CO2 storage reservoirs and this work will be validated in Stage 4, as it is applied to the demonstration of a 10,000 tonne CO2 storage operation planned at CO2CRC’s OITC.
Both research teams and CO2CRC discussed the significant modelling advancements made to help understand how heterogeneous reservoirs – typically avoided for CO2 storage due to operational considerations – may actually enhance the secondary trapping of CO2. The insights gained are expected to play a key role in optimising CO2 storage operations, offering valuable guidance for future large-scale storage projects.
CO2CRC were pleased to host participants from the workshop at the OITC on Saturday. The Group took the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the recently recompleted injection well, CRC-3, and the purpose drilled monitoring well, CRC-8 – both of which provide access to a saline aquifer 1.6km below ground level. The monitoring well has been directionally drilled from the existing wellpad and positioned specifically to bisect the proposed carbon dioxide gas plume to actively monitor the migration and behaviour of the stored carbon dioxide.
