CONTACT: Professor Richard Worden, r.worden@liverpool.ac.uk, Dr Emma Michie, Emma.Michie@liverpool.ac.uk
Research Theme
Geological carbon capture and storage is a method of permanently mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide can be injected deep underground into porous and permeable rock formations, typically either sandstones or carbonate saline aquifers, or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs.
The success of the technique requires a variety of key factors to be addressed. The rocks used must have sufficient capacity that many megatonnes of carbon dioxide can be trapped along with being sufficiently permeable to allow efficient gas injection through as few wells as possible. Keeping costs to a minimum is a key challenge, and so reusing infrastructure is important wherever possible, as well as having long-term expansion capabilities to extend the storage lifetime. There must also be minimal change of gas leakage through either natural faults or man-made routes such as old wells.
Research Team
At the University of Liverpool, we offer wide collective experience of most of the key rock types relevant to carbon capture and storage projects in the UK and NW Europe such as Permian, Triassic, Cretaceous and Palaeocene reservoir and top-seal lithologies. This experience has been gained over many years of fieldwork and field teaching, and numerous carbon capture and storage and other subsurface projects with many key players.
We can provide tailored training courses covering the breadth of geoscience issues linked to carbon capture and storage.
Professor Richard Worden
Dr Emma Michie is Lecturer in Geology and her research focusses on faults, particularly related to the integrity of potential CO2 storage sites, and is developing a predicative algorithm for carbonate fault seals.
Facilities and Expertise
Our research and facilities can be applied to key challenges for any carbon capture and storage project.
Rock characterisation
The University of Liverpool has extensive experience in seismic imaging, well log analysis, core description and conventional core analysis.
Further reservoir and fault characterisation can be undertaken using advanced petrography, high-resolution micro-CT imaging, X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, gas adsorption and mercury intrusion porosimetry.
Geomechanics and structural analysis
The University of Liverpool has a unique Rock Deformation Lab with bespoke rigs designed to assess static and dynamic rock attributes including strength, permeability, acoustic properties, reactivity of rocks to flowing carbon dioxide and flow properties at subsurface conditions.
Geochemistry
Both experimental approaches and software are used to assess the reactivity of the reservoir and sealing, predicting the potential for reaction, dissolution and weakening of rocks, cement and pipes and potential for precipitation of minerals that can block pores and damage permeability.
Monitoring
Application and interpretation of microseismic techniques to assess the response of reservoir top-seal systems to increasing fluid pressure during carbon dioxide injection.