Industrial Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Carbon Dioxide Storage Potential in the UK
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Industrial carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide storage potential in the UK Sustainable and Renewable Energy Programme Commercial Report CR/06/185 (NC) BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SUSTAINABLE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAMME COMMERCIAL REPORT CR/06/185 (NC) Industrial carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide storage potential in the UK S Holloway, C J Vincent & K L Kirk The National Grid and other Ordnance Survey data are used with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Licence No: 100017897/2005. Keywords Carbon dioxide, North Sea, oil field, gas field. Bibliographical reference HOLLOWAY, S, VINCENT, C.J & KIRK, K.L. 2005. Industrial carbon dioxide emissions and carbon dioxide storage potential in the UK. British Geological Survey Commercial Report, CR/06/185 (NC). 57pp. Copyright in materials derived from the British Geological Survey’s work is owned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and/or the authority that commissioned the work. You may not copy or adapt this publication without first obtaining permission. Contact the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Section, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, e-mail [email protected]. You may quote extracts of a reasonable length without prior permission, provided a full acknowledgement is given of the source of the extract. Maps and diagrams in this book use topography based on Ordnance Survey mapping. © NERC 2006. 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(Earth Galleries), Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DE The British Geological Survey is a component body of the Natural Environment Research Council. 020-7589 4090 Fax 020-7584 8270 020-7942 5344/45 email: [email protected] Forde House, Park Five Business Centre, Harrier Way, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7HU 01392-445271 Fax 01392-445371 Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, Colby House, Stranmillis Court, Belfast BT9 5BF 028-9038 8462 Fax 028-9038 8461 Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB 01491-838800 Fax 01491-692345 Columbus House, Greenmeadow Springs, Tongwynlais, Cardiff, CF15 7NE 029–2052 1962 Fax 029–2052 1963 Parent Body Natural Environment Research Council, Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 1EU 01793-411500 Fax 01793-411501 www.nerc.ac.uk CR/06/00; Draft 0.1 Last modified: 2020/09/22 15:58 Foreword This report is the product of a study by the British Geological Survey (BGS) undertaken for AEA Technology plc as part of agreement C/07/00384/00/00. It considers the UK emissions of carbon dioxide from large industrial point sources such as power stations and the potential geological storage capacity to safely and securely store these emissions. Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the UK DTI for funding the work, and Dr Erik Lindeberg of Sintef Petroleum Research for provision of a programme to calculate the density of CO2. Contents Foreword ......................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... i Contents ........................................................................................................................................... i Summary ....................................................................................................................................... iii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 7 2 Industrial sources of CO2 emissions in the UK ................................................................... 7 3 Potential Sites for the Geological Storage of CO2 ............................................................. 11 3.1 Estimating CO2 storage capacity .................................................................................. 11 3.2 Potential geological CO2 storage sites in the UK ......................................................... 13 4 Oil and Gas fields ................................................................................................................. 13 5 Saline water-bearing reservoir rocks (saline aquifers) ..................................................... 25 5.1 What is an aquifer? ....................................................................................................... 25 5.2 CO2 trapping mechanisms in aquifers .......................................................................... 28 5.3 Constraints on CO2 storage capacity in aquifers .......................................................... 30 5.4 CO2 storage potential in UK onshore saline water-bearing reservoir rocks ................. 31 5.5 CO2 storage potential in UK offshore saline water-bearing reservoir rocks ................ 36 6 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................... 44 7 Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 45 8 References ............................................................................................................................. 46 Appendix 1 Oil field data ...................................................................................................... 49 i CR/06/00; Draft 0.1 Last modified: 2020/09/22 15:58 FIGURES Figure 2-1. Breakdown of CO2 emissions from industrial point sources in the UK (Data from the Environment Agency, SEPA and Northern Ireland DoE, 2004) ............................................. 8 Figure 2-2. Map showing the 50 largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide in the UK ............ 10 Figure 3-1. A techno-economic resource pyramid for geological CO2 storage space. Adapted from Bradshaw et al. in press. ............................................................................................... 11 Figure 4-1. Map showing the location of offshore hydrocarbon fields and the major oil and gas- bearing sedimentary basins .................................................................................................... 14 Figure 4-2. The age of the main reservoirs in the gas fields of the Southern North Sea ............. 18 Figure 4-3. Diagram of a compartmentalised gas field and underlying aquifer. ......................... 19 Figure 5-1. Typical sandstone reservoir rocks, shown at outcrop (1.1), in close-up (1.2) and in thin section (1.3). 1.4 shows how injected carbon dioxide would permeate the pore spaces of the reservoir rock, leaving behind a residual saturation of formation water ......................... 25 Figure 5-2. Groundwater circulation in an aquifer ....................................................................... 26 Figure 5-3. Diagrammatic representation of flow paths in typical aquifers. ................................ 27 Figure 5-4. Variation in the density of CO2 with depth at a range of realistic geothermal gradients likely to be found in sedimentary basins, assuming a surface temperature of 10°C and a hydrostatic pressure gradient. ................................................................................................ 28 Figure 5-5. Diagram showing some typical structural and stratigraphic traps in which CO2 could be stored. ................................................................................................................................ 29 Figure 5-6. Areas of the UK mainland with theoretical CO2 storage potential ........................... 33 Figure 5-7. Depth to top Sherwood Sandstone Group in eastern England and water extraction boreholes. ............................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 5-8. Major sedimentary basins on the UK Continental Shelf considered in this study. ... 37 Figure 5-9. Stratigraphy of the Southern North Sea Basin, showing the 5 major reservoir horizons. ................................................................................................................................ 39 Figure 5-10. Map showing location largest domes in the Bunter Sandstone Formation ............