What are the best ways to monitor carbon capture and storage technologies?

In addition to the important points mentioned, monitoring carbon capture and storage (CCS) can provide valuable insights into the geological behavior of the storage site. By monitoring pressure changes, CO2 plume movement, and the integrity of the caprock, we can better understand how the rock formations interact with the injected CO2. This understanding can be used to improve injection strategies, anticipate long-term storage safety, and guide the selection of suitable sites for future CCS projects. Ultimately, comprehensive monitoring sets the stage for a safer, more dependable, and more efficient CCS technology in the battle against climate change.

In order to monitor carbon capture, we need to first be able to qualify what type of carbon are we capturing in the first place. This is important given the various carbon emissions and carbon recycling compliance and rules that are expected to intensify in the coming years. Is the carbon fossil-derived? Or biogenic? For instance, if the carbon captured is biogenic and its from an integrated biogas combustion powerplant, any recycling of the captured carbon into subsequent e-Fuels, will have a different GHG profile as compared to carbon captured from a coal-fired boiler unit.

CCS MMV(Measurement, Monitoring and Verification is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it ensures that the injected CO2 remains safely stored underground, reducing the risk of leakage and potential environmental impact. Secondly, monitoring helps validate the effectiveness of CCS projects in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, supporting climate change mitigation efforts. Lastly, ongoing monitoring provides data for regulatory compliance and stakeholder confidence.

In many CCS schemes, the monitoring of the quantity of incoming carbon captured is usually a straight-forward process; and is mainly a question of reliable design, engineering & flow instrumentation. What needs to be monitored, is the insidious problem of carbon leakage or re-introduction back into the environment. In underground storage reservoirs for example, is this neither an easy or precise endeavor, making the accountability aspect of this type of carbon sequestration contentious. In other storage schemes, such as Direct Air Capture, the mineralized formation will have to be approximated using a mass balance approach alongside the intended use of the carbon-bound deposit to ascertain risk of reintroduction back into the environment

Key parameters to monitor in CCS projects include CO2 injection rates and pressures, reservoir pressure and temperature, fluid movement within the reservoir, geochemical changes when captured impurities with CO2 reacts with host rocks and fluids, and potential migration of CO2 or brine to nearby formations, fault reactivation and caprock integrity. Monitoring also extends to surface facilities for capturing, compressing, and transporting CO2.

There has been regulatory framework in Alberta, Canada for CCS MMV plan which basically cover all parts of monitoring. I can name it here few Monitoring techniques range from surface monitoring using satellite imagery, aerial surveys, and ground-based sensors to downhole measurements using well logging tools, pressure sensors, and seismic monitoring. Advanced technologies like 4D seismic imaging and distributed fiber optic sensing offer real-time(such offered by ESG Solutions), detailed insights into reservoir behavior and CO2 plum movement.

In certain US and Canadian regions, operators are required to implement a Monitoring, Measurement, and Verification (MMV) plan before the CO2 injection period for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. After the injection period ends, operators must continue monitoring CCS wells for an additional 10 to 20 years. Subsequently, the responsibility for monitoring transitions to the state or provincial regulatory body. Operators are tasked with developing and executing robust MMV plans to track CO2 behavior, reservoir conditions, and potential environmental impacts during active injection and initial post-injection phases

CCS has value if it can be done correctly and at the right economic value. What does this mean? Other than storing captured carbon into a deposit for long term sequestration, a better return on capital will be preferred and sustainable if the captured carbon can be recycled into a material or energy resource in lieu of its fossil-derived counterpart. If this can be done at scale, then the financial viability of CSS is not longer constrained to being a cost of compliance, but rather, the production cost to a recycled resource that can be re-used at competitive prices to the fossil-derived equivalent.

CCS monitoring? 1. Ensuring Long-term Integrity and Safety: 2. Regulatory Compliance: regarding greenhouse gas emissions and storage. 3. Economic Viability: optimize the processes involved, potentially reducing costs & identifying ways to enhance capture rates and storage capacities. 4. Technological Advancement: understand the challenges and limitations, paving the way for the development of more advanced and efficient CCS technologies in the future. 5. Risk Management: mitigating risks associated with CCS & prevent minor issues from escalating into significant problems 6. Environmental Monitoring and Impact Assessment: Assessing the potential impacts on local ecosystems and groundwater systems