Promising findings on the potential of CO2 sequestration
© 2021 LMS EPFL
Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology with great potential for reducing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and thus mitigation of climate change. Scientists from the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics at EPFL, the Rock Physics and Mechanics Laboratory at ETHZ, and the Digital Rocks Lab at Imperial College London teamed up within SCCER-SoE to study CO2 storage and provide a better understanding of its processes.
In CCS, carbon dioxide is captured in large quantities directly from industrial sites, purified, and injected into deep underground formations. The injected CO2 is trapped underground thanks to the existence of a caprock formation that overlies the injection reservoir and holds CO2 in place away from the surface. The researchers successfully developed numerical models to evaluate the geo-mechanical response of the caprock uponCO2 rich fluid injection. The numerical study was supported by experimental tests carried out in the different laboratories (lab scale) and in the Mont Terri Laboratory (field scale), in the framework of the ELEGANCY European project.
The scientists from the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics (LMS) at EPFL focused on investigating the response of Opalinus Clay – a potential caprock material in Switzerland – during CO2 injection and made significant progress in determining the material’s properties that ensure safe geological sequestration of CO2. More precisely, they assessed the hydro-mechanical response of clay rock samples during CO2 injection and quantified the material’s entry-pressure.
The complete article is available here.