With support from the Czech Academic Research Fund of the EEA and Norway Grants, the Czech Geological Survey and the International Research Institute of Stavanger are cooperating on the TOGEOS ("Towards Geological Storage of C02 in the Czech Republic") project.
The project entails charting the carbon dioxide (CO2) storage potential of geological structures in the Czech Republic. So far, the most potentially suitable sites have been found in central Bohemia and eastern Moravia. The mineralogy and geochemistry of reservoir rocks will be analysed and one selected basin structure will be subjected to integrated modelling, which will be an important step closer to pilot testing. "Through this project, we will be able to make a significant step further towards preparing the ground for a possible pilot carbon capture and storage project in the Czech Republic," says Vit Hladík, Head of the Geophysical Section at the Czech Geological Survey.
More research on potential storage sites is strongly needed, as the Czech Republic has one of the highest per capita CO2 emissions levels in Europe – and CO2 capture and geological storage is one of the most important ways of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Leading the field in CO2 storage
Combating climate change and reducing CO2 emissions are key political priorities in both the Czech Republic and in Norway, and both countries are signatories of the Kyoto protocol.
Norway is the world-leading country in implementing CO2 storage, and is running 2 of the 4 industrial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects carried out worldwide. In the Sleipner and Snøhvit projects, CO2 extracted from gas production in the Norwegian North and Barents Seas is being stored at respectively 1000 and 2600 m below the ground. When operating at full capacity, the Snøhvit project alone will store 700,000 tonnes of CO2 annually – creating a relief equalling the emissions of 280,000 cars. Sleipner is the first industrial CCS project in the world, storing ca. 1 mill tonnes of CO2 per year since 1996.
The TOGEOS project is one of 2 projects on carbon capture and storage supported by the Czech Research Fund. The other project is a cooperation between the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the SINTEF Research Group on the validity and comparability of Norwegian rock mass classification systems for monitoring an underground gas storage.
Pictured above is a caption of a schematic geological cross-section (correlation panel) across the Central Bohemian Basin with lithological borehole profiles and well-log curves
Visit the website of the TOGEOS project.
Photo credit: Richard Lojka, Czech Geological Survey.