The Groundwater and Storage interactions project arose out of a meeting on the shoulder of the Greenhouse Gas Technologies Conference in Amsterdam in 2010. It was decided to concentrate initially on the Australian Flagships projects. On 3 May 2011 Australian researchers and government agencies met and presented their work to date. In these slides the Carbon Transport and Storage Company (CTSCO) present on the Surat Basin Hydrogeology and related issues.

1. CTSCO:
a carbon storage solution
Surat Basin Hydrogeology-related Issues
3 May 2011
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2. Wandoan IGCC with CCS
Project summary Power Plant & CO2 Capture
• Located in Surat Basin, Queensland
• Proposed IGCC with up to 90% CCS
(341 MW sent out capacity)
• ~2.5Mt CO2 pa, at 1-2 km’s Stanwell Corporation & GE Energy
underground
• Project integrates partners’ strengths
– GE IGCC and pre-combustion capture
technology CO2 Transport & Storage
– Stanwell power portfolio experience
– CTSCo storage program development
• Fuel supply by Xstrata Coal
Xstrata Coal subsidiary
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3. Project strengths
Well defined fundamentals:
 Operating and warrantied IGCC technology
 90% capture capability from day 1
 Surat strategy identified early
 Fuel supply tested and selected
 Grid Connection Enquiry lodged
 Water and gas supply available
 Efficient development spend
 Commercially fundable
 Preferred tenderer status for 3 storage tenements
within 200kms (>75Mt)
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4. Timely proving up of CO2 storage
requires innovation
Storage target approach
Regional Surat Basin hub potential 2,900 Mt capacity
Non potable aquifer and anticline storage options targeted to reduce risk
Extensive existing seismic and deep well data already available
Targeting best skills with many years specific resource experience
The challenge – to deliver:
Faster assessment timeframes
Lower assessment risk
Lower assessment cost
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5. Go to the Surat Basin
Drill a deep hole
Find some pore space
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6. Precipice 58-0 Sand
Isopach (m)
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7. CTSCo Objectives
1. To deliver a successful outcome from the
CCS Flagship funding = industrial-scale CO2
injection demonstration project, that:
– Is technically feasible
– Is safe to operate and co-exist with landowners
– Causes no environment harm
– Is responsive to community concerns
– Can help open up the basin for hub storage
2. To enable the Department of Environment &
Resource Management (EPA) to issue the
necessary approvals to:
– Inject CO2 stream for pilot and long-term injection
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8. CTSCo Objectives
3. To support the development of an effective
Leakage Liability and Legislative regime that
underpins the commercial realities
4. Share the information freely
=> Enable all stakeholders to take comfort in the
risk, acceptability, liability of CO2 injection at
industrial-scale
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9. CTSCo Strategies
1. Understand the technical issues (capacity,
injectivity & containment)
– Regional and locally consistent hydrogeological model
that informs the Dynamic Reservoir Simulation
– Gaps
• What is the volume of CO2 required to be injected to be “Monitor-able
and Verify-able”?
• How will the CCS Operator “show” the plume is contained and not
channelling to a leak point?
2. Understand and focus on the concerns of the
regulator(s)
– Engage with the Regulators early in the Injection
Planning/approvals process
– Gaps
• What is the permissible GHG Stream composition?
– BTEX
– NOx, SOx etc
• What is the volume of CO2 required to be injected to satisfy
regulators?
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10. CTSCo Strategies
3. Staged and Gated CO2 injection testing with effective M&V to
resolve concerns and deliver increasing confidence to all
Stakeholders to proceed to industrial-scale storage operations
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11. CTSCo Hydrogeology - Lessons learned
• Multiple GAB studies done but no common database
• Little integration by “hydro-consultants” between
– Shallow groundwater focus
– Deep aquifers by “hydro-consultants” (no-one asked about DSTs, correlations etc)
• Unconstrained & out-of-context comments feed concerns of non-technical
CCS “gatekeepers”
– Statistics based on number of wells rather than the location in the aquifer (shallow or deep
wells)
– Unqualified statements e.g. rate of movement 200m/y to 0.1m/y without saying where or why
• Needs skills that covers deep petroleum data types and shallow
groundwater systems
– DST Pressure interpretation
– DST water recovery – chemistry QC
– Use consistent aquifer correlations
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12. What do we need?
Reactive Chemistry
Reactive Chemistry
Hydrogeology
Hydrogeology
Geomechanics
Geomechanics
Dynamic Plume
Simulation
Dynamic Plume
Simulation
• Robust linkage between models
• At site-specific and regional scale
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13. What else do we need to do?
• Need to gather site-specific data (data gap analysis)
– Water chemistry
– Aquifer pressure, temperature
– Reservoir and seal lithology, mineralogy
• Need to engage with regulators early
– Regional
– Site specific
• Need to know how we will demonstrate to regulators the impact of CO2 on
aquifers and all potential stakeholders
– Pressure impact
– Aquifer chemistry impact
– Seal integrity
– Extent of actual plume movement versus predicted
• Need the credibility of an expert Third Party (not CCS-aligned) to explain GAB
and CO2 storage to Public
• Need to maximise opportunities for co-operation => CGI
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14. Carbon Geostorage Initiative
• Jonathan Hodgkinson (Geological Survey
of Queensland )
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15. Project support
• Projects of this kind need support and the project wishes to acknowledge the following
parties:
Wandoan IGCC with CCS funding support
The project has received pre-feasibility funding from the Australian Government (as part of the Clean Energy
Initiative), the Queensland Government and the Australian Coal Association Coal 21 fund. The views expressed in
this presentation are not necessarily the views of these parties.
Project support
– CO2CRC (our lead research organisation)
– CSIRO (our principle research organisation in gasification)
– Xstrata Coal
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16. Uniquely Capable Proponents
• One of the world’s leading technology developers
• >300,000 people in over 120 countries
• 60+ years of gasification experience
• GE technology generates >25% of world’s power
• Invests >US$2B annually in cleaner technologies
“ecomaginaton”
• Queensland based developer, owner and operator of power
generation and coal resources
• 3GW under management and dispatch to the NEM
• Vested interest and experience in power and carbon markets
• World’s largest thermal coal exporter and 5th largest miner
• Headquarters in Australia
• Extensive geological development experience and capability
• Major contributor to COAL 21 voluntary industry fund
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