This animation has been developed by Geoscience Australia to illustrate the carbon dioxide capture, transportation and storage process. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the technologies that we can use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, particularly from sources such as coal or natural gas fired power stations and industrial plants. In this process carbon dioxide (CO2) is captured at the source (e.g. power station), transported via pipeline and injected deep underground into a porous rock, such as sandstone. There it is trapped by the overlying fine grained and impermeable mud rocks.

Hot Rocks in Australia - National Outlook Hill, A.J.1, Goldstein, B.A1 and Budd, A.R.2 goldstein.barry@saugov.sa.gov.au hill.tonyj@saugov.sa.gov.au Petroleum & Geothermal Group, PIRSA Level 6, 101 Grenfell St.Adelaide SA 50001 Anthony.Budd@ga.gov.au Onshore Energy & Minerals Division, Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378 Canberra ACT 26012 Abstract: Evidence of climate change and knowledge of enormous hot rock resources are factors stimulating growth in geothermal energy research, including exploration, proof-of-concept appraisals, and development of demonstration pilot plant projects in Australia. In the six years since the grant of the first Geothermal Exploration Licence (GEL) in Australia, 16 companies have joined the hunt for renewable and emissions-free geothermal energy resources in 120 licence application areas covering ~ 67,000 km2 in Australia. The associated work programs correspond to an investment of $570 million, and that tally excludes deployment projects assumed in the Energy Supply Association of Australia's scenario for 6.8% (~ 5.5 GWe) of Australia's base-load power coming from geothermal resources by 2030. Australia's geothermal resources fall into two categories: hydrothermal (from relatively hot groundwater) and the hot fractured rock i.e. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Large-scale base-load electricity generation in Australia is expected to come predominantly from Enhanced Geothermal systems. Geologic factors that determine the extent of EGS plays can be generalised as: - source rock availability, in the form of radiogenic, high heat-flow basement rocks (mostly granites); - low thermal-conductivity insulating rocks overlying the source rocks, to provide thermal traps; - the presence of permeable fabrics within insulating and basement rocks, that can be enhanced to create heat-exchange reservoirs; and - a practical depth-range, limited by drilling and completion technologies (defining a base) and necessary heat exchange efficiency (defining a top). A national EGS resource assessment and a road-map for the commercialisation of Australia's EGSs are expected to be published in 2008. The poster will provide a synopsis of investment frameworks and geothermal energy projects underway and planned in Australia.

CO2CRC Project 1 - Site Specific Studies for Geological Storage of carbon Dioxide Part 1: Southeast Queensland CO2 Storage Sites - Basin Desk-top, Geological Interpretation and Reservoir Simulation of Regional Model

A Bayesian inversion technique to determine the location and strength of trace gas emissions from a point source in open air is presented. It was tested using atmospheric measurements of nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) released at known rates from a source located within an array of eight evenly spaced sampling points on a 20 m radius circle. The analysis requires knowledge of concentration enhancement downwind of the source and the normalized, three-dimensional distribution (shape) of concentration in the dispersion plume. The influence of varying background concentrations of ~1% for N2O and ~10% for CO2 was removed by subtracting upwind concentrations from those downwind of the source to yield only concentration enhancements. Continuous measurements of turbulent wind and temperature statistics were used to model the dispersion plume. The analysis localized the source to within 0.8 m of the true position and the emission rates were determined to better than 3% accuracy. This technique will be useful in assurance monitoring for geological storage of CO2 and for applications requiring knowledge of the location and rate of fugitive emissions.

<p>Geoscience Australia in collaboration with the CO2CRC hosted three controlled subsurface release experiments of CO2 during 2012 to 2013 at an agricultural research station managed by CSIRO Plant Industry Canberra. The facility was designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the soil into the atmosphere, and has deployed a range of near-surface monitoring techniques in the pursuit of improving detection and quantification methods and technologies. This product, which encompasses 4 geodatabases, a metadata report and a data dictionary, presents all the data collected during the experiments from over 10 research organisations, and is made to use with GIS software. The intention of this data release is make the data available for comparison with measurements taken at other controlled release experiments, CO2 storage projects and natural analogues. This will hopefully facilitate the further development of greenhouse gas monitoring technologies, methods and monitoring strategies and increase our understanding of the migration behaviour and impact of near surface CO2 leakage. <p>The contents of each geodatabase/experiment is summarised below: <p>Release 1 (Feb-May 2012): <p>- Soil microbial data <p>- Soil chemistry <p>- Free air CO2 concentration <p>- Eddy covariance <p>- Groundwater chemistry <p>- Soil gas <p>- Krypton tracers <p>- EM31 <p>- Soil flux <p>Release 2 (Oct-Dec 2012): <p>- Groundwater chemistry <p>- EM31 <p>- EM38 <p>- Soil gas <p>- Soil flux <p>- Airborne hyperspectral <p>- Ground hyperspectral <p>Release 3 (Oct-Dec 2013): <p>- Mobile CO2 surveys <p>- Groundwater depth <p>- Eddy covariance <p>- Plant physiology and chemistry <p>- EM31 <p>- EM38 <p>- Soil gas <p>- Soil flux <p>- Airborne hyperspectral <p>All Releases: <p>- Aerial images <p>- Groundwater depths <p>- Meteorological data <p>Bibliographic reference: <p>Feitz, A.J., Schroder, I.F., Jenkins, C.J., Schacht, U., Zegelin, S., Berko, H., McGrath, A., Noble, R., Palu, T.J., George, S., Heath, C., Zhang, H., Sirault, X. and Jimenez-Berni, J. 2016. Ginninderra Controlled CO2 Release Facility Dataset 2012-2013. eCat 90078, Geoscience Australia and CO2CRC, Canberra. https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/90078. <p>Digital Object Identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.4225/25/5823c37333f9d

Geological storage of greenhouse gases is one approach that the Australian Government is pursuing to assist Australia, and the world, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Understanding the geology of Australia's sedimentary basins and their potential for greenhouse gas storage is an important component of Geoscience Australia's work in supporting emission reductions.

Monitoring is an important aspect in verifying the integrity of the geological storage of greenhouse gases. Geoscience Australia is working with CSIRO, the CO2CRC, the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide and the University of Wollongong to develop and evaluate new techniques to detect and quantify greenhouse gas emissions.

Hydrothermal and hot fractured rock (HFR) resources are prevalent in Australia. This, and evidence of risks posed by climate change are factors stimulating growth in geothermal energy exploration, proof-of-concept and demonstration power generation projects in Australia. In the six years since the grant of the first Geothermal Exploration Licence (GEL) in Australia in 2001, 16 companies have joined the hunt for renewable and emissions-free geothermal energy resources in 122 licence application areas covering ~ 68,000 km2. The associated work programs correspond to an investment of $570 million, a tally which excludes up-scaling and deployment projects assumed in the Energy Supply Association of Australia's scenario for 6.8% (~ 5.5 GWe) of Australia's base-load power coming from geothermal resources by 2030. Most investment is focused on HFR for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to fuel binary power plants. At least two companies are also focused on hydrothermal resources, also to fuel binary power plants. A national EGS resource assessment and a road-map for the commercialisation of Australian EGS are expected to be published in 2008. Geoscience Australia's preliminary work suggests Australia's hot rock energy between 150oC and 5 km is roughly 1.2 billion PJ (roughly 20,000 years of Australia's primary energy use in 2005), without taking account of the renewable characteristics of hot rock EGS plays. The presentation will provide up-to-date accounts of: 1. Exploration, proof-of-concept and demonstration projects on the path to commercializing hot rock resources in Australia; 2. Government designed investment frameworks that aim to attract and facilitate progress to commercializing hot rock resources in Australia; 3. Methods adopted by regulators to meet community expectations that only safe operations (including EGS projects) will be approved by regulators; and 4. Proposed methods for the portfolio management of EGS projects vying for funding within companies, and competing for research and demonstration grants from governments.

Eddy Covariance (EC) is considered a key atmospheric technique for quantifying CO2 leakage. However the complex and localised heterogeneity of a CO2 leak above the background environmental signal violates several of the critical assumptions made when implementing the EC technique, including: - That horizontal gradients in CO2 concentration are zero. - That horizontal and vertical gradients in the covariance of CO2 and orthogonal wind directions are zero. The ability of EC measurements of CO2 flux at the surface to provide information on the location and strength of CO2 leakage from below ground stores was tested during a 144 kg/day release event (27 March - 13 June 2012) at the Ginninderra controlled release facility. We show that the direction of the leak can be ascertained with some confidence although this depends on leak strength and distance from leak. Elevated CO2 levels are seen in the direction of the leakage area, however quantifying the emissions is confounded by the potential bias within each measurement through breaching of the assumptions underpinning the EC technique. The CO2 flux due to advection of the horizontal CO2 concentration gradients, thought to be the largest component of the error with the violation of the EC technique's assumptions, has been estimated using the modelling software Windtrax. The magnitude of the CO2 flux due to advection is then compared with the measured CO2 flux measured using the EC technique, to provide an initial assessment of the suitability of the EC technique to quantifying leakage source rates.

This is a 5.48 minute long movie demonstrating Carbon Capture Technologies as one of the range of solutions that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Using 3D Max animation we show how carbon dioxide is captured at the source of emissions (coal fired power stations for example), and permanently storing them deep underground. The movie has professional narration explaining the story, throughout.