An Italian geologist in Norway to capture CO2 at the bottom of the sea

CO capture and storage₂: myth or reality? The Norwegian government draws heavily on Nordic traditions to propose its project to the world, which is a candidate to bury a large part of the carbon dioxide that European industries will produce in the coming years in the seabed. The overall plan name is Longships, like the long Viking ships that have sailed through those very cold waters for centuries. The transport and storage project was renamed instead Northern Lights, aurora borealis. But behind the names that evoke the Far North of our imagination, there are very concrete objectives: starting as early as next year in the seabed 100 kilometers west of the Norwegian coast 1.5 million tons a year of CO₂ captured from European smokestacks. An all-Scandinavian ambition that also rests on a piece of Italian expertise: Renata Meneguoloresponsible for geology within Northern Lights.

We meet her at the residence of the Norwegian ambassador in Italy Johan Vibe who wanted to illustrate his government’s project to Italian interlocutors: from the scientists of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology to businesses (Eni for example).

Dr. Meneguolo, what exactly is Northern Lights?

“It is a project of transport and geological storage of carbon dioxide from industrial plants. from third parties. It is a commercial project: anyone with a capture plant can come to us. We will bring their volumes of CO₂ by ships to a terminal, near Bergen, and from there the carbon dioxide will be transported in liquid form in a pipeline that will take it to a submarine plant for deep injection”.

How long is the underwater pipeline? And how deep will the CO be injected₂ below the seabed?

“The pipeline is about a hundred kilometers long and the well reaches a depth of 2,800 metres”.

Will carbon dioxide be stored in a depleted fossil fuel field?
“No. Our approach is different. We will pump the CO₂ in a saline aquifer. It is a volume of porous rock whose interstices are filled with salt water. In our case the salinity is 73 grams per litre, which is more than twice the sea water.”

And according to your forecasts, how much CO₂ will you be able to pump into the rising aquifer that you have been granted permission by the Norwegian government?
“Northern Lights phase one has the ambition to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year for 25 years: a total of 37.5 million tons. With phase 2 we would like to increase this volume to 5-7 million tons per year for the next 25 years.”

So hundreds of millions of tons pushed under pressure into the subsoil: how can you be sure that there are no geological risks or for marine ecosystems?

“Before starting operations we measured the pre-existing conditions, both geological and biological. And then we will monitor the same parameters during storage, in order to notice in real time if the activity is creating undesirable effects”.

There is a risk of leakage, of CO leakage₂ stored?
“Considering that this has never happened in any of the existing storage reservoirs in the world so far, we have studied in detail the cap rock of the aquifer, which is the first defense, and we have calculated the stresses it can support. We have studied the faults, through which the CO₂ could rise to the surface. However, in our area the faults end within the subsurface without reaching the surface. We built the injection wells equipping them with barriers that prevent the upward return of carbon dioxide. Another factor that can prevent leakage is that underground, between the injection level and the seabed, there is a second pack of impermeable layers. But even if all this were not enough, it must be borne in mind that CO₂ when it comes into contact with the water of the saline aquifer it transforms and even if it were to go up again it would stop in other geological layers. In short, the idea that a possible leak generates a champagne cork effect is completely wrong: it is actually a slow process and even if it did occur it would still lead to the storage of CO₂maybe in other levels”.

But the Norwegian seabed is particularly suited to this CO storage technology₂? Or could it be replicated in other seas around the world?
“Saline aquifers are widespread not only in the Norwegian continental shelf, which however has the advantage of not having such a pronounced seismic activity as in other areas. Even if earthquake-proof storage facilities have been built in Japan. The key feature of our concession is that the saline aquifer is suitable for storage due to its geological characteristics”.

At what stage are the works?
“The visitor center is completed, while the rest of the mainland part is 70% complete. We are now installing the first tanks that arrived from Spain. We will be operational in 2024”.

Who will your customers be?
“The market we’re targeting is the northern European one overlooking the Baltic or the North Sea: France, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany. I’m not involved in business development, but it seems logical to me that it would cost a little too much for Italian industries bring his CO₂ by ship up here”.

Speaking of costs, critics of capture and storage argue that it is too expensive a process. And that for this reason, despite being talked about for decades, it has never taken off.
“Prices so far have indeed been high. But because each storage site catered to a specific emitter. There was no standardization and no wide range of customers were targeted. Now with Northern Lights they are trying to create a market just to cut costs.

How did you, Dr. Meneguolo, get to Norway?
“It happened more than 15 years ago, after a degree and a doctorate in geology at the University of Padua. Equinor (then Statoil), at the time the main Norwegian oil company which today also deals with renewables and storage, offered me the opportunity to work here”.

Has it settled in?
“There are crazy advantages and things that I still don’t digest. The working conditions, for example, are excellent. But the food and the weather… when it snows in late May it’s really hard…”.