The year 2011 recorded the highest ever global consumption of energy, estimated at more than 12 billion tonnes of oil equivalent. Because of this, and despite increasingly widespread deployment of renewable energy generation, annual global emissions of greenhouse gases are continuing to rise, underpinned by increasing consumption of fossil fuels. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is currently the only available technology that can significantly reduce CO2 emissions to the atmosphere from fossil fuel power stations and other industrial facilities such as oil refineries, steel works, cement factories and chemical plants. However, achieving meaningful emissions reduction requires wide deployment of large scale CCS and will involve long term storage of very large volumes of CO2 in the subsurface. Ultimately, if CCS were to be rolled out globally, volumes of injected carbon dioxide could become comparable, on an annual basis, to world hydrocarbon production. The most likely sites for CO2 storage are depleted oil and gas fields or saline aquifers. Understanding and monitoring geomechanical processes within different types of storage site is crucial for site selection, for achieving long term security of storage and for instilling wider confidence in the safety and effectiveness of CCS. In many cases depleted hydrocarbon fields have experienced strong pressure decrease during production which may have affected the integrity of the caprock seal; furthermore, CO2 injection into saline aquifers will displace large volumes of groundwater (brine). In all cases, as injection proceeds and reservoir pressures increase, maintaining the geomechanical stability of the storage reservoir will be of great importance. Understanding and managing these subsurface processes is key to minimising any risk that CO2 storage could result in unexpected effects such as induced earthquakes or damage to caprock seal integrity. Experience from existing large-scale CO2 injection sites shows that monitoring tools such as time-lapse 3D seismic, micro-seismic monitoring and satellite interferometry have the potential to make a significant contribution to our understanding of reservoir processes, including fine-scale flow of CO2, fluid pressure changes, induced seismic activity and ground displacements. The DiSECCS project will bring together monitoring datasets from the world's three industrial scale CO2 storage sites at Sleipner (offshore Norway), Snohvit (offshore Norway) and In Salah (Algeria) to develop and test advanced and innovative monitoring tools and methods for the measurement and characterisation of pressure increase, CO2 migration and fluid saturation changes and geomechanical response. A key element of the research will be to identify those storage reservoir types that will be suitable for large-scale CO2 storage without unwanted geomechanical effects, and to develop monitoring tools and strategies to ensure safe and effective storage site performance. In addition, our research will explore public attitudes to CO2 storage. Grant number: EP/K035878/1.

The data consists of a poster presented at the UKCCSRC biannual meeting in Cardiff, September 10-11th 2014. The poster describes work carried-out on behalf of the 'Fault seal controls on CO2 storage capacity in aquifers' project funded by the UKCCS Research Centre, grant number UKCCSRC-C1-14. Shallow gas accumulations in the Netherlands sector of the Southern North Sea provide an opportunity to study their coincidence with faulting. Although difficult to attribute the occurrence of shallow gas to leakage of thermogenic fluids from depth (indeed shallow-sourced biogenic gas is common in the North Sea), evidence suggests a relationship, and the common attributes of the faults provide indications of the conditions under which faults in the region may leak, providing a useful indications of factors that should be avoided during CO2 storage operations.

Many of the research results from the SACS and CO2STORE projects are published in the scientific literature but in a somewhat fragmented form. This report consolidates some of the key findings into a manual of observations and recommendations relevant to underground saline aquifer storage, aiming to provide technically robust guidelines for effective and safe storage of CO2 in a range of geological settings. This will set the scene for companies, regulatory authorities, nongovernmental organisations, and ultimately, the interested general public, in evaluating possible new CO2 storage projects in Europe and elsewhere. The report can be downloaded from http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/2959/.

This presentation on the UKCCSRC Call 2 project Quantifying Residual and Dissolution Trapping in the CO2CRC Otway Injection Site was presented at the UKCCSRC Edinburgh Biannual Meeting, 15.09.2016. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C2-204.

The table contains the list of samples, including location, collected during 2016 field campaign in Vanuatu. Samples include lavas, xenolith (mantle and crustal), scoria, pumice and coral from Esperitu Santo, Efati, Tanna, Ambae, Maewo, Gaua and Vanua Lava. The physical collection is in School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol.

The Terra-correlator: A computing facility for massive real-time data assimilation in environmental science. Two Application Framework Papers: 1) Report on Terra-Correlator Application Framework. 2) Use Cases and Requirements for Terra-Correlator Application Framework, plus the codes used for the work done.

The aim of this project is to develop validated and computationally efficient shelter and escape models describing the consequences of a carbon dioxide (CO2) release from Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) transport infrastructure to the surrounding population. The models will allow pipeline operators, regulators and standard setters to make informed and appropriate decisions regarding pipeline safety and emergency response. The primary objectives planned to achieve this aim are: 1.To produce an indoor shelter model, based on ventilation and air change theory, which will account for both wind and buoyancy driven CO2 ventilation into a building. The model will be capable of incorporating varying cloud heights, internal building divisions, internal and external temperature differences and impurities. 2.To create an external escape model that will determine the dosage received by an individual exposed to a cloud of CO2 outdoors. The model will be capable of incorporating multi-decision making by the individual in terms of the direction and speed of running, wind direction, the time taken to find shelter and the time required to make a decision, on becoming aware of the release. 3.To build a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model describing the effects of ingress of a CO2 cloud into a multicompartment building. 4.To validate the indoor shelter model and the CFD model against experimental test data for a CO2 release into a single compartment building. 5.To validate the indoor shelter model against further CO2 ingress scenarios modelled with CFD. 6.To conduct a sensitivity study using the shelter and escape models to calculate the dosage that an individual will be expected to receive under different conditions building height, window area, wind direction, temperature gradient, wind speed, atmospheric conditions, building size, running speed, direction of travel and reaction time. 7.To illustrate how the output from the models, in terms of dosage, can be used as input to Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) studies to determine safe distances between CO2 pipelines and population centres. 8.To demonstrate how the output from the models, in terms of dosage, can be used as input to the development of emergency response plans regarding the protection afforded by shelter and the likely concentrations remaining in a shelter after release. 9.To disseminate the findings of the research to relevant stakeholders through publication of academic journal papers as well as presentations at conferences, UKCCSRC meetings and relevant specialist workshops. Grant number: UKCCSRC-C2-179.

The SACS Best Practice Manual consists of two parts. The first part outlines the operational experiences gained during the Sleipner CO2 injection operation. The second part consists of recommendations based on the monitoring the Sleipner CO2 injection operation during the SACS project. The report can be downloaded from http://www.ieaghg.org/docs/General_Docs/Reports/SACS%20Best%20Practise%20Manual.pdf.

This is one of the early papers on CO2 storage. Natural analogues indicate that it is possible to dispose of CO2 underground in closed structures on deep aquifers. Disposal into depleted or exhausted hydrocarbon fields has many advantages, e.g. proven seal, known storage capacity, no exploration costs. Unfortunately there are very few hydrocarbon fields in the UK onshore area, and their total CO2 storage capacity is very low compared to annual UK CO2 production from power generation. The best aquifers for CO2 disposal onshore are the widespread Permo-Triassic sandstones. Further onshore potential exists in younger Mesozoic reservoirs. Offshore, disposal into depleted oil fields (where cost credits from enhanced oil recovery could be beneficial) or the Perno-Triassic gas fields of the southern North Sea, and nearby associated closures of the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone aquifer, appear to provide the best prospects. doi:10.1016/0196-8904(93)90038-C. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/019689049390038C

The data consists of a presentation presented at the '1st Young North Sea CCS Researchers meeting', Rotterdam, Netherlands, 18th June 2014. The presentation describes work carried-out on behalf of the 'Fault seal controls on CO2 storage capacity in aquifers' project funded by the UKCCS Research Centre, grant number UKCCSRC-C1-14. The presentation provides an overview of the aims of the project, and gives some context to the initial studies of fault seal behaviour at natural gas fields, as analogues for geological storage sites.