1. Grantham Institute
for Climate Change
Carbon Capture and Storage –
The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
Paul Fennell
Department of Chemical Engineering
Imperial College London
Director, Imperial College Centre for CCS
Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre

2. Carbon capture and storage

3. Some numbers...
• Current emissions are around 30 Gt CO2 per year (8.5 Gt
carbon).
• Say inject at 10 MPa and 40oC – density is 600-700 kgm-3.
• This is about 108 m3/day or around 700 million barrels per day.
Current oil production is around 85 million barrels per day.
• Huge volumes – so not likely to be the whole story but could
contribute 1-3 Gt carbon/yr… or ~ 10 Gt CO2 pa
• Costs: 2-3 cents/kWh for electricity for capture and storage;
$40-100 per tonne CO2 removed – Shackley and Gough, 2006

4. Why CCS?
• CCS offers a vital role to balance grid
demand when renewables are not
generating.
• Without CCS, costs to halve emissions by
2050 rise by 70% in the electricity sector
(IEA CCS technology roadmap 2009)
• Industries such as Cement, and Iron and
Steel production intrinsically produce CO2.
5
ICCT August 2010

5. Status of Technology
• Technology overall
– In good shape
– Ready for widespread deployment
• Capture processes relatively mature and
commercial
– 60-70% of overall cost
– Quite energy intensive (CO2 regeneration)
– Compression costs high
• New, improved capture processes in
development

6. Status of Technology
• CO2 Transport Pipelines not very extensive
– Project specific
– Some talk/studies of ‘grids’ but still some way off
• Storage
– Site selection
– Injection design and implementation
– Long-term monitoring
All well developed in principle, based on long experience
of oil and gas production and reservoir management,
including gas injection
– DNV CO2Qualstore Industry Guidelines for selection and
management of storage sites

7. Status of Technology
• But...
– No really commercial CCS field operations
– Actual experience and refinement through very
limited number of field demonstrators:
• 8-10 Large Scale Integrated Projects
• ~40 Small-Medium Projects
– Experience in Sandstones > Carbonates
• Overall
– 1st generation processes and methodologies
robust and being refined in field demonstrators
– Much 2nd generation technology in the pipeline
• To improve efficiency and security of containment
• To reduce costs

8. CO2 Capture Challenges
• Lower Capex and Opex costs
• Higher pressure processes – lower
compression costs
• Sorbents with high sorption and low
regeneration energy
• Smaller and more efficient contacters
• Low cost air separation (oxyfuel)
• Exploit membranes – lower energy
separation 9

9. Likely technology adoption trajectory after Figueroa et al (2008)
P Fennell and N Florin, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London

10. Key Storage Issues
• Site Selection
– Capacity, injectivity, containment, EOR?...
• Safe injection design
– Maximizing CO2 access to available storage
capacity
– Ensuring secure long term containment
– Avoiding damage to reservoir eg fracturing
• Long-term monitoring for containment
assurance

11. In Salah project, Algeria
10% CO2 is
produced with natural
gas
CO2 cannot be put
in commercial pipeline
Injected into deep
saline formation in
Krechba reservoir, at
a depth of 2km
One million tonnes
of CO2 stored each
year
Operational since
2004
Surface has been
uplifted by increased
pressure
http://www.insalahco2.com

12. Opportunities in CCS for GCC
• Already active demonstration activity in region
(In Salah, Masdar...)
• When accompanied by EOR, EGR  improved
recoveries of valuable local resource
• Economic drivers
– CCS as part of CDM  carbon credits
– Potential for GCC regional CO2 mitigation targets and
trading system?
• After energy efficiency, cheapest and quickest
route to ‘green electricity’ and reducing GHG
13
emissions...and only way if using fossil fuels

13. Opportunities in CCS for GCC
• CO2 capture costs often already in place
– Coproduction from gas wells with CH4
– Gas-to-Liquids GTL
• CCS for gas...green gas
– ~50% less CO2 per kW  lower % efficiency penalty,
lower CCS cost per kW
• Widespread experience in region of gas injection
• Many available reservoirs/aquifers – huge
storage potential in carbonate reservoirs
• CCS as an industry in its own right is a major
potential economic opportunity...jobs, technology
14

14. Opportunities in CCS for GCC
• CCS powered by renewable energy?– no
efficiency penalty for power plant or additional
emissions for industrial processes
– Use solar energy for carbon capture (solvent
regeneration)
– Good fit – can use low temperature heat
• Potential in future to be ultimate green oil and
gas producers...combine production and CCS
– in situ pre-combustion and processing
15

15. CCS as a driver for increased energy efficiency
• The real cost of energy from fossil fuels = generation costs +
CO2 mitigation costs
• Pass CCS (and fossil fuel production) costs to consumer  rise in
power costs
 driver for increased energy efficiencies and savings
 lower consumption and preservation of valuable
national resource
• Hence achieve three things
– Reduced CO2 emissions from power generation and industrial processes
(by CCS)
– Reduced CO2 emissions from reduced power consumption (by cost-
driven efficiency improvements)
– Reduced depletion of valuable non-renewable resources
• In GCC energy requirements likely to rise rapidly over next few
decades...so benefits of CCS even greater proportionately than in
e.g. Europe
16

16. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
• A 10 year, $70m programme to provide the science and
engineering underpinning the cost-effective, safe,
permanent storage of CO2 in carbonate reservoirs
• Also addresses CO2 EOR
• Sponsored by
– Qatar Petroleum
– Shell
– Qatar Science and Technology Park
17

17. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre One Grand Challenge...
• QCCSRC builds on the
Shell Grand Challenge Programme on Clean Fossil Fuels
• 5 year, £3m programme 2007-2011
International Oil & Gas Expertise
World-leading Research
Coal Seams + ECBM Sandstone Reservoirs
 CO2 Storage and EOR
 CO2/Hydrocarbons/Water Properties at
Reservoir Temperatures and Pressures

18. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre ...Leads to Another...
Carbonate
Reservoirs
Qatar Reservoir Expertise
QP
Carbon Capture
and Storage
Improved Oil/Gas
World-leading Research Recovery International Oil &
Imperial Shell Gas Expertise
Building on the understanding and methodology emerging
Coal Seams + ECBM from existing Shell-Imperial collaborations on
thermophysical / petrophysical properties, imaging and Sandstone Reservoirs
related modelling concerning EOR and CCS
 CO2 Storage and EOR (Sandstones)
 CO2/Hydrocarbons/Water Properties and modelling at
Reservoir Temperatures and Pressures
Shell-Imperial Grand Challenge – Clean Fossil Fuels
19

19. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
QCCSRC is born in 2008...

20. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
...and grows year on year...
Currently there are
• 17 Academic Staff
• 3 QCCSRC Lecturers
• 10 Postdoctoral Researchers
• 34 PhD Students
• 5 Technical Support Staff
working within the Centre

21. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
What’s different about
Carbonate Reservoirs?
• Structure
• Broader pore size distribution
• Natural fractures
• Chemical reaction
• Reactive flow changes pore space
• Dissolution-Precipitation

22. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre QCCSRC Overall Objectives
• Provide the underpinning science and engineering, state-of-the art
methodologies and simulators for CO2 storage in carbonate
reservoirs
• Enable sustainable optimization of production and recovery from
Qatar carbonate reservoirs, including CO2 EOR
• Support the design and execution of CCS field demonstration
project(s) to convert this improved understanding into practical
value
• Educate Qatari PhD students to provide the technology leaders of
the future for Qatar
• Transfer equipment, techniques, methodologies and expertise to
Qatar to create world-leading facilities in CCS and hydrocarbon
recovery from carbonate reservoirs
• Build on and leverage the Shell-Imperial Grand Challenge on
Clean Fossil Fuels

23. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
The second most important event in London in 2012
24

24. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon The most important event
Storage Research Centre
in London in 2012

25. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon The most important event
Storage Research Centre
in London in 2012
September 2012...Official Opening of the
QCCSRC Laboratory Suite

26. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
Inspiring a Generation in London in 2012
– the five projects of QCCSRC
Validation,
Carbonate Support for CCS integration and
Reservoir Field upscaling of
new physics,
Characterisation Demonstration
models and
Project simulators
Pore-fracture Advanced
scale Physics Integrated
and Simulator for
Carbonate
Chemistry Reservoirs
27

27. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
The QCCSRC Laboratory Suite
Qatar
Qatar Clumped Qatar Multiscale Thermophysical
Isotope Imaging Properties
Laboratory Laboratory Laboratory
Qatar Qatar
Complex Multiscale
Fluids Modelling
Laboratory Facility
28

28. Qatar Carbonates and Carbon
Storage Research Centre
QCCSRC Roadmap
Field Scale
Support for Support for design Field Laboratory -
Field and evaluation validation of models
Demonstrator
Installation of Core Scale
Multiscale imaging facilities Multicomponent Multicomponent Multicomponent
Integration and construction of non-reactive flow reactive flow reactive flow - fractures
for Qatari HPHT rel perm rig
conditions Pore Scale
Advanced Develop adaptive meshing; validation on Link to pore scale models. Apply to Qatari reservoirs for
Reservoir outcrop model (Project 1); test scenarios CO2 storage design and optimisation
Simulation
Pore-scale
Physics and Model fluids and pure minerals; flow in generic Effects of fluid and rock impurities; models and experiments
Chemistry carbonates for Qatari fluids and rocks
Reservoir Studies on outcrops, Oman; Clumped Isotope Wider outcrop studies; applications to sub-surface;
Geology development Clumped Isotope deployment
Phase 1: Develop underpinning science, mainly on Phase 2: Integrate Phase 1 components, upscale and
model and simplified systems apply to Qatari rocks, fluids and conditions
2008 2012 2018
29