Invitation to discuss Ardmucknish Bay carbon capture research project

Dr Henrik Stahl, a scientist at the Scottish Marine Institute at Dunstaffnage (or SAMS), is inviting local people to an information evening on Thursday 8th December 2011 at 19.30. Everyone interested is welcome to attend.

This is about an upcoming research project that will take place in Ardmucknish Bay in the spring of 2012, investigating possible issues relating to carbon dioxide storage in sub-seabed reservoirs.

The issue of carbon capture is of great current interest. Essentially it’s  about using coal fired power stations while, to protect against their negative climatic impact, removing as much as possible of their carbon emissions into the atmosphere.

The downside is that the captured carbons have to be stored and the answer is to store them under the sea bed. This is a matter of double concern, because we need to know how they will behave in such circumstances; and we are still leaving a toxic legacy for future generations.

The Westminster Government stopped the development of a proposed carbon capture plant at the former coal-fired power station at Longannet in Fife, on cost grounds; and North Ayrshire Council, although it needs the jobs, has recently formally objected to a proposal from a new start company, Ayrshire Power, to set up such a plant at the former nuclear power station at Hunterston on the Clyde. The World Wildlife Fund in Scotland described this proposal as the worst they had ever seen, full of errors even of the simplest kind; and local objections to the proposal have reached unprecedented levels.

A proposed plant at Peterhead, north of Aberdeen on the east coast, is, however, being taken as a serious possibility.

The Scottish Marine Institute’s experiment will investigate potential environmental impacts from Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the full name for the process aiming to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

The process captures carbon dioxide at fossil fuel power stations and stores it at depth beneath the ground, often deep under the seabed.  Depleted oil or gas reservoirs, where available,  are the most likely sites.. This form of storage locks the carbon dioxide away from the atmosphere, where it may otherwise contribute to climate change.

Dr Stahl explains: ‘Governments and energy companies around the world are now looking into CCS as a way of mitigating our ever increasing emissions of carbon dioxide. The technology to do this is more or less in place, with the expectation that CCS will be safe.

‘It is, however, critical to understand the impacts from potential carbon dioxide leaks and how best to monitor CCS sites.

‘As little is known about what will happen to marine life around a potential leak of carbon dioxide from a CCS reservoir, our project will investigate the nature and environmental impacts of carbon dioxide leaks that could develop at CCS storage sites’.

The research plan

Dr Stahl says: ‘We plan to mimic, on a very small scale and under controlled conditions, a carbon dioxide leak event and monitor how the ecosystem is impacted and how quickly it recovers after the leak has stopped. We will also use the experiment to test various methods of monitoring and discovering potential carbon dioxide leaks from a CCS reservoir.

‘Our work will provide important information on operational and risk assessment procedures for any future CCS installation.

‘We have made every effort to ensure that the impacts from our research on conservation, recreational and fisheries activities in the area will be minimal.

‘We are using Ardmucknish Bay – the bay between North Connel and Benderloch – because it has ideal geophysical characteristics for the proposed experiment and is close to SAMS and the National Facility for Scientific Diving.’

SAMS Director, Professor Laurence Mee, says: ‘Together with visiting experts from as far as Japan, Henrik’s team of scientists will be addressing some really big issues with this research and are exploring possible solutions to the climate change challenge. Conducting this work in Argyll once again demonstrates that this part of the world makes important contributions to research that matters.’

There could be no better reassurance to the public than that such research is undertaken by an institution like SAMS – dedicated to marine environmental research. The conclusions drawn from research by SAMS can be trusted to be independent and to be weighted towards environmental protection – and research of this kind, carried out by the much respected scientists at SAMS, can also bve trusted to be conceived and managed with the most knowledgeable and serious responsibility for the local environment.

It is a sign of the status of the role SAMS plays in the wider world of marine sciences that it is to conduct this work.

The process of the research project

The image above, produced by Plymouth Marine Laboratory, shows the setup of the experiment to be conducted in Ardmucknish Bay.

Mimicking a leak from subsea storage, carbon dioxide will be pumped into the sediment to monitor its impacts on the environment – in an attempt to quantify the potential impacts of the carbon capture and storage process.

The Ardmucknish Bay experiment will run during the spring/summer of 2012, with carbon dioxide released over 30 days at rates of 80-800 kg per day.

The carbon dioxide will be pumped from a land-based gas storage container through a bore hole that terminates 10m below the sediment surface. The release site will be around 350m from the shore in water depths of between 10 and 12m.

The effects of the releases will be monitored using various sensors, acoustic techniques and by analysing sediment cores collected by divers. Both the seabed and water will be monitored for at least three months after the 30-day release period.

Potential impacts include:

• a change in acidity (pH) in sediments affected by the release;
• carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere;
• changes in the structure and diversity of seafloor communities.

The project

The f title of the research project is: Quantifying and Monitoring Potential Ecosystem Impacts of Geological Carbon Storage (QICS)

It is funded jointly by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The lead partner is Plymouth Marine Laboratory (coordinator: Jerry Blackford) with the Scottish Marine Institute; the National Oceanography Centre; the British Geological Survey; the University of Southampton; Heriot-Watt University; Durham University; University of Bristol; and DNV (a global provider of services for managing risk).

The total duration of the project is from June 2010 – May 2014.

For more information on it, visit Dr Stahl’s project section here on the Scottish Marine Institute website.

SAMS and the Scottish Marine Institute

In the constant refinement of professional identities and organisational relationships, what Argyll now has at Dunstaffnage is the flourishing Scottish Marine Institute – which delivers research and education aiming to improve our understanding and sustainable use of the marine environment.

The Institute is an independent academic body but  has close partnership links with the University of the Highlands and Islands and the Natural Environment Research Council. It currently employs around 150 staff.

The Scottish Marine Institute is home to the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), a learned society that is among the oldest oceanographic organisations in the world.