The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Consortium.

人们对全球变暖的担忧与日俱增，最近人们认识到，海洋酸化主要是由我们使用化石燃料时释放的二氧化碳造成的。但要改变目前的状况可能还需要很长时间，目前我们的大部分能源来自化石燃料，而我们使用的能源要少得多，而我们使用的能源主要来自可再生能源，或许还有新的核电站。出于某些目的，可能很难取代化石燃料--例如，当风力不足以驱动风车时，发电。那么，如果我们需要尽快大幅减少化石燃料排放到大气中的二氧化碳数量，但又不能在不留下“能源缺口”的情况下尽快减少二氧化碳的使用，我们该怎么办呢？打破使用化石燃料和向大气排放二氧化碳之间联系的一种方法是捕获化石燃料燃烧发电时释放的二氧化碳，或者在未来制造可用作无碳燃料的氢气。然后，通过钻1公里或更深的特殊钻孔，二氧化碳可以被注入地下。结合在一起，这被称为二氧化碳捕获和储存(CCS)。为了将二氧化碳保持在地下，我们需要一块多孔的储集岩，比如砂岩，上面有一层渗透性较低的岩石的密封层。CCS显然不是气候变化的最终解决方案，但它确实给了我们时间来完成所有其他通常是困难的事情，以迈向一个更可持续的世界。化石燃料耗尽不是一个迫在眉睫的问题--这些问题可能还会持续至少一个世纪--但应对气候变化才是！重要的是，二氧化碳至少要在地下停留10,000年。我们知道，石油和天然气通常含有二氧化碳，已经被困在地下数百万年了。这项提案着眼于英国的油气田在不久的将来可能会如何被用作众所周知的二氧化碳储存场所。这也可能允许开采更多的石油，我们将研究如何为英国经济最大限度地利用这一点。我们可能还需要将更多的二氧化碳储存在近海地下的深层含水层中，这些深层含水层是封闭的多孔岩层，但在过去不会碰巧捕获石油和天然气，所以只含有咸水。我们将看看英国近海含水层岩石能安全容纳多少二氧化碳。总有一些二氧化碳从这些地质储存点泄漏到海洋中的风险。这个项目将研究这种情况是如何发生的，如果它发生了，如何检测它，以及它可能对海洋生态系统产生什么影响。但无论如何，当大气中的二氧化碳增加时，更多的二氧化碳会溶解在海水的表层，使水变得更酸。这项工作还将展示这一点的影响。从发电站和氢气厂捕获二氧化碳的方法已经相当清楚，尽管仍需要研究来提高性能和降低成本。因此，我们将专注于如何最大限度地利用二氧化碳捕获作为整个英国能源系统的一部分，就像现在和未来可能发展的那样。为此，我们将与TSEC计划中的其他小组密切合作，特别是UKERC，以及其他英国和国际合作伙伴。CCS系统将遍布整个英国和海外，因此绘制该项目的数据并查看它们如何组合在一起将是非常有帮助的。由于CCS必须成为通向新能源的桥梁，我们特别感兴趣的是CCS系统如何补充可再生能源，例如通过提供备用电力或通过提供市场来鼓励新的生物质燃料行业。CCS还将允许使用化石燃料制造氢气，从而帮助推动氢经济的发展。最后，除了实际、技术和经济因素外，同样重要的是，我们必须了解可能影响采用CCS作为减少二氧化碳排放选择的社会和政治方面。

Concern is rising about global warming and, more recently recognised, ocean acidification, mainly caused by CO2 released when we use fossil fuels. But it may still take a long time to change from the current situation, where we get most of our energy from fossil fuels, to one where we use much less energy and get a lot of the energy that we do use from renewables and perhaps new nuclear power stations. And it may be difficult to replace fossil fuels for some purposes - for example, to generate electricity when the wind does not blow enough to turn windmills. So what are we to do if we need to make big reductions in the amounts of CO2 from fossil fuels getting into the atmosphere as soon as possible, but cannot reduce their use as fast as we would like without leaving an 'energy gap'? One way to break the link between using fossil fuels and putting CO2 into the atmosphere is to capture the CO2 that is given off when fossil fuels are burnt to make electricity or, in the future, to make hydrogen gas that can be used as a carbon-free fuel. The CO2 can then be injected underground by drilling special boreholes to 1km depth or more. Combined together this is called CO2 capture and storage (CCS). To keep the CO2 underground we need a porous reservoir rock, such as sandstone, with a sealing layer of less permeable rock on top. CCS is obviously not a final solution to climate change, but it does give us time to do all the other, often difficult, things required to move towards a more sustainable world. Running out of fossil fuels is not an immediate problem - these will probably last for at least a century more - but tackling climate change is! It is important that CO2 stays in the ground for at least 10,000 years. We know that oil and gas, often containing CO2, have been trapped underground for millions of years. This proposal looks at how the UK's oil and gas fields might be used in the near future as well-understood places to store CO2. This is also likely to allow more oil to be extracted, and we will study how to make the most of this for the UK economy. We may also need to store additional CO2 underground offshore in deep aquifers, layers of porous rock that are sealed but didn't happen to trap oil and gas in the past and so just contain salty water. We will look at how much CO2 the UK's offshore aquifer rocks can safely hold. There is always a risk that some CO2 will leak into the sea from these geological storage sites. This project will study how this might happen, how to detect it if it does, and what effect it might have on ocean ecosystems. But in any case, when CO2 increases in the atmosphere more CO2 dissolves in the surface layers of seawater, making the water more acid. This work will also show what effects this has. Ways to capture CO2 from power stations and hydrogen plants are fairly well understood, although research is still needed to improve performance and reduce the costs. So what we will concentrate on is how to make the best use of CO2 capture as part of the whole UK energy system, as it is now and as it might develop in the future. To do this we will work closely with other groups in the TSEC programme, particularly UKERC, and other UK and international collaborators. CCS systems will spread across all of the UK, and offshore, so mapping data for the project and seeing how it all fits together will be very helpful. Because CCS has to be a bridge to new energy sources we are particularly interested in how CCS systems can complement renewables, for example by supplying backup electricity or by providing a market to encourage a new biomass fuel industry. CCS would also allow fossil fuels to be used to make hydrogen and so help get a hydrogen economy under way. Finally, beyond the practical, technical and economic factors it is equally important that we understand the social and political aspects that may affect the introduction of CCS as an option for reducing CO2 emissions.