The UK Carbon Capture and Storage Consortium.

人们越来越担心全球变暖，以及最近认识到的海洋酸化，这主要是由我们使用化石燃料时释放的二氧化碳造成的。但是，要从目前的情况，我们从化石燃料获得大部分能源，转变为我们使用更少的能源，并从可再生能源和新的核电站获得大量能源，可能还需要很长时间。而且在某些用途上可能很难取代化石燃料--例如，在风力不足以转动风车的情况下发电。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量，但又不能在不留下“能源缺口”的情况下尽可能快地减少化石燃料的使用，我们该怎么办？打破使用化石燃料和向大气中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。然后可以通过钻1公里或更深的特殊钻孔将二氧化碳注入地下。这就是所谓的二氧化碳捕获和储存（CCS）。为了将二氧化碳保持在地下，我们需要一种多孔的储集岩，比如砂岩，上面有一层渗透性较低的岩石密封层。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去做所有其他的，通常是困难的事情，以实现一个更可持续的世界。耗尽化石燃料并不是一个迫在眉睫的问题--这些问题可能会持续至少世纪以上--但应对气候变化才是！重要的是，二氧化碳在地下至少停留1万年。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。该提案着眼于英国的石油和天然气田如何在不久的将来被用作储存二氧化碳的好地方。这也可能让更多的石油被开采出来，我们将研究如何充分利用这一点为英国经济服务。我们可能还需要将更多的二氧化碳储存在近海的地下深层含水层中，这些含水层是密封的多孔岩石层，但过去并没有捕获石油和天然气，因此只含有盐水。我们将看看英国近海含水层岩石可以安全地容纳多少二氧化碳。一些二氧化碳从这些地质储存点泄漏到海里的风险始终存在。该项目将研究这种情况如何发生，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，更多的二氧化碳溶解在海水的表层，使水变得更酸。这项工作也将表明这有什么影响。从发电站和制氢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并降低成本。因此，我们将集中精力研究如何最好地利用二氧化碳捕获作为整个英国能源系统的一部分，就像现在和将来可能发展的那样。为此，我们将与TSEC项目中的其他团体，特别是UKERC，以及其他英国和国际合作者密切合作。CCS系统将遍布整个英国和海上，因此绘制该项目的数据并查看其如何组合在一起将非常有帮助。由于CCS必须成为通往新能源的桥梁，我们对CCS系统如何补充可再生能源特别感兴趣，例如通过提供备用电力或提供市场来鼓励新的生物质燃料行业。CCS还将允许化石燃料用于制造氢气，从而帮助实现氢经济。最后，除了实际、技术和经济因素之外，我们还必须了解可能影响将CCS作为减少CO2排放的一种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.