Geology and Engineering of Carbon Capture and Storage
By: Grant Wach and Maurice Dusseault
Instructor
Grant Wach (Dalhousie University, Canada)
Maurice Dusseault (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Duration
7 - 8 July 2022:
4:00PM - 8:00PM CEST
4 hours/day
Disciplines
Energy Transition
Course Format
The EAGE Interactive Online Short Courses bring carefully selected courses of experienced instructors from industry and academia online to give participants the possibility to follow the latest education in geoscience and engineering remotely. The courses are designed to be easily digested over the course of two or three days. Participants will have the possibility to interact live with the instructor and ask questions.
Education Packages
To help you save on registration fees and better organize your learning path, we are offering Education Packages for all Interactive Online Short Courses and Online EETs. The packages are valid for a period of 12 months, choose between packages of 3, 5 and 10 credits.
Course Description
Global leaders and decision-makers are well aware of the climatecrisis and many are taking action to mitigate the effects of climatechange by reducing CO2 emissions. However, the demand for energy remains high, especially in areas that require heating and cooling,and currently much of the world’s energy is derived from hydrocarbons. Discussion of the ‘Energy Transition’, which is the shift fromfossil-fuel based energy to renewable sources, seems ubiquitous inrecent years, the transition is not as simple as that. Ensuring reliableaccess to energy in all jurisdictions is crucial, as are economic considerations. Combining a switch to renewables with anemission-reduction measures such as Carbon Capture and Storage isnecessary in the path to carbon neutrality.Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) refers to the capture of emittedCO2 from the atmosphere, transport, and eventual storage in geological structures. The basic concept is simple, but the execution iscomplex; it requires the identification of high-emission sites, detailedbasin analysis to determine suitability and safety for carbon storage,engineering, economic analysis, and risk analysis before an informeddecision to develop a CCS site can be made. This course will overview current energy challenges (the WHY), and geological and engineering basics of CCS (the HOW). Students will leave with a betterunderstanding of this mitigation opportunity and how decisions canbe made to pursue CCS in a given area.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
1) Understand the need to reduce atmospheric CO2 and the effects of climate change to the global climate system
2) Understand the basic concepts involved in reservoir characterization
3) Discuss suitability of developing CCS sites, considering proximity to emission source, geology and engineering
4) Discuss social and economic considerations of CCS
5) Discuss case studies of existing CCS operations
Course Outline
PART 1: Geoscience
Participants' Profile
This course is designed for students and professionals in the geological and engineering fields who are interested in learning about the fundamentals of carbon capture and storage and modern energy challenges.
Prerequisites
Participants should have prior knowledge of basic principles of geology and/or engineering.
About the Instructor
Grant Wach
GRANT WACH began his career advising worldwide for multinational companies. He still works with the energy sector but now as Professor of Geoscience at Dalhousie University he serves as a mentor, helping students become successful geoscientists. Wach’s research goal is to understand the reservoir component of CCUS and Geothermal systems; understanding the internal complexity of the reservoir is not easy but part of the path to Energy Sustainability, and Carbon Neutrality. These steps are part of the Energy Transition the World is now undergoing. Professor Wach is an expert advisor to the Energy Sustainability Committee of the UNECE. The committee just released their technology brief on CCUS CCUS brochure_EN_final.pdf (unece.org). He has advised the Nova Scotia government on Carbon Storage and Sequestration and completed the first evaluation of basins in the Maritimes for Carbon Storage. He was principal Investigator of the Gas Seepage Project (GaSP) evaluating methane (CH4) emissions from coal and oil and gas extraction sites in Atlantic Canada. Wach is a member of Geothermal Canada, and has recently presented invited lectures on Geothermal Technology in Canada (Future Pathways- Geothermal Technology 2020) and at KAUST in Saudi Arabia. Professor Wach completed his doctorate in Geology at the University of Oxford (D.Phil. Geology). He was the first recipient of the AAPG Foundation Professor of the Year Award in 2012 and received the CSPG Stanley Slipper Gold Medal 2018 for outstanding contributions to exploration and development, teaching and mentorship.
Maurice Dusseault
MAURICE DUSSEAULT is a Professional Engineer and Professor of Geological Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he has taught
and carried out geomechanics research since 1982. His research is
focused on deep subsurface engineering issues including oil production, hydraulic fracturing, energy storage, geothermal energy, carbon
sequestration, and deep injection disposal of granular solids and
liquid wastes. He holds over 90 international patents and has about
600 full-text papers published in journals and conferences. Maurice is
a well-known educator and consultant, an advisor to companies and
governments on matters relating to energy development, hydraulic
fracturing, energy geostorage, wellbore integrity, technology and
innovation. Maurice is deeply interested in energy technologies that
can be scaled to community levels to provide robust and reliable heat
and power. These include integrating natural gas, hydrogen, compressed air energy storage, and heat geo-storage. Another important
component of his research is environmental geomechanics: safe and
permanent sequestration of carbon (CO2, petcoke, biosolids...), particulate solid slurries, and waste fluids through injection deep into
sedimentary strata.