Petroleum/CO2 Geological Storage
Carbon dioxide geological storage
Decree-Law No. 60/2012, of March 14, establishes the legal framework for the carbon dioxide (CO2) geological storage activity. This diploma resulted from the transposition of Directive 2009/31/EC – Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide, of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 23 April.
The competence to carry out the acts provided for in Decree-Law No. 60/2012, of March 14, rests with the Member of Government responsible for the area of geological resources and the DGEG, in accordance with its article 7, without prejudice to the competences in matters related entities committed to other entities.
There are currently no granted rights, nor any granting requests.
Nevertheless, several studies related to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Portugal have been developed with the involvement of Universities, State Laboratories, DGEG, and Companies of the industrial sector and of the energy sector.
Executed projects
The KTEJO project (Tejo Energia, 2011 [1]) assessed the technical and economic feasibility of sequestering and geologically storing CO2 at the Pego coal-fired thermoelectric power plant, at the time the second largest in the country, through the assessment of potential geological areas, both onshore and offshore.
The COMET project, co-financed by the EU (Boavida et al., 2013 [2]), sought to define an integrated transport and storage infrastructure in Portugal, Spain and Morocco. The project involved most of the main CO2 emitters in Portugal, from the energy and industry sectors, and included the definition of a network of gas pipelines for the transport of CO2, considering the cost optimization of the entire CCS chain. The project also included an assessment of the feasibility of transporting CO2 by ship. COMET provided the first integrated approach to the cost-effectiveness of CC2 in the Portuguese context.
Within the scope of the KTEJO and COMET projects, a systematic analysis of the storage capacity in deep saline aquifers was carried out on a regional scale, resulting in effective estimates of the storage capacity of up to 7.6 Gt of CO2, the vast majority (over 90% ) in an offshore environment.
The capacity for sequestration and storage in coals was also evaluated at the University Fernando Pessoa [3].
The project "CCS National Roadmap - Perspectives for the Capture and Sequestration of CO2 in Portugal" (CCS PT Road Map), partially financed by the Global CCS Institute, studied the role that this technology could play in the Portuguese context in a low carbon economy scenario , including geological storage capacity, transport and storage risks (Carneiro et al, 2014 [4]), the potential need for CCS in the energy and industrial sectors, public perception, costs and business models. The project proposed a CCS Roadmap for Portugal addressing these themes (Seixas et al., 2015 [5]).
The Strategy CCUS Project (Strategic planning of Regions and Territories in Europe for low-carbon energy and industry through CCUS), is a Support and Coordination Action of the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union. It is carried out by a consortium of 18 entities, among which the Univ. Évora, FCT/UNL, CIMPOR, and DGEG, and which is led by BRGM. Its objective is to develop strategic plans for the development of a CCUS (Capture, Sequestration and Use of Carbon) network in southern and eastern Europe, in a similar way to what has already been done for Central and Northern Europe. In Portugal, this project took as its study region an area with a high density of industrial CO2 sources, on the Leiria-Figueira da Foz axis, and which has, locally or nearby, a significant potential for geological storage in structures in the Lusitanian Basin.
Website: http://www.strategyccus.eu/
Developing Projects
The InCarbon Project (“Carbonatação in-situ para redução de emissões de CO2 de fontes energéticas e industriais no Alentejo” - PTDC / CTA-GEO / 31853/2017), from Univ. Évora and LNEG, funded by FCT and FEDER, intends to assess the potential of CO2 storage in mafic / ultramafic rocks from Alentejo, captured by industrial sources, namely those present in the region of the Industrial cluster of Sines.
See more at Projeto InCarbon
The project PilotSTRATEGY – CO2 Geological Pilots in Strategic Territories, coordinated at the University of Évora by Júlio Carneiro, researcher at the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT) and professor at the Department of Geosciences, was recently selected by the European Commission (EC) under the program Horizon 2020 to characterize potential sites for pilot CO2 injection facilities in geological formations. At issue is the geological storage of CO2 as a technology to mitigate climate change, the geological characterization and the presentation of preliminary engineering studies that allow the technical and scientific support necessary for a final decision on the financing of pilot CO2 storage facilities in geological formations of the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal), Paris Basin (France) and the Ebro Basin (Spain).
Website: https://pilotstrategy.eu/
[1] Tejo Energia (2011) Estudo de viabilidade da captura e armazenamento de CO2 na central termoeléctrica do Pego. Relatório final técnico-científico. Tejo Energia. Lisboa. 130 pp.
[2] Boavida, D., Carneiro, J., Tosaco, G., Martinez, R., Van den Broek, M., Gastine, M., (2013). COMET Final Report - Integrated infrastructure for CO2 transport and storage in the west Mediterranean. Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia e Geologia. Lisboa, pp. 58.
[3] Rodrigues, C & Dinis, Maria & Sousa, M.J.. (2013). Unconventional coal reservoir for CO2 safe geological sequestration. International Journal of Global Warming. 5. 46. 10.1504/IJGW.2013.051481.
[4] Carneiro, J., F. Marques, P. Mesquita, V. Fernandes, J. Tosaco, (2014) - CCS Roadmap for Portugal: CO2 transport and storage options and risks, ICT, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal. 145 pp.
[5] Seixas, J., P. Fortes, L. Dias, J. Carneiro, P. Mesquita, D. Boavida, R. Aguiar, F. Marques, V.Fernandes, J. Helseth, J.Ciesielska e K. Whiriskey (2015), Captura e Armazenamento de CO2 em Portugal – Uma ponte para uma economia de baixo carbono. CENSE – FCT/UNL, U.Évora, LNEG, REN, Bellona. Ed. FCT/UNL, ISBN: 978-972-8893-35-4.