Carbon Storage – Current Research
Researchers: Professor Andy Woods, Dr Nicola Mingotti, Professor Jermone Neufeld, Professor Mike Bickle, Ross Shepherd, Emily Flicos
Mechanisms of Carbon Dioxide trapping
We have been exploring the controls on the CO2 as it migrates through a porous aquifer and gradually becomes trapped in the pore space. There is a well-understood sequence of trapping processes involving structural, capillary, and dissolution trapping. Our research has been exploring how the CO2 moves through these different trapping regimes, assessing the time scale of the processes and the effectiveness of each trapping process, through a combination of experiments and models (e.g. Mortimer et al. 2023; Whelan and Woods 2023).


Image from Whelan and Woods 2023 showing an analogue experiment of a CO2 plume moving through a cross-bedded porous rock
CO2 Transport and Leaks

Our work also explores some of the challenges of possible CO2 leaks, and the transport of the CO2 through a marine environment, of especial interest in the UK North Sea context (Mingotti and Woods 2022).
Image of bubbles and fluid in a bubble plume related to the dynamics of CO2 leakage, from Mingotti and Woods 2022
Storage Efficiency and Well Design
Recent work has been exploring the efficiency of storage systems, and new modelling has identified some important constraints on the effectiveness of different well designs on the storage efficiency of CO2 in anticline structures, applicable to sites under development in the North and Irish Seas around the UK.
Long-Term Fate
We have also been developing new insights into the controls on the dissolution of CO2. This long term fate of the CO2 is key for assurance of CO2 storage systems when ownership is transferred to government.