Carbon Capture – In Off-shore, Undersea Rock Formations

Dr. Kathryn (Kate) Moran

President and CEO, Ocean Networks Canada, Victoria

Dr. Kate Moran joined the University of Victoria in September 2011 as a Professor in the Faculty of Science and as Director of NEPTUNE Canada. In July 2012, she was promoted to the position of President & CEO, Ocean Networks Canada. Her previous appointment was Professor at the University of Rhode Island with a joint appointment in the Graduate School of Oceanography and the Department of Ocean Engineering. She also served as the Graduate School of Oceanography’s Associate Dean, Research and Administration. From 2009 to 2011, Moran was seconded to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she served as an Assistant Director and focused on Arctic, polar, ocean, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and climate policy issues. During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Moran was selected to be a member of the President’s eight-member science team under the leadership of Secretary of Energy Chu. Moran received engineering degrees from the University of Pittsburgh (BS), University of Rhode Island (MS), and Dalhousie University (PhD). She co-led the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program’s Arctic Coring Expedition, which was the first deepwater drilling operation in the Arctic Ocean. This expedition successfully recovered the first paleoclimate record from the Arctic Ocean. This expedition produced the top cited papers (3 of the top 10) among all published by scientific drilling since it began in 1968. Dr. Moran’s first author publication in Nature from this expedition is currently in the 96th percentile of articles of a similar age in all journals. Her research focuses on marine geotechnics and its application to the study of paleoceanography, tectonics, and seafloor stability. She has authored or co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) may be one of the most promising approaches to reducing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere in the short and medium term. CCS generally involves the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from point sources (e.g., industrial or power plant fossil-fueled sources) or from Direct Air Capture (DAC) technologies. Capture is then followed by removal of the CO2 to secure subsurface reservoirs for long-term storage, either on land or beneath the seabed of the ocean. Efforts to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere may call for very substantial contributions from CCS in the coming years. Appropriate regulatory structures will be needed. The use of geological formations on land or in waters subject to national jurisdiction will generally be subject to national law; however, the use of geological formations beneath the seabed beyond national jurisdiction raises transboundary issues and issues with respect to the protection of the global commons. And there are other challenges. As with all new technologies, costs initially may be high, but would reduce as efficiencies evolve. The regulatory climate needs to be supportive while, at the same time,  weighing unintended consequences, including those related to the environment. At the international level, measures have been enacted under the London Convention/London Protocol and the regional Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (the OSPAR Convention) to regulate the injection of carbon dioxide into sub-seabed geologic formations for the purpose of climate change mitigation. The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention) was opened for signature in 1992 and entered into force in 1998. Fifteen nations and the European Commission are Parties offsite link to OSPAR. Dr Moran estimated a demonstration project would cost between $30 million and $60 million, with private companies stepping up and governments likely to follow. Dr Moran noted that the Cascadia Basin, an area ~300 kilometres off the coast of Vancouver Island on the Juan de Fuca Plate, is one of the most studied ocean floors in the world. Decades of government surveys for seismic studies have left existing bore holes that can be used in the demonstration. The science of turning CO2 into rock is already being used in Iceland, but on a much smaller scale. CO2 is injected in a dissolved state and it mineralizes rapidly, within two years, at shallow depths. Geo-chemical simulations conducted by scientists at the University of Calgary, a research partner with UVic’s Pacific Institute of Climate Change, have demonstrated that “gigaton-scale” carbon dioxide storage is possible when plumes of captured CO2 are directly injected into deep ocean basalt where the CO2 reacts with minerals, and over time, forms a solid carbonate rock. The next steps for the Solid Carbon Project will include further investigation of the mineralization processes, efficient well injection strategies and ocean system architectures — all leading up to a planned pilot-scale injection into the Cascadia Basin by the middle of the decade.