Measurement, Monitoring and Verification of CO2 Storage (MMV)

• £5.4m collaboration project to develop a marine monitoring system for underwater CCS sites
• Monitoring system used marine robotics to provide assurance CCS sites are secure
• Project delivered by a consortium from academia and industry

The project was led by Fugro GEOS in collaboration with Sonardyne, the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) both part of NERC, Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Southampton. The ETI invested 1m in the first phase of the project.

Although there was existing technology components which could detect CO₂ in a marine environment, there were no integrated, cost-effective and commercially available systems which could reliably record and report anomalies in the level of CO₂ in the sea above a large store. The need to introduce capability for the robust monitoring of underground CO₂ storage sites was in response to legislation such as the European Union’s directive on CO₂ storage. This stated that any storage operator must monitor for potential leaks and examine whether any leak is damaging to the environment or human health.

Research and evidence showed that leakage is highly unlikely. However if CO₂ did escape, it would be difficult to predict with certainty exactly where it would reach the seabed. This is where mobile autonomous robots were very useful, patrolling over large areas at relatively low cost