News

Geco Geothermal Summer School: Carbon Capture & Storage, 25-26 Apr. 2020

Geco Geothermal Summer School: Carbon Capture & Storage, 25-26 Apr. 2020 Reykjavik University rear entrance (Source: Flickr, CC, By: Bernard McManus)
Alexander Richter 19 Feb 2020

In conjunction with the World Geothermal Congress 2020 in Reykjavik, Iceland, the European geco research project is holding a summer school and carbon capture and storage in the context of geothermal.

The geco research project has announced a Geco Summer School on “Carbon Capture and storage: Mineral Storage of CO2” 25-26 April 2020, at the University of Reykjavik (RU) – Reykjavik, Iceland, in conjunction with the World Geothermal Congress taking place 27 April to 1 May 2020.

The geco research project is aimed at adopting emission gas reuse schemes, and become a standard to the geothermal power industry worldwide through its application to three new sites across Europe.

This workshop is run by the H2020 project GECO which focuses on lowering the emissions from geothermal power plants by capturing them for either reuse or storage. The GECO project builds upon the success of the CarbFix project that was founded in 2007 with the aim of developing a safe and economical method to store CO2 as solid carbonate minerals within the subsurface.

The CarbFix project has developed a novel CO2 capture, injection and storage technology through experimental and modelling studies and has since 2014 operated on industrial level at the Hellisheiði geothermal plant where currently about 30% of the plant’s CO2 emissions, or about 12,000 tonnes, and about 75% of the plant’s H2S emissions, or about 7,000 tonnes, are injected annually for permanent storage through mineralisation.

This short course will introduce the participant to the concept Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and its role towards reaching the goals of the Paris agreement with special emphasis on mineral carbonation. The course will introduce the key technologies applied for capturing and injecting CO2 from power plants and industrial processes and special emphasis will be placed on their integration into geothermal power plants.

The mineral carbonation concept will be introduced, and the key chemical reactions and the geological conditions needed to achieve permanent storage will be reviewed.

The operational history of the CarbFix carbon mineralisation project at the Hellisheiði Power plant will be introduced taking into account lessons learned, costs, the challenges, risks, monitoring, validating and public consultation on the project.

The potential World-wide application of mineral carbonation will be addressed.

The course includes short group assignments where participants will have the opportunity to work on topics within the CCS whole chain starting at power plant condensers to the permanent mineral storage in a geological reservoir.

Source: Geco Horizon 2020