CSIRO's Petroleum Division has been involved in an international research project that for the first time has successfully stored carbon dioxide in European coal beds. CSIRO scientists who were involved in the four year project said the achievement could have major implications for Australia by significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with electrical power generation. The RECOPOL project (Reduction of CO2 emissions by means of CO2 storage in coal seams in the Silesian Coal Basin in Poland) was a research and field demonstration, and involved numerous research institutes, universities and industrial partners, including CSIRO.

CSIRO has set up a Flagship Program called Energy Transformed to develop and implement technologies to halve greenhouse gas emissions in Australia from the energy and transport sectors by 2050. ''The storage of CO2 in unusable coal [seams] demonstrated in the project is very exciting. Because of the structure of our energy industry, Australia has one of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the developed world. It is a national imperative to reduce this, particularly from fossil fuel generation'', said Flagship Director John Wright. ''In Australia we need a pilot project to ensure we can deal with CO2 emissions in a responsible manner. Coal is still the cheapest and most effective means of power generation and, as such, it will be with us for many years to come. If we can learn to deal with the downside of burning coal, then there will be significant benefits for Australians and the environment.''

The researchers said that not only can they store CO2 in coal beds which can't be mined, but they can also potentially use the methane naturally occurring in most deep coal beds for power generation. ''The coal beds of interest with this approach are those unsuitable for mining due to their depth or other characteristics'', explained Dr Luke Connell of CSIRO Petroleum. ''These coal beds have a great capacity for storing CO2 and it would be possible to use the injected CO2 to displace methane that could be used for power generation. This combination could allow power generation with zero greenhouse gas emissions.'' Australia's greenhouse gas emission is currently at around 27 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per person, compared to 13 tonnes in New Zealand; 10 tonnes in Japan; and 21 tonnes in the USA. ''The international scientific community, governments and industry all have a vested interest in finding viable solutions to a global problem. The RECOPOL project has significantly improved the scientific understanding of coal beds as reservoirs for CO2 and the experience gained through the project will help the development of future projects'', concluded Dr Connell.

Despite the obvious environmental benefits, the storage of CO2 in coal seams presents challenges for the current resolution limits of seismic data. ''This is an interesting challenge for the future, as, in my experience, coal seams are often offset by very small faults, often invisible or below the resolution of seismic data. In terms of CO2 sequestration this means that ‘breaching' faults might be present, but undetectable, during the planning of candidate seams for CO2 sequestration'', explained an unnamed industry source. ''Therefore, CO2 gets pumped in, but potentially escapes along such faults.'' Nevertheless, the scale of partnership between industry and academic groups demonstrates that CO2 sequestration will be a hot topic in the future.
The RECOPOL consortium is made up of: CSIRO (Australia); TNO-NITG (coordinator, the Netherlands); Central Mining Institute (operator of the site, Poland); Aachen University of Technology (Germany); Delft University of Technology (the Netherlands); Institut Français du Pétrole (France); DBI-GUT (Germany); Gaz de France (France); Gazonor (France); Air Liquide (France); Advanced Resources International (USA) and the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme; JCoal (Japan); Shell International; and the University of Mons (Belgium).