CCS has been identified as a climate change mitigation strategy which can significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere from fossil fuel based power generation including hydrogen, other industrial sources or contribute to net negative emissions via direct air capture or BECCS (biomass energy plus CCS). In the UK and many other countries the best storage reservoirs occur in offshore geological formations several 100s of metres below the sea floor. Assurance that the CO2 remains permanently stored is important from both a climate change and local environmental perspective.
We are conducting research underpinning the environmentally safe and sustainable implementation of CCS by developing strategies and systems for effective monitoring and environmental impact assessment, which will increase confidence in CCS as a viable option for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide, benefiting a broad range of stakeholders from regulatory bodies, to industry and the wider CCS community.
Our approach combines observations, field experiments, laboratory work and mathematical modelling to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of CO2 in marine systems and how best to detect anomalous events.
Our CCS work has made an international impact on policy, by informing the London Convention on disposal at sea. We work closely with industry and policy makers, to quantify and lower operational risk as well as by proposing cost effective monitoring strategies. With the potential expansion of CCS in forthcoming years, this work has great potential for future application.
Read the research brief
Research findings and further information about CCS are presented in this four page pdf available for download.
Plymouth Marine Laboratory. 2024. Carbon Capture and Storage: Environmental monitoring strategies for safe implementation. Research Brief: April 2024. Plymouth, UK. 4pp.
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Deep Vision: AI-enabled Mapping of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems in the AtlanticCo-led by Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth, this project uses artificial intelligence and high-resolution seabed data to…
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Ocean ICU: Improving Carbon UnderstandingThe Horizon EU OceanICU is a five year project that seeks to gain a new understanding of the biological carbon…
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Monitoring Integrated Digital Support Tool – for CO2 and hypersaline brine monitoring applied to UKIn MIDST-UK, an open source, user friendly, pre-operational Decision Support Tool (DST) will be extended to also included brine release…
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Smart AUVs for detection and quantification of greenhouse gas seepage in the oceansSmartAUVs will dramatically improve the monitoring capabilities of AUVs, by applying artificial intelligence (AI) in concert with specialized signal processing…
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AgZero+ Towards sustainable, climate-neutral farmingPlymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is a partner in a major five-year £13.8 million research programme, named “AgZero+’, to support the…
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APICSThe Automated, in situ Plankton Imaging and Classification System (APICS) will radically improve the understanding of how environmental changes are…
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ACTOM Decision Support ToolThe ACTOM Decision Support Tool enables operators of offshore geological carbon storage sites to plan effective environmental monitoring, whilst minimizing…
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MOET – Managing the Environmental Sustainability of the Offshore Energy TransitionMOET will assess the environmental sustainability of offshore wind, blue and green hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage for selected…
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Biodiversity of the Coastal Ocean: Monitoring with Earth Observation (BiCOME)BiCOME will develop a better understanding of how the community structure and function of coastal ecosystems will respond to the…
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FutureMARES: Climate Change and Future Marine Ecosystem Services and BiodiversityFutureMARES is examining the relations between climate change, marine biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Alendal, G; Blackford, J; Dankel, DJ; Dewar, M; Fagerås, B; Environmental, O; Gundersen, K; Heffron, R; Lien, M; and Olyenik, A; 2021. Assurance offshore monitoring, a cross-disciplinary approach. Bollettino di Geofisica.
Amaro, T; Bertocci, I; Queiros, AM; Rastelli, E; Borgersen, G; Brkljacic, M; Nunes, J; Sorensen, K; Danovaro, R and Widdicombe, S; 2018. Effects of sub-seabed CO2 leakage: Short- and medium-term responses of benthic macrofaunal assemblages. Marine Pollution Bulletin 128, 519-526.
Blackford, J; Alendal, G; Avlesen, H; Brereton, A; Cazenave, PW; Chen, BX; Dewar, M; Holt, J and Phelps, J; 2020. Impact and detectability of hypothetical CCS offshore seep scenarios as an aid to storage assurance and risk assessment. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Blackford, J; Artioli, Y; Clark, J and de Mora, L; 2017. Monitoring of offshore geological carbon storage integrity: Implications of natural variability in the marine system and the assessment of anomaly detection criteria. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Blackford, J; Bull, JM; Cevatoglu, M; Connelly, D; Hauton, C; James, RH; Lichtschlag, A; Stahl, H; Widdicombe, S and Wright, IC; 2015. Marine baseline and monitoring strategies for carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS). International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Blackford, J; Romanak, K; Huvenne, VA; Lichtschlag, A; Strong, JA; Alendal, G; Schütz, SE; Oleynik, A and Dankel, DJ; 2021 Efficient marine environmental characterisation to support monitoring of geological CO2 storage. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Blackford, J; Stahl, H; Bull, J; Berges, B; Cevatoglu, M; Lichtschlag, A; et al. 2014. Detection and impacts of leakage from sub-seafloor deep geological carbon dioxide storage. Nature Climate Change.
Cazenave, PW; Bedington, M; Bruggeman, J; Blackford, J; Artioli, Y; Torres, R; and Dewar, M. 2021. Optimising environmental monitoring for carbon dioxide sequestered offshore. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Connelly, DP; Bull, JM; Flohr, A; Schaap, A; Koopmans, D; Blackford, JC; et al. 2022. Assuring the integrity of offshore carbon dioxide storage. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Dean, M; Blackford, J; Connelly, D and Hines, R; 2020. Insights and guidance for offshore CO2 storage monitoring based on the QICS, ETI MMV, and STEMM-CCS projects. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Dewar, M; Blackford, J; Espie, T; Wilford, S; and Bouffin, N; 2022. Impact potential of hypersaline brines released into the marine environment for CCS reservoir pressure management. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Dewar, M; Saleem, U; Flohr, A; Schaap, A; Strong, J; Li, J; Roche, B; Bull, JM; Chen, B; and Blackford, J; 2021. Analysis of the physicochemical detectability and impacts of offshore CO2 leakage through multi-scale modelling of in-situ experimental data using the PLUME model. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Flohr, A; Schaap, A; Achterberg, EP; Alendal, G; Arundell, M; Berndt, C; Blackford, J; et al. 2021. Towards improved monitoring of offshore carbon storage: A real-world field experiment detecting a controlled sub-seafloor CO2 release. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
Lichtschlag, A; Pearce, CR; Suominen, M; Blackford, J; Borisov, SM; Bull, JM; de Beer, D; Dean, M; Esposito, M; Flohr, A; Gros, J; Haeckel, M; Huvenne, VAI; James, RH; Koopmans, D; Linke, P; Mowlem, M; Omar, AM; Schaap, A; Schmidt, M; Sommer, S; Strong, J; and Connelly, DP; 2021. Suitability analysis and revised strategies for marine environmental carbon capture and storage (CCS) monitoring. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control.
- High resolution, two phase modelling of CO2 and brines in seawater
- Baseline assessment of marine biogeochemistry
- Physiological responses of biota to elevated CO2
People who work in this area
Professor James Fishwick
Head of Smart Sound Plymouth and Head of Operations and Technology, Western Channel Observatory
