Scaling up carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) requires more than proven technology. It also depends on understanding geological storage capacity, managing risks, developing effective monitoring strategies, and translating technical innovations into practice. Explore these resources for research findings and industry perspectives on the challenges of deploying CCUS at scale.
1. Turning a proven technology into a climate solution
Podcast with Professor Philip Ringrose (NTNU)
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a proven technology, but scaling it up remains a challenge. In this episode of The Geoscience Channel podcast, Professor Philip Ringrose explores the role of CCS in climate action, from major European storage hubs to smaller local projects. He discusses applications in hard-to-abate industries, storage risks and induced seismicity, geophysical monitoring, and the infrastructure needed to meet future demand.
2. Early warning beats perfect hindsight: Why CCUS needs a new approach to risk management
Paper by Rodney Garrard (Arch Insurance)
As CCUS projects scale up, traditional approaches to storage assessment may no longer be sufficient. This paper introduces monitorability as a fourth pillar of risk management, shifting the focus towards continuous assurance, early warning, and timely detection of changes in reservoir behaviour.
3. The pressure Gruffalo: how well do we know the basin-scale limits of geological carbon storage?
Paper by Andrew Cavanagh (Scottish Carbon Capture & Storage, University of Edinburgh) , Iain de Jonge-Anderson (University of Strathclyde) and Juan Alcalde (Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC))
How much CO2 can the world’s saline aquifers actually store? Storage capacity is often treated as an inventory problem, but pore volume alone does not determine how much carbon dioxide can be stored. This paper examines why basin boundaries are critical to assessing storage potential and highlights the limitations of global resource estimates that assume these constraints rather than measure them.
4. A technology adoption journey: Ten years of bringing focused seismic monitoring from oil and gas to CCS
Paper by Elodie Morgan and Habib Al Khatib (SpotLight)
A technically validated monitoring method does not automatically translate into industry adoption. Drawing on SpotLight’s ten-year journey to bring focused seismic monitoring from oil and gas to CCS, this paper identifies four recurring stages of technology adoption: technical validation outside CCS, field proof, client buy-in, and external diffusion. It explores how monitoring innovations move from technical validation towards practical application in the CCS sector.