Otway carbon dioxide storage project

The challenge

Understanding the impacts of storage

Demonstrating to government, industry and the local community that CCS is a technically and environmentally safe way to make deep cuts into Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

CSIRO is a major contributor and key partner in the CO2CRC’s Otway Storage Project, Australia’s first demonstration of the geological storage of CO2 and one of the largest and most comprehensive geological storage projects in the world.

The CO₂ CRC Otway Project, taking place in south-west Victoria, involves one of the world's most comprehensive monitoring and verification programs for CO₂ storage.

Our response

Developing new monitoring methods

Monitoring and verification of the injected CO₂ in the Otway Project aims to demonstrate to government, industry and the local community that CCS is a technically and environmentally safe way to make deep cuts into Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

We are applying our expertise in several areas of this project, including:

• predicting the behaviour of injected CO₂
• demonstrating that CO₂ can be stored safely deep underground
• determining whether CO₂ is leaking into the atmosphere by adapting and creating new technologies
• establishing the geochemical processes within the reservoir
• defining appropriate chemical and isotopic tracers to monitor migration within the reservoir
• predicting potential interaction with aquifers.

The results

New standards and frameworks

Outcomes from the project, particularly the developed existing and new monitoring and verification technologies, will set a standard for future CCS projects in Australia and worldwide. Additional outcomes include the development of appropriate regulatory frameworks for the safe storage of CO₂.

Our involvement and commitment to CO2CRC has allowed us to influence the research directions and identify the main barriers to accelerated deployment of CCS in Australia. Advancement of our knowledge in these areas is crucial to the rapid commercial-scale deployment of carbon capture and storage in Australia.