Transforming carbon monitoring for long-term success

Calgary, AB – The University of Calgary and Carbon Management Canada (CMC) have joined forces to help ensure the carbon captured in sequestration projects remains safely stored underground.  

Governments, companies and regulators demand robust measurement, monitoring, and verification solutions to ensure emissions are not escaping back into the atmosphere. Traditional seismic technologies face cost and data limitations, leaving a critical gap in the ability to ensure long-lasting carbon sequestration. With $1.1 million funding from Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) and participation from the SINTEF-Norway Group and the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, the initiative focuses on developing affordable and innovative monitoring technologies to accurately map CO2 storage beneath the subsurface. 

“This project is a poster child for the energy evolution. We’re taking areas of existing geoscience expertise and applying them to a major gap in Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) — the monitoring to confirm effective sequestration. If we can successfully solve this, many more sequestration projects will be able to go ahead with the trust of regulators and the public.”

Dr. Kristopher Innanen, Director of Consortium for Research in Elastic Wave Exploration Seismology and Principal Investigator, UCalgary.

The SPARSE (Sparse Passive Active Reservoir monitoring using Seismic, Electromagnetics, gravity and surface deformation) project within this initiative aims to create long-term solutions for safe and secure CO2 storage. The project will do so by using strategically positioned sensors to collect data like seismic activity, electromagnetic fields, gravity shifts and surface changes. These sensors will provide companies with the tools to demonstrate to regulatory bodies that their carbon capture initiatives are operating seamlessly and securely containing CO2 within geological reservoirs. 

“This project represents a paradigm shift in how we can monitor the geological storage of CO2 at a large scale in a cost-effective manner, while assuring containment and conformance of the CO2 plume. The funding from ERA will enable us to develop this technology as a proof of concept at CMC’s Newell County Facility in Southern Alberta.”

Dr. Don Lawton, Director of Science, CMC 

At its core, this initiative is designed to leverage Norway, Alberta and the United States to foster global collaboration. By integrating diverse technologies, practices and expertise, the initiative aims to accelerate CCUS technologies on an international scale to offer a range of solutions that guarantee the safety and security of stored CO2. 

Funding from ERA is sourced from Alberta’s industry funded Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction fund. 

Media inquiries 

Nadine Sander-Green 
Senior External Communications, Faculty of Science, UCalgary 
587-575-9873 
nadine.sandergreen@ucalgary.ca 

Breanne O’Reilly 
Director, Program Development and External Relations, Carbon Management Canada 
403-542-9632    
breanne.oreilly@cmcghg.com 

About the University of Calgary 
UCalgary is Canada’s entrepreneurial university, located in Canada’s most enterprising city. It is a top research university and one of the highest-ranked universities of its age. Founded in 1966, its 35,000 students experience an innovative learning environment, made rich by research, hands-on experiences and entrepreneurial thinking. It is Canada’s leader in the creation of start-ups. Start something today at the University of Calgary. 

For more information, visit ucalgary.ca. Stay up to date with UCalgary news headlines on Twitter @UCalgary. For access to UCalgary news releases, images and b-roll, and details on faculties and how to reach experts, check out our newsroom at ucalgary.ca/newsroom. 

About Carbon Management Canada   
CMC is a national, not-for-profit organization working to develop and deploy emissions reduction solutions to support Canadian industries. CMC aims to move solutions more quickly from research to market, thereby growing the Canadian economy, increasing Canada’s competitiveness in world markets, and supporting practical, feasible, and economically viable industrial emissions reductions. We assist innovators in developing methane monitoring, CCUS and subsurface monitoring technologies, and provide techno-economic analysis to companies, investors, and governments to direct research, development, investment and policymaking.  

About Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) 
For more than 14 years, ERA has been investing revenues from the carbon price paid by large emitters to accelerate the development and adoption of innovative clean technology solutions. Since established in 2009, ERA has committed nearly $910 million toward 260 projects worth over $7.3 billion that are helping to reduce GHGs, created competitive industries and are leading to new business opportunities in Alberta. These projects are estimated to deliver cumulative GHG reductions of 40 million tonnes by 2030 and 108 million tonnes by 2050. Learn more about Emissions Reduction Alberta.