Solid Carbon's CO2 removal experiment in the NE Pacific ocean crust

The Solid Carbon project aims to utilize the ocean crust for permanent large-scale carbon removal through mineralization to mitigate climate change, and is now funded to conduct an in-situ CO2 injection test before the end of this decade. The test site is the northern Cascadia Basin, offshore Canada’s west coast, where Ocean Networks Canada operates the NEPTUNE cabled observatory with a node near previous scientific ocean drilling holes that have already established structural hydrogeological insights. Water depth is around 2700 m, and a 250-300 m sediment blanket above the ocean crust acts as an impermeable blanket for crustal fluid flow below.

This presentation focuses on the monitoring plan. In preparation for Solid Carbon’s CO2 injection test, over the next three years we will be installing a dedicated monitoring system to establish a baseline before injection. Monitoring will involve active and passive source acoustics, passive seismics, fluid sampling and analysis for chemistry, tracers and microbes, visual observations, borehole pressures, and subsurface electrical conductivity measurements to potentially detect changes after CO2 is injected. Most of the data will be available in real time and critically monitored during and after the injection.

Funded by Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund - Transformation program, Solid Carbon not only investigates the physical process of CO2 sequestration in the ocean crust but also conducts research on the social, regulatory, and economic aspects as well as large-scale engineering challenges to ultimately enable large-scale open ocean carbon capture and sequestration.

Previous phases in Solid Carbon have focused on feasibility studies and results have been encouraging, suggesting this is a viable method for carbon dioxide removal, is safe and durable, and has clear pathways for scaling up to meet the needs of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere by mid-century.