CCS dictionary

CCS dictionary

We use a lot of technical terms and abbreviations in our line of work. “CCS” in the heading above is a good example of this. This goes to show that we are not always great at expressing ourselves and being clear in our definitions. Taking inspiration from, among others, the Language Council of Norway, Gassnova has compiled a glossary that we hope you find useful. Feel free to submit suggestions for new words and definitions that ought to be included via postmottak@gassnova.no. As for the explanation of what “CCS” means… Well, naturally you will find that listed under C.

A

Allam cycle (process)

Process for converting gaseous fuels into thermal energy, and at the same time capturing CO2 and water. In CCS this is beneficial since the CO2 then is reqadily accessible for storage.

Amine

Inorganic chemical compound or functional group that contains a basic nitrogen atom with two valence electrons that readily will react and bond with CO2, removing it from the exhaust.

Anthropogenic

A term used to describe something that is caused by or affected by humans. Anthropogenic climate change is climate change caused by human activities, such as buring fossile fuels and releasing CO2 to the atmosphere.

Anticline

Geological feature, a folded rock/sedimentary layer that has a crest and strata sloping downwards to each side. Often a good cap rock/trap for oil/gas if the layer is non-permeable

Aquifer

See ” formation water”. A geological structure whose rock is permeable enough to allow flow. Aquifers are bounded by natural seals like cap-rock.

Atmosphere

The thin layer of gas, surrounding Earth, that makes the world livable. Contains mainly nitrogen gas, N2 (78%), and oxygen (21%) in the form of O2 and O3 and bound in different molecules like H2O and CO2.

Aurora

In CCS, this is the name of the field where Northern Lights DNLV will store the CO2.

B

Basalt

Rock formed from basaltic lava- Found for example on Iceland. Suitable for storage of CO2 as it reacts with the gas to form carbonates.

Benchmarking

Process of comparing metrics and practices against best practice.

Bio CO2

CO2 from biological sources, like trees and waste.

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage

BioCCS (BECCS)

Capture and storage of CO2 from biological sources of CO2 (see “bio CO2).

Biomass

Oranic material (from plants/animals/waste) used for renewable energy. Directly as heat or converted to bio-fuels.

Block

Off-shore Norway, the outer parts of continental shelf is devided into smaller areas measuring 15 min latitude * 20 min longitude. These blocks are the subject of licensing rounds for hydrocarbon exploration and CO2 storage

Brine

Water with high concentration of salt (NaCl). Possible storage formations deep under the seabed often contains brine, also referred to as formation water.

Buoyancy

A fluids density decides wheather it sinks (lss boyant) or rises (more boyant) in relation to other fluids.

C

CCS

Carbon capture and storage

The process of capturing CO2 from combustion processes and storing that same CO2 in a permanent storage.

CO2 Capture and Compression

CCC

A way of measuring all greenhouse gases with a common global warming potential. The amount of any gas is translated to the apropriate amount of CO2 with the same warming potential.

CO2

Carbon Dioxid

Carbon dioxide CO2 (One carbon and two oxygen atoms froming a molecule). Greenhouse gas (see “GHG”) that absorbs heat waves from earth and contributes to the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere (See “Greenhouse”).

CO2 equivalents

CO2-eq

A metric measure to compare emmisons of different GHG’s (see GHG). This is done by converting the amount of the GHG to the equivalent amount of CO2 when it comes to global warming potetential (see Global warming potential).

Carbon (CO2) capture

Separating carbon, often in the form of CO2 from combustion processes (from the flue gas).

Carbon Capture Plant

CCP

A facility where carbon (CO2) is isolated from the wast gas (wiht the intent to transport and store the CO2).

Carbon Dioxide

CO2

Carbon dioxide CO2 (One carbon and two oxygen atoms froming a molecule). Greenhouse gas (see “GHG”) that absorbs heat waves from earth and contributes to the greenhouse effect of the atmosphere (See “Greenhouse”).

Carbon Masterplan Mongstad

CMM

Carbon capture and storage

CCS

The process of capturing CO2 from combustion processes and storing that same CO2 in a permanent storage.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage

CCUS

Also referred to as “carbon capture, use and storage. An example of usage is to use the CO2 in enhanced oil recovery (see “EOR”).

Carbon dioxide removal

CDR

The action or intent to remove carbon dioxide from the athomosphere.

Carbon emission

The release of carbon, often in the form of CO2 from combustion processes/burning of fossile fuels.

Carbon sequestration

The process of capturing and storing CO2.

Carbon storage

Storage complex, often underground in a rock formation, with the intent to store CO2 permantently.

Carbon tax

A cost on carbon emmisions that is ment to encourage.

Cement

Product/binder used in buiding, made from carbonate rocks. In the process large amounts of CO2 is traditionally released to the atmosphere.

Chilled Ammonia Process

CAP

A post combustion process absorbing CO2 from flue gas using amines as solvent. This process is done at low temperatures (0-20 oC ).

Climate change

Significant longterm change in the average weather on a global scale. Often referred to as a result of anthropogenic pollution of CO2 to the atmosphere.

Climate initiative

Large scale initiatives to combat climate change (and reduce GHGs in the atmosphere).

Climate negative

Product/process/company/country that has a net addition of GHGs to the atmosphere, as opposed to climate positive or neutral.

Climate neutral

Product/process/company/country that does not affect the levels of GHGs in the atmosphere, as opposed to climate positive or negative.

Climate positive

Product/process/company/country that has a net romoval of GHGs (often CO2) from the atmosphere, as opposed to climate negative or neutral.

Combined Heat and Power

CHP

A powerpland where the heat is used as heat or powergeneration, through steam, instead of loosing the heat to the environment.

Containment

The act of keeping something in its place/within its limits. With regards to CCS it refers to keeping the CO2 safely stored.

Corrosion

A process in which a corrosive agent, e.g. sulphur will desintegrate the steel coating of a piplene due to electrochemical reactions.

D

Decarbonisation

Reduction of carbon – conversion to an economic system that sustainably reduces CO2 emissions and compansates for hard to abate emissions.

Demonstration project/phase

Smaller scale capital/technical assistance project with the purpose of proving/demonstrating a particulare approach. It this context the Longship project ia a demontration project for full-chain CCS.

Direct air capture

DAC

Capturing CO2 directly from air, i.e not from flue gas resulting from a combustion process.

Dissolution trapping

Method in which CO2 can be trapped for permantent storage underground. The CO2 dissolves into the formation water (see “brine”) and sinks due to to less boyancy.

Dissolve

The prosses of a gas or solid to pass into solution. In this context it reffers to CO2 forming new chemical bonds in the storage/brine.

E

Electrolysis

A non-spontaneous chemical reaction induced by adding a direct electric current. Used to separate elements from alloys.

Emission point

Location at which an emission enters the atmosphere.

Energy Intensive Industries

Industries that use large amounts of energy. These typically stand for more than half of the energy usage in Europe, but they are also important as they enable reduction of emmisions in other sectors.

Energy carrier

A means of transporting or storing energy, like a battery. It does not produce energy but can be used to transport/store the energy.

Energy efficiency

Basically reducing the amount of energy used for the same result or using the least amount of energy for any given process.

Energy source

A source that emits/generates energy. Renewable energy source is e.g. the sun, wind, water. Non-renewable is e.g. oil and gas.

Enhanced Oil Recovery

EOR

Method for oil recovery where water or gas is injected into the oil bearing formation to access otherwise non accessible oil. Using CO2 as the injected gas will be a way of both using and storing the CO2. See “CCUS”

European Trading Scheme or Emission Trading System

ETS

Tradingsystem for CO2 quotas to give companies/factories/emitters incentives to cut carbon emissions. A means to meet the zero emissions by 2050 goal.

F

Fault

Geological feature. A fault is a significant displacement of a volume of rock relative to other parts of that rock along a planar fracure.

Flue gas

The gas that comes from a combustion process. Often also referred to as exhaust gas or stack gas. This gas contains greenhouse gases and is the focus of several carbon capture projects.

Formation water

Water in geological formations. This water usually has high salt concentration. Formation containing groundwater (fresh) are not target for CO2 storage. Other names are formation fluid and brine.

Front End Engineering Design

FEED

Full-scale

FS

Often referred to in relation to CCS projects, where full-scale stands for the process of capturing, transporting and storage of CO2 in a whole chain project.

G

Global CCS Institute

GCCSI

Global warming potential

GWP

The potentail any given greenhouse gas (see GHG) has on global warming, converted to equivalent amounts of CO2. It is a measure of how much heat is absorbed by CO2-equivalents and its lifetime in the atmosphere (how long the gas will reside in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas).

Global warming

The increase in GHGs in our atmosphere resulting in increased temperature of the Earth, surface, atmoshpere and oceans.

Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is the effect of the GHG composition in our atmosphere, that makes the Earth a habitable planet. The effect makes the world warmer than it would be without the GHGs. See Global warming for the negative effects of anthropogenic release and increase of GHGs in the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Antropogenic (human caused) emissions of gases that increase the greenhouse effect. This leads to climate change. The main causes are burning of different fossile fuels, like oil, gas, coal, for the purpose of transportation, heat and electricity.

Greenhouse gas

GHG

A gas that while it resides in the atmosphere it will absorb and emit heat waves from the surface, and such contributes to the greenhouse effect (see greenhouse effect). Examples of GHGs are: CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O.

H

Health Safety Quality & Environment

HSQE

Keeping the people and the environment safe while ensuring that the quality of the product/service is up to standards. Often a department in a company is responsible for the company’s HSQE, and that this is complied to.

Health Safety and Environment

HSE

Heat integration

In processes that create heat as a bi product, the heat can be used as a second source of energy back into the process or other processes run in the installation

I

IEA WEO

More commonly referred to as acronym rather than full term.

IEA World Energy Outlook

IEAGHG

More commonly referred to as acronym rather than full term.

IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme

Inject

The process of pumping a fluid into a storage object. In this contex; pumping CO2 into e.g. a saline aquifer.

Injection well

Well that is designed for injection of a fluid into a storage formation. (see “well”).

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IPCC

International Energy Agency

IEA

International Energy Agency. More commonly referred to as acronym rather than full term.

International Standardisation Organisation

ISO

J

Johansen formation

The sandstone formation, in the Aurora complex, in which the CO2 from the Norwegian Longship project will be injected. This sandstone is a saline aquifer at a depth of 2500 meters.

L

License/ee

See licensing round.

Licensensing round

The authorities decide which areas of the Norwegian continental shelf are to be opened for petroleum activity/CO2 storage and which companies are to be awarded a licences. The application deadlines and awards are controlled and named rounds.

Liquefied natural gas

LNG

Liquefied petroleum gas

LPG

Longship

Longship is the first Norwegian full-scale industrial CCS project. It aims to develop an open access infrastructure with the intent and capacity to store significant volumes of CO2 from across the European continent.

Low emission solution

Refers to solutions where technology and solutions aims at improving/lowering the emissions of greenhouse gases to a minimum.

M

Migration

The movement of a fluid within a reservoir rock. It is possible to model and monitor the migration path of the CO2 injected into a saline formation and thus ensure that the fluid behaves according to models.

Mineral trapping

One mechanism that will trap the CO2 in an underground storage (saline aquifer). Injected CO2 will react with formation water and form minerals. CO2 will reside permanently in the storage formation.

Ministry of Energy

ME

Monitoring

A variety of methods to keep track of the CO2 movement/behavior in the storage formation.

N

NCCS

Norwegian CCS Research Centre

Negative CO2 emissions

When capturing CO2 from biogene sources the net result is negative emmision, meaning that the effective amount of CO2 to the atmosphere is lower than without that CO2 capture.

Northern Lights Joint Venture

NLJV

Joint venture consisting of Equinor, Shell and Total.

Norwegian Continental Shelf

NCS

The area offshore Norway where the seawater is shallow compared with the open ocean. The NCS is a mixed oil & gas province. It has mature areas containing significant infrastructure. Exploration show large opportunities for CO2 storage.

O

Oil and Gas

O&G

The two main types of hydrocarbons. The expression reffers to The petroleum industry.

Operator

Context dependent – Operator when more generic discussion of organisations/participants of an industry/process.

Synonyms can also be ‘player’ and ‘participant’ depending on context.

P

Parts per million (by weight or by volume)

ppm

Permeability

Perm

This is a rock property describing the connectivity between the pores in a rock. The better the connectivity the better the porosity. High porosity makes it easier to inject a fluid (CO2) into the rock formation. Shales often have very low permeability, making it a perfect structural trap that CO2 cannot migrate through.

Pilot

A test or experiment conducted before a method/installation will be introduced on a larger scale.

Porosity

Poro

Term used to describe the fraction of a solid material, often a rock, that can be occupied by a fluid. A good storage sandstone can have a porosity fraction up to 0.4 (30%).

R

R&D

Research and Development

Reservoir

A body of rock with the porosity and permeability to store and transmit fluids. Reservoirs typically hold hydrocarbons or saline water.

Residual trapping

A method of trapping CO2 in the storage formation. The injected CO2 will rise and displace fluids (water) as it moves, due to bouyancy. Once the CO2 has passed the formation fluid again occupies the pore space. Droplets of CO2 will be disconnected from the CO2 plume and is trapped within the formation fluid. This can be compared water in a sponge.

S

Saline aquifer

A porous and permeable rock formation containg saline water.

Sandstone

A sedimentary rock that is composed of sand particles, often consisting of quarts or feldspar. This typ of rock often has good porosity and permeability.

Sedimentary rock

A rock that is formed by burial and cementing of increasing amounts of sediments constantly overlaying older deposits. Examples are sandstones and shales.

Seismic

Seismic refers to sound waves through the earth. These are used to image and understand the underground.

Sequestration

The process of capturing and storing carbon (co2) in the attempt to decrease the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and combat climate change.

Shale

Shales are a type of sedimentary rocks that are composed of very fine sediments. This gives the rock a low permeability, and makes it suitable as a caprock/trap for fluids as they will not easily flow through.

Smeaheia complex

The Smeaheia complex was the previosly planned storage site for CO2 for the Longship project. See Johansen Formation for the current site.

Stratigraphy

The classification of the different layers of sedimentary rocks.

Structural trapping

Method in which the CO2 can be trapped for permantent storage underground. See also: residual trapping, dissolution trapping and mineral trapping.

T

TCM

Technology Centre Mongstad

Technology Readiness Levels

TRL

The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum

CSLF

Trap

A physical barriere for a fluid, such that it cannot escape its containment. See Trapping mechanisms for examples.

Trapping mechanisms

Ways in which the CO2 can be trapped for permantent storage underground. See: Structural trapping, residual trapping, dissolution trapping and mineral trapping.

V

Verification well

Well that is designed to verify the modeled/estimated extent of the storage formation.

W

Well

In this context: A hole drilled (and bored) deep into the earths crust with the purpose of either substracting fluid (e.g. oil and gas well) or injecting a fluid (e.g. injection well for water or CO2).

Whole chain

Same as full-scale (see “full scale”). It denotes the whole chain of CCS from carbon capture at a facility that releases CO2, via the transport of CO2 to the storage of CO2 (underground).

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