Progress for carbon dioxide geological storage in West Macedonia: A field and laboratory-based survey

Background: It is widely acknowledged that carbon dioxide (CO ₂), a greenhouse gas, is largely responsible for climatic changes that can lead to warming or cooling in various places. This disturbs natural processes, creating instability and fragility of natural and social ecosystems. To combat climate change, without compromising technology advancements and maintaining production costs at acceptable levels, carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies can be deployed to advance a non-disruptive energy transition. Capturing CO ₂ from industrial processes such as thermoelectric power stations, refineries, and cement factories and storing it in geological mediums is becoming a mature technology. Part of the Mesohellenic Basin, situated in Greek territory, is proposed as a potential area for CO ₂ storage in saline aquifers. This follows work previously done in the StrategyCCUS project, funded by the EU. The work is progressing under the Pilot Strategy, funded by the EU. Methods: The current investigation includes geomechanical and petrophysical methods to characterise sedimentary formations for their potential to hold CO ₂ underground. Results: Samples were found to have both low porosity and permeability while the corresponding uniaxial strength for the Tsotyli formation was 22 MPa, for Eptechori 35 MPa and Pentalofo 74 MPa. Conclusions: The samples investigated indicate the potential to act as cap-rocks due to low porosity and permeability, but fluid pressure within the rock should remain within specified limits; otherwise, the rock may easily fracture and result in CO ₂ leakage or/and deform to allow the flow of CO ₂. Further investigation is needed to identify reservoir rocks as well more sampling to allow for statistically significant results.