Development of a monitoring plan for the Vedsted structure in Denmark

Vattenfall is considering a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project in the North Jutland region of mainland Denmark. The project would involve the post-combustion capture of CO2 from the Nordjyllandsværket coal fired power plant at Aalborg followed by geological storage of the CO2 in a nearby, onshore, saline aquifer within the Vedsted structure. A thorough monitoring plan is considered to be an essential element of the start-up phase of the project based on risk evaluation. This paper describes the first design of such a monitoring plan that was developed for Vattenfall by a team from CO2GeoNet in discussions involving the company and the Danish Geological Survey (GEUS). The monitoring methodologies to be deployed include downhole tools via a monitoring well, 2D and 3D surface seismic for subsurface imaging of the plume, shallow geophysics for the fresh-saline water interface and surface, atmospheric and remote sensing tools for leakage integrity.