Proven and safe
Project Pioneer will use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that is proven and safe.
On a smaller scale, it is used in other industrial processes and carbon dioxide (CO2) has been injected into oil reserves to increase oil recovery for more than 30 years. Over the past 20 years, considerable research and development efforts have been devoted to the long-term, geological storage of CO2.
The same geological formations that kept gases and fluids in place will also safely secure the carbon dioxide captured by Project Pioneer
Once injected, CO2 will be trapped in tiny pores within the storage rock far below the earth’s surface and it will be separated from usable groundwater by thick, impermeable barriers of dense rock.
Geological storage projects have already stored millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide for many years, without detectable leakage
Projects in Saskatchewan and Norway have safely stored 15 megatonnes of CO2 in depleted oil fields and deep, underwater, saline formations without leakage. Studies of additional geologic storage test sites suggest that leakage rates will be less than one per cent every 1,000 years.
Transporting carbon dioxide is nothing new
Just like natural gas is today, CO2 can be transported long distances at low-cost. Extensive CO2 pipeline networks have been safely in use in Canada and the United States - some for more than 25 years. Many of these are in Texas where CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery.