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Modelling large-scale CO2 leakages in the North Sea
- Source :
- ResearcherID
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2015.
-
Abstract
- A three dimensional hydrodynamic model with a coupled carbonate speciation sub-model is used to simulate large additions of CO2 into the North Sea, representing leakages at potential carbon sequestration sites. A range of leakage scenarios are conducted at two distinct release sites, allowing an analysis of the seasonal, inter-annual and spatial variability of impacts to the marine ecosystem. Seasonally stratified regions are shown to be more vulnerable to CO2 release during the summer as the added CO2 remains trapped beneath the thermocline, preventing outgasing to the atmosphere. On average, CO2 injected into the northern North Sea is shown to reside within the water column twice as long as an equivalent addition in the southern North Sea before reaching the atmosphere. Short-term leakages of 5000 tonnes CO2 over a single day result in substantial acidification at the release sites (up to -1.92 pH units), with significant perturbations (greater than 0.1 pH units) generally confined to a 10 km radius. Long-term CO2 leakages sustained for a year may result in extensive plumes of acidified seawater, carried by major advective pathways. Whilst such scenarios could be harmful to marine biota over confined spatial scales, continued unmitigated CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are predicted to result in greater and more long-lived perturbations to the carbonate system over the next few decades.
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
010501 environmental sciences
Carbon sequestration
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
01 natural sciences
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
chemistry.chemical_compound
Carbon capture and storage
Water column
Energy(all)
Marine ecosystem
14. Life underwater
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
pH
Biota
Pollution
CCS
Marine Sciences
General Energy
Oceanography
chemistry
13. Climate action
Environmental science
Carbonate
CO2
Seawater
Spatial variability
North Sea
Shelf sea
Thermocline
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17505836
- Volume :
- 38
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4a1ac4602b60b24ad259cdb2dd281acf
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.10.013