Groundwater and Hydrogeochemistry

Development of CO2 transport and storage demo project in Eastern Europe

Eastern Lights is the de-risking first step to develop a large-scale Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) cluster in Eastern Europe. The Holcim Bulgaria plant will be the heart and engine of the cluster development starting with CO2 transport and storage (T&S) demonstration in North West Bulgaria. Eastern Lights will de-risk the CO2 transport and storage by eliminating the main uncertainties of T&S by industrial demonstration, in-depth studies and stakeholder engagement. By constructing and testing a km long transport pipeline fully integrated into the commercial operating CO2 storage, the key process parameters and technical aspects for a full-scale CCUS complex will be validated. The critical risks of the T&S part will be eliminated by an industrial demonstration and comprehensive set of studies leading to permitting. To minimize the risks, saline aquifers from North West Bulgaria will be used for safe and large capacity CO2 storage close to a major CO2 source and Bulgarian pipeline corridors. Extensive geological, geophysical and testing work will be done to address critical issues as induced seismicity and safe injection over time. By actually constructing a short pipeline, specific issues like land-owner allowances will be addressed and the transport will be made ready for permitting and execution for the entire corridor cross-border cluster connecting members to the CO2 sink. Intensive communication, stakeholder consultation, cluster development and permit preparations will complete the Eastern Lights scope. As such, Eastern Lights shall unlock the CCUS potential in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria in particular and potentially Romania, therewith contributing to the Fit for 55 targets. Demonstrating an economically feasible decarbonizing track for the (cement) industry in Bulgaria, will secure jobs and economic activity in this field. Strong cross-border ties will be demonstrated by using CO2 from Tupras in Turkey (Mof4Air), and more generally contributing the EU goal to reach climate targets.

Funding: HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-01. Ref: 101136122

Start Date: 01/09/2024 – End Date: 31/08/2028

http://www.eastern-lights.eu

Upscaling reactive transport in unsaturated media: from the pore to the vadose zone

The vadose zone is the unsaturated region connecting the land surface to groundwater, acting as a filter for nutrients and contaminants and controlling their access to aquifers. Reactive transport in unsaturated porous media is of central importance to our understanding of nutrient cycles and applications such as soil and groundwater remediation. Geological media are heterogeneous across scales, and desaturation leads to complex patterns of air and water and preferential flow channels, enhancing structural heterogeneity. Resolving all scales is unfeasible, severely limiting the capacity of current models to predict field-scale reactivity and the spatial distribution of dissolved reactant plumes in the vadose zone.

Uplift proposes a shift in perspective from empirical parameterization to the development of upscaled models rooted in a firm understanding of pore-scale dynamics. The underlying hypothesis is that a framework capable of quantifying subscale mixing limitations, combined with a coarse field-scale description of flow, can significantly improve current models. This requires a better understanding of pore-scale dynamics under unsaturated conditions, along with a theoretical framework capable of capturing their impact at larger scales. Uplift aims to address these challenges by connecting stochastic models of transport to statistical pore-scale features, and combining them with a novel population dynamics framework for reactive transport connecting effective reaction rates to delays due to transport limitations. To support the theoretical developments and complement available data, resolved simulation tools developed in the project will be employed to assess the role of degree of saturation, pore-scale structure, and transient forcings on phase distribution statistics and solute mixing. The proposed framework and its numerical implementation are expected to result in new reactive transport models for the vadose zone with significantly improved predictive power.

Funding: European Union, ERC Starting Grants 2023 (101115760)

Start Date: 01/03/2024 – End Date: 28/02/2029

https://ercuplift.wordpress.com/

ESFERA

Upscaling of unstable flow, transport and reactions in heterogeneous porous media

The main purpose of ESFERA is to advance in the knowledge of the characterization of mixing, reaction and solute transport in unstable flow in porous media. Unstable flow is an key factor in natural and industrial processes such as sea water intrusion in coastal aquifers, CO2 and hydrogen underground storage, geothermal energy technologies and vapor transport in snow packs and soils. Specifically, ESFERA will characterize and upscale convection-dominated mixing and dissolution in heterogeneous media, study and upscale the effect of heterogeneity in the migration and dissolution of unstable gravity currents and study and upscale mixing-limited reactions and vapor fluxes in unstable flow in heterogeneous media. To achieve the project’s objective a methodology methodology based on numerical simulations and theoretical development. High resolution numerical simulations will inform the theoretical models. The upscaling methodology will be based on the identification of equivalent permeability fields and effective dispersion coefficients that account for the medium’s heterogeneity structure. The effective coefficients will be developed using a lamellar approach description based on the deformation of the material fluid elements.

Grant CNS2023-144134 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR

Start Date: 01/04/2024 – End Date: 31/03/2026

HyDRA

Diagnostic Tools and Risk Protocols to Accelerate Underground Hydrogen Storage

To meet the EU's climate targets, diversify the energy market, and ensure a reliable energy supply, expanding hydrogen infrastructure is crucial. Large-scale storage solutions are needed, as current facilities cannot handle the anticipated increase in hydrogen availability. Storing hydrogen underground in naturally occurring sealed formations, such as sedimentary basins, presents a significant opportunity for Europe. These formations are robust, have large storage capacities, are cost-effective, and can be easily integrated into existing systems. However, critical knowledge gaps remain, particularly regarding how microbial processes might influence underground storage. The HyDRA project aims to address these gaps by developing scientific protocols and regulatory frameworks to ensure hydrogen can be stored safely and efficiently.

Start Date: 01/01/2025 – End Date: 29/02/2028

MuPSI

Multiscale Pressure-Stress Impacts on Fault Integrity for Multi-site Regional CO2 Storage

CCS is a crucial part of the Clean Energy Transition, contributing significant CO2 reductions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. Several gigatons of CO2 abatement per year is needed on industry and power, entailing an unprecedented scale-up with associated risks that are challenging to quantify at scale. MuPSI aims at de-risking the methods for the multi-site storage context, which is highly relevant for helping CCS meet ambitious targets and fulfill its expected role in the energy transition. When several CO2-storage sites are collocated in one hydrological unit, operations in one site affect operations and risks in the other sites. Operators and regulators need workflows and tools to manage those risks across sites while protecting proprietary data. Of particular concern is the impact of the cumulative pressure build-up on fault integrity leading to leakage or seismicity. Quantifying this risk involves understanding the dynamics of pressure and stress at multiple scales and how different hydro-geomechanical processes and uncertainty interact across scales. The objective is to develop better techniques and simulation strategies for incorporating regional-scale impacts in fault de-risking workflows to enable scale-up of CO2 storage to gigaton-scale multi-site hubs. Research will focus on bridging separate scales from region to fault by developing reliable models at each scale and robust ways to transfer static/dynamic data between them. We aim for open-source models / software that are industry-compatible. Case studies for North Sea / US will illustrate the new methods and techniques. Industry interest indicates that this research direction is a high priority. The project expects TRL 6 by validation /demonstration in a relevant environment.

Funding: CETP2023 – Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Proyectos de Colaboración Internacional PCI24-2 – Ref. PCI2024-155067-2

Start Date: 31/12/2024 – End Date: 30/12/2027

GeotermIA

Development of a management and optimization tool for deep geothermal resources using artificial intelligence

Deep geothermal energy has the potential to provide sustainable, clean and long-lasting energy resources. Therefore, it plays a strategic role in the energy policies for the coming years. Maximizing the efficiency of this technology and ensuring its profitability is a challenge due to the inaccessibility and uncertainty of the geology consisting of highly heterogeneous fractured rocks, and due to the complexity of the coupled physical processes involved of flow, heat transport and mechanical deformation. The expected growth of this technology manifests the need to manage multiple projects optimally and quickly. The GeotermIA project proposes to develop a tool for the real-time management and optimization of deep geothermal resources through the use of AI, which contributes to the development of digital twins of geothermal facilities.

GeotermIA will develop a deep learning algorithm informed by physics. Training in the identification of patterns and trends useful to improve the efficiency of the geothermal system will be based on historical and synthetic data from simplified, high-fidelity and stochastic numerical models. The tool will allow to evaluate the performance of geothermal systems in real time, identify possible problems and propose optimization solutions, thus providing solid assistance in the decision-making process and contributing to the transition towards more sustainable and clean energy sources.

Funding: Programa Momentum CSIC, Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia - Financiado por la Unión Europea – NextGenerationEU - Ref. MMT24-IDAEA-01

Start Date: 21/12/2024 – End Date: 20/12/2028

The main objective of the project is to uncover and quantify the mechanisms and laws that govern multiphase flow, mechanical deformation and hydrodynamic transport in permeable media, from the pore to the regional scales. To achieve this goal, HydroPore proposes a multidisciplinary and integrated research strategy that combines a new theoretical upscaling framework with novel experimental protocols and cutting-edge numerical simulation techniques.
Funding amount: 145.200,00 €

Start Date: 01/06/2020 – End Date: 30/04/2025

http://hydropore.es/

Desarrollo de una plataforma inteligente de modelización y virtualizacio´n de recursos hídricos

En la actualidad, en la mayoría de los países del mundo es ejercida una presión sin precedentes sobre los recursos hídricos, con una población creciente y un escenario donde el cambio climático supone un factor de condicionalidad añadido a la escasez de estos recursos. Para el año 2030, según estimaciones de la FAO, la diferencia entre demanda y suministro disponible a nivel mundial será del 40%, realidad a la que, lejos de ser ajena, España es un país muy directamente afectado por esta problemática. En este sentido, las estimaciones de riesgo de desertificación de España, estimadas por el Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, hacen saltar todas las alarmas, mostrando que 2/3 partes del territorio español se encuentran potencialmente afectadas por este proceso. Es necesario actuar con urgencia, afrontando el problema con nuevas herramientas, con capacidad y con innovación y E-HYDRO está llamado a ser una herramienta clave para ello.

Ante la problemática e imperiosa necesidad existente, identificada igualmente en la inclusión de esta temática dentro de los objetivos del programa Transmisiones 2023, la solución E-HYDRO dará respuesta mediante la dotación de capacidades altamente innovadoras para la Gestión de los Recursos Hídricos. Así, E-HYDRO permitirá una gestión a nivel Cuenca Hidrográfica y su red fluvial asociada, en la que el usuario contará con un Gemelo Digital de la cuenca, asistido por herramientas de virtualización y modelización con motores de inteligencia artificial específicamente desarrollados. E-HYDRO permitirá así consultar, simular y prevenir escenarios reales o potenciales en aras de la asistencia precisa a la toma de decisiones para la mejor gestión del recurso agua.

Funding: AEI/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades i PLEC2023010215

Start Date: 01/01/2024 – End Date: 31/12/2027

Funding: National Project

https://e-hydro.es/

Developing tools and strategies to ensure the availability of WATER resources in urban areas under CLIMATE change

Freshwater resources are suffering increasing pressure in urban areas due to several factors, such as climate change and growing population. Currently, Catalonia is facing a severe drought period of more than two years and this situation is especially critical at the Ter-Llobregat water system that is at 27% capacity. Droughts have been a recurrent phenomenon in these catchments in recent years and there is the urgent need to propose alternative water resources such as urban groundwater. Groundwater can be used as strategic resource to tackle the limited availability of surface water resources, meeting peak demands, but it is essential to investigate the groundwater quality, to explore its potential uses including drinking water supply and to forecast potential future scenarios considering the impact of climate change on groundwater resources.
In this context, the aim of WATERCLIMATE is to develop a set of tools and guidelines/strategies to ensure the availability of groundwater resources in urban areas to face climate change. These tools include source apportionment modelling tool (RE-MIX code) as well as numerical modelling, and will allow the better management of water resources improving qualitative and quantitative aspects. These tools will be applied in the Besòs River catchment at different scales but can be used in any other aquifer system of Catalonia and Europe.

Funding: AGAUR and 2023 CLIMA 0101

Start Date: 29/01/2024 – End Date: 28/01/2026

Funding: European Project, National Project

https://swr.csic.es/waterclimate-2/

WATER4MED

Water management strategies and Adaptation acTions undER a global change context FOR the MEDiterranean region

The primary goal of WATER4MED is to provide a robust approach to enhance Mediterranean water governance models by managing water resources sustainably and efficiently, and providing viable alternatives to increase water storage capacity and mitigate floods. Approaches and alternatives to climate change adaptation will be developed and tested in 4 demonstration sites considering the Mediterranean dimension, while their replicability will be assessed in additional Mediterranean sites

Start Date: 01/06/2024 – End Date: 31/05/2027

Funding: International Project