Sotacarbo and K-Cosem (South Korea) have signed a memorandum of understanding in Melbourne (Australia), during the IEA international conference GHGT-14. The agreement, signed by Alessandro Lanza, Sotacarbo president, and prof. Seong-Taek Yun, Korea University, will allow in the next five years a close collaboration to install two international research infrastructures in Sulcis and South Korea, near the capital Seoul.

The construction of one of these research infrastructures, the Sotacarbo Fault Lab, is underway in the Sulcis basin (South-West Sardinia), within the “Centre of Excellence on Clean Energy” project, funded by the Regional Government of Sardinia. A similar facility – operating with a different geologic formation, and therefore complementary to the Sotacarbo Fault Lab – will be installed soon by K-Cosem. The common goal is to verify if and how much of the injected carbon dioxide could leak to the surface.

That is one of the main issues to be solved during the characterization of CO2 geological storage sites. Environmental risks are inconsistent, as demonstrated in several places characterized by natural CO2 emissions, but testing is nevertheless essential, as the possible leakage of CO2 frustrates the efforts and the investment for CO2 geological storage, which should be permanent.

The agreement signed by Sotacarbo and K-Cosem will allow both sides to share information and experimental results. Within the end of the year, Sotacarbo will visit the Korean site and a delegation from K-Cosem will visit the Sotacarbo Research Centre. APettinau