Among the decarbonisation strategies identified by the European Union to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies play an essential role especially in some sectors where, for technical reasons, the penetration of other emission abatement strategies is more complex. In particular, the geological confinement of non-recyclable carbon dioxide is an indispensable tool for the containment of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

The Sulcis basin, although unsuitable for the industrial-scale confinement of significant quantities of CO2, has special characteristics that make it ideal for pilot-scale experimentation of confinement techniques and, above all, for the development of advanced monitoring systems to be applied at industrial sites. For this reason, the site was selected for the construction of a laboratory of excellence of international standing - the only one of its kind in the world - for the experimental development of monitoring techniques for CO2 geological confinement sites, with reference to the study and containment of CO2 rising phenomena through faults. The field laboratory, called the Sotacarbo Fault Lab (SFL), has been fully financed within the framework of the Clean Energy Centre of Excellence and will, among other things, attract numerous international players interested in the experimental development of the infrastructure.

In addition to the realisation of the research infrastructure, an extensive experimental characterisation of the rock formations was carried out, which is necessary to better interpret the experimental data that will result from the SFL.

The research can be divided into the following two sub-activities:

Analisi e caratterizzazione delle formazioni rocciose del Sulcis

Realizzazione del Sotacarbo Fault Lab

SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION

Below the papers published in international scientific journals produced as a result of the research activities of this line:

• Silvana Fais, Giuseppe Casula, Francesco Cuccuru, Paola Ligas, Maria Giovanna Bianchi, Alberto Plaisant, Alberto Pettinau. A contribution to the geological characterization of a potential caprock-reservoir system in the Sulcis Coal Basin (South-Western Sardinia). Energies 2019; 12:4524.
  
  
• Mario Anselmi, Gilberto Saccorotti, Davide Piccinini, Carlo Giunchi, Mario Paratore, Pasquale De Gori, Mauro Buttinelli, Enrico Maggio, Alberto Plaisant, Claudio Chiarabba. Microseismic assessment and fault characterization at the Sulcis (South-Western Sardinia) field laboratory. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 2020; 95:102974.