The ECO2 project, pooling the resources of geologists, biologists, chemists, economists, social scientists and lawyers, is going to provide a comprehensive risk assessment and guidelines for monitoring sub-seabed CO2 storage. This research is targeting the implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in the region and assessing the impact in the short and long term can lead this activity in marine ecosystems. Making the geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) environmentally safe is high on the priorities for the EU.

The ECO2 ('Sub-seabed CO2 storage: impact on marine ecosystems') project, backed with €10.5 million under the OCEAN budget line of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The European Commission believes carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) can play a vital role in helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as in mitigating climate change. A number of EU Member States plus Norway have pledged to store CO2 below the seabed, but more extensive work on assessing the safety of these sub-seabed storage sites is required. Thus, the ECO2 will be implemented on this aim. The project, which is foreseen to end by 2015, will deliver a best environmental practice guide for preparation and management of storage sites.

ECO2 will pay particular attention to probing existing sub-seabed storage sites in the Norwegian North Sea (Sleipner) and the Barents Sea (Snøhvit). It will also evaluate the B3 oil and gas field in the Polish Baltic Sea, as it is being considered for a future storage site. The natural seeps at the seafloor will also be assessed to help the researchers to evaluate the impact of potential CO2 leakage on the marine ecosystem as well as the safety of storage sites. Under the plan, they will also examine the potential economic and legal consequences of leakage from sub-seabed storage sites. The CO2 emissions from industrial and power plants can be cut when CO2 and its sub-surface storage is captured, according to the environmental experts. After studying the three sites mentioned previously, the project will determine whether or not gas is being released, how it could be moved through the various strata of the seafloor and the water column, and which reactions are involved.

In addition, the researchers will collect comparative data at natural CO2 seeps off the salt dome Juist (Germany), the Jan Mayen volcanic island (Norway), the Panarea island (Italy) and the back arc basin Okinawa Trough (Japan). They will also test instrumentation for monitoring of storage sites in the field during more than 12 research cruises. In the laboratory, numerical modelling tests will be conducted in the latter.

Led by the Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) at the University of Kiel in Germany, ECO2 brings together the expertise of 27 researchers and industry actors from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The first expeditions will take place in the spring and summer seasons of this year. Results will be disseminated to stakeholders and the general public.