06/28/2022
CO2 storage is a major priority for achieving net zero by 2050. TotalEnergies has partnered with INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology) to address the technological challenges involved in monitoring the carbon stored in geological reservoirs.
Check out the video of the project team and their synergistic skills as they pursue their joint goal of ramping up research into CO2 storage, which represents a major priority for achieving net zero by 2050 together with society!
It is hard to see, show and especially anticipate what is actually happening beneath the Earth's surface. But that is the ambitious challenge that our R&D teams are tackling alongside our partners as part of the Makutu project (meaning "magician" in Maori).The dozen researchers within the joint Makutu team are combining their expertise to mastermind new digital simulation solutions with the aim of defining the reservoirs' geological characteristics with greater precision and monitoring the CO2 that will be injected and stored in those reservoirs.
Drawing on the team's skills in high-performance computing, geoscience, seismic imaging, ultra-complex mathematical modeling and scientific computing, this array of technologies will provide clearer insights into how carbon behaves when stored in geological cavities while harnessing the power of digital simulations to predict changes in the carbon and any modifications to the reservoir... on a timescale spanning a century!
These new technological solutions will be incorporated into GEOSX, the digital platform for modeling CO2 injection pioneered by TotalEnergies, Stanford University and the US Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, using seismic imaging to model the permanent storage of CO2. This innovative and open-source initiative will set a unique benchmark in the industrial world.
The Makutu research team is hosted by the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour, and reports to the Laboratory of Mathematics and its Applications (LMAP), a CNRS joint research unit, and Bordeaux INP.
This project represents a major step towards a carbon-free industry, thereby contributing towards the company's ambition of achieving net zero by 2050 together with society.