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Energy Minister Michael Fallon descended into STFC’s Boulby Underground Laboratory – the UK’s deep underground multi-disciplinary science facility housed in Britain’s deepest mine – to witness a key milestone in the search for solutions to the problem of carbon emissions.

Mr Fallon visited cutting-edge particle detectors that are being developed to determine the quantity and distribution of rock structures overhead (the overburden) from deep underground. This capability could remove a big barrier to the introduction of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) technology by making it possible to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) fed into depleted oil and gas fields and so ensure it is being stored securely.

Development of the detectors is the focus of a £1.7M project funded by the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) and hydrocarbon exploration/production company Premier Oil. The consortium delivering the project includes the Universities of Durham, Sheffield and Bath, Cleveland Potash Ltd, Premier Oil and STFC, with NASA also providing input.

Located 1.1km down in the working Boulby Mine on England’s north-east coast, Boulby Underground Laboratory is a unique facility run by STFC in partnership with Cleveland Potash, the mine’s operators. The detectors now being built and commissioned there detect muons – charged particles produced when cosmic rays from distant supernovas strike the atmosphere. The particles then shower downwards before penetrating several kilometres into the Earth.

One of the detectors, located in a ‘gallery’ extending out under the North Sea, will use these muons to monitor the change in overburden due to the movement of tides taking place more than half a mile overhead. This will provide a first proof-of-principle for the overburden measurement and imaging technique, known as ‘muon tomography’. The Minister also saw a smaller, more sophisticated prototype now being built underground and specifically designed to fit into oil and gas boreholes through which CO2 would be fed.

Michael Fallon, Minister of State for Business and the Minister of State for Energy, said: “It is fascinating to see how the innovative CO2 monitoring technology being tested at Boulby Potash Mine could help to reduce the costs of Carbon Capture and Storage.

The UK is ideally suited to the development of a CCS industry with excellent storage potential in the North and Irish seas as well as world leading CCS research like this being undertaken by UK universities. We want to see a strong and successful CCS industry which has the potential to support a diverse energy mix and help us to achieve our climate change targets in a cost-effective way.”

CCS involves capturing CO2 at fossil fuel power stations and industrial plant and transporting it for storage in suitable underground locations. Once in place, it is essential to monitor the CO2 to check for movement or leakage. Currently, the only way of doing this is by collecting seismic data – an expensive option that only produces snapshots of what is happening in the carbon ‘stores’. Muon detectors offer two key advantages: the ability to conduct non-stop monitoring; and a cut in annual monitoring costs from around £300 million to £60 million per repository, making CCS more viable.

Dr Sean Paling, Director of Boulby Underground Laboratory, says: “The particle detectors and technique developed by the project could be a real game-changer in bringing CCS closer within reach. This work is part of an ever-widening portfolio of research being undertaken at Boulby in fields ranging from astrophysics and geophysics to energy and climate studies – an ability to serve many different spheres of science that genuinely sets this facility apart from other underground laboratories around the world.”

Phil Baines, CEO of Cleveland Potash, says: "We’re delighted that this important work is under way here and we’re proud to be enabling the progress of nationally and internationally important scientific research in the North East region. This project and the wide range of projects hosted by the government-funded Boulby Underground Laboratory show that science and industry can work hand-in-hand to the benefit of all."

ENDS

More information:

Marion O'Sullivan 
Press Officer
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Tel: 01235 445627
Mob: 07824 888990

Notes for Editors

Boulby Underground Laboratory

Boulby Underground Laboratory is located at Boulby Mine, a working potash, polyhalite and rock-salt mine between Saltburn and Whitby, on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. The Laboratory is one of just a handful of facilities worldwide suitable for hosting ultra-low background and deep underground science projects – a special place for science offering ‘a Quiet Place in the Universe’ where studies can be carried out almost entirely free of interference from natural background radiation. For more information, please visit www.stfc.a.cuk/boulby.

Boulby Mine & Cleveland Potash Ltd:

Boulby Mine is a working potash and rock salt mine on the North East coast of England. It is the UK’s main producer of Potash (used for fertiliser) and a major employer in the region (employing ~1000 people directly). Boulby mine is operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd (CPL). Boulby mine have been mining in the area since the 1970s. The mine has hosted the Boulby Underground Laboratory for over a decade. It is a unique and successful science industry partnership.

Carbon Capture & Storage

On a least-cost basis, the International Energy Agency estimates that CCS will deliver 19% of the global reduction in CO2 emissions that is required by 2050 if global warming is to be limited to a maximum of 2°C. Source: DECC’s CCS Roadmap (2012);

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-ccs-roadmap

Science and Technology Facilities Council

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is keeping the UK at the forefront of international science and tackling some of the most significant challenges facing society such as meeting our future energy needs, monitoring and understanding climate change, and global security. The Council has a broad science portfolio and works with the academic and industrial communities to share its expertise in materials science, space and ground-based astronomy technologies, laser science, microelectronics, wafer scale manufacturing, particle and nuclear physics, alternative energy production, radio communications and radar.

STFC operates or hosts world class experimental facilities including in the UK the ISIS pulsed neutron source, the Central Laser Facility, and LOFAR, and is also the majority shareholder in Diamond Light Source Ltd.

It enables UK researchers to access leading international science facilities by funding membership of international bodies including European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). STFC is one of seven publicly-funded research councils.

It is an independent, non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Follow us on Twitter at @STFC_Matters. www.stfc.ac.uk