TOTAL conducts the first French pilot to demonstrate the technical feasibility and reliability of an integrated CO2 capture, transportation, injection and storage scheme from a boiler at a 1/10th reduced scale of an industrial project. This pilot entails the conversion of an existing steam boiler into an oxy-fuel combustion unit, oxygen being used for combustion rather than air to obtain a more concentrated CO2 stream easier to capture. Then, CO2 stream is compressed and conveyed via pipeline to the Rousse depleted gas field, 30 kilometers away, where it is injected into a deep carbonate reservoir. CO2 injection has started early 2010 as all the proper official authorizations have been given. Those authorizations concern two years of injection and three years of post injection observation. An appropriate monitoring plan was designed to check the integrity of the site, to compare the CO2 behavior as it is planned and to get information to calibrate tools and models. This paper details the monitoring program: continuous measurements through permanent sensors, such as microseismicity or reservoir behavior with pressure and temperature data, and periodic surveys mainly for environmental purposes such as the groundwater quality and the surface water quality within the injection site catchment area and the fauna and the flora biodiversity.
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Lescanne et al. (2011) studied this question.