Linking different Disciplines in a Hierarchical Approach to Identify CO2 Degassing Zones

The project MONACO aims to develop monitoring technologies for geological carbon dioxide storage, especially for identifying CO2 migration paths and leakages from the shallow subsurface into the atmosphere. Reliable monitoring of geological CO2 storage sites during and after the operational phase requires appropriate methods that provide the requisite information in real time. Within the frame of this project, an integrative hierarchic monitoring concept is proposed, with the aim of reliably detecting and assessing possible leakages from storage formations into the shallow subsurface (including aquifers and unsaturated zones, plus degassing of CO2 into the atmosphere). As part of this concept, several methods will be either combined or used complementary to one another and used at different scales, such as open-path Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (OP-FTIR), soil-gas analytics, geophysics and Direct-Push technology. This hierarchic approach is tested at a natural analogue site and first measurements indicate that this monitoring approach represents a multidisciplinary modular concept working in different scales and resolutions.