Visiting Speaker - Dr. Kent Novakowski

The Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineering Visiting Speaker Series Presents:

Dr. Kent Novakowski, Civil Engineering, Queen's University

Talk Title: The Potential for Carbon Sequestration in the Precambrian Rocks of Eastern Ontario

Date: Thursday, February 8

Time: 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Location: Miller Hall, Room 201

Coffee and treats will be served.

Abstract:

In the world-wide attempt to reduce anthropogenic carbon emissions, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) has become a leading contender as a potentially substantial part of the solution. CCUS is not based on mature science and engineering as yet, and there are many challenges in each aspect, although there are pilot projects in carbon capture and storage underway around the world with several in Canada leading the way. From a geological perspective, it is the “storage” part of the concept that we in Canada have strength in, with substantial potential in Alberta and some in Saskatchewan for CO2 sequestration in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, and more widely in deep, saline aquifers. There are also locally large sources of CO2 emissions in these provinces. In eastern Canada, we are significantly limited in potential storage capacity to the Cambrian sandstones of southeastern Ontario, and the off-shore oil and gas reservoirs in the Jeanne d'Arc Basin. A very attractive but unheralded option is the injection of CO2 into mafic Precambrian rocks widely present in the Canadian Shield which has been shown to dissolve the minerals and form carbonate rock down the flow path, resulting in (semi) permanent removal of the carbon dioxide. As this has only been studied in small-scale lab experiments and a few field scale pilots (CarbFix in Iceland being the most well-known), there is a lot to be learned before this is likely to be a viable commercial option. In the present talk, a research program initiated last summer at the Kennedy Field Station near Tamworth and in the laboratory at Mitchell Hall will be described with a focus on what is planned for the next three years. Interest in this work has been profound, and includes traditional local industries such as Lafarge, the power generation facilities such as the Lennox Plant in Greater Napanee, and Enbridge, who see pipeline opportunities with the concept

Biography:

Kent Novakowski is a Professor of Civil Engineering in the Stephen J.R. Smith Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and a Special Advisor to the Vice Principal Research at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Dr. Novakowski obtained his PhD in Hydrogeology from the University of Waterloo in 1992. He has had a widely varied career as a researcher and academic with employment in the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Program in Ottawa, the National Water Research Institute in Burlington, Brock University, and then the Department of Civil Engineering at Queen’s University, as Associate Professor, Professor and Department Head. Dr. Novakowski has specialised as one of only a few hydrogeologists across the globe with extensive experience in the hydrogeology of both crystalline and sedimentary fractured rock. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, and the Engineering Institute of Canada. In 2013, he won the Engineering Excellence Medal given by Professional Engineers Ontario. His current directions of research are focussed on the fundamental processes of heat transport in fracture networks and the potential for carbon mineralization in the Precambrian rocks of the Canadian Shield.