Focus Funding Reports

In 2026, the UKCCSRC invited proposals for a number of research topics addressing priority areas identified by research and industry groups, to add to a body of work to support successful UK CCS deployment.

Seven projects were awarded funding and their results/findings are now available!  Reports and executive summaries for each can be found below.  Webinars sharing the results can be found on the Focused Funding Webinars page.

The type and number of airborne particles is a leading environmental risk factor for human health worldwide. The amine solvents used for post combustion carbon capture can lead to the formation of new airborne particles, and there are key questions regarding the type and quantities of these particles and thus the implications for environmental health. This UKCCSRC-funded project modelled, for the first time, the fate of amine solvents released to atmosphere based on a UK case study CCS site. The project  found that while released amines can form a very large number of ultrafine particles, the number and type of particles is acutely sensitive to atmospheric conditions, and the properties of the amine solvent. These new results shed new light on the particle formation pathway, and identify key questions for future work to reduce uncertainties and to better understand real scenario impacts of CCS clusters.

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Many industrial operators are already familiar with individual water treatment technologies. However, choosing the right wastewater treatment approach can be complex, particularly for emerging technologies being deployed such as carbon capture. This UKCCSRC-funded project aimed to support decision making for treatment of wastewater streams from amine-based post combustion capture by developing an evidence-informed marker-based framework. The framework provides a clear and practical way to identify which wastewater streams need attention, which water quality indicators should be prioritised, and which treatment approaches are most appropriate before investing time and resources in detailed design or site-specific testing. The framework is for use by a range of carbon capture wastewater system stakeholders including site operators, wastewater treatment providers, engineering consultants, regulators and solvent technology developers.

Read Danial’s Full Report

Read Danial’s Executive Summary

Old oil and gas wells (‘legacy wells’) may provide pathways for fluid migration from future carbon dioxide (CO2) storage sites. This UKCCSRC-funded project developed a new approach for assessing the containment risk associated with legacy wells by improving how three-dimensional geological models represent the small-scale geological features that influence fluid connectivity. By combining forward stratigraphic modelling, connectivity and potential brine-migration pathway analysis, and information on legacy well locations, the workflow can help identify wells that may require closer investigation and support more informed decisions about site selection, monitoring, and long-term storage safety. The approach was demonstrated using idealised geological models and a geologically constrained case study. It is designed to be transferable to other storage settings where suitable geological and well data are available and the models can be appropriately parameterised and validated. The workflow also produces outputs that are compatible with established reservoir-modelling tools.

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Storing carbon dioxide (CO2) underground can increase reservoir pressure, which may be managed by producing the salty water (brine) which naturally occurs in subsurface rock formations. In some cases, this brine could be discharged to the sea. This UKCCSRC-funded project used computer modelling to investigate how discharged brine would disperse in UK coastal waters (i.e. shallow and strongly tidal) under a conservative worst-case scenario. The results showed that tides rapidly dilute brine, and that surface discharge has a smaller impact on the seabed than seabed discharge. The project also found that the brine chemistry and the style of any brine release are central to managing environmental risk; some trace contaminants (including benzene, zinc and lead) may pose a greater environmental concern than salinity itself. The findings provide evidence to support the early assessment of brine management options for future CO2 storage projects.

Read Marius’s Full Report

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Old oil and gas wells (“legacy wells”) can provide potential fluid-migration pathways from geological CO2 storage sites. Building on QWellRATE, a physics-based screening model that estimates CO2 leakage flux through legacy-well configurations, this UKCCSRC-funded project developed a framework that converts model outputs into conditional per-well leakage classes by accounting for plausible leakage-pathway geometry. The framework then tests those classes against offshore detectability and environmental relevance and maps them to proportionate monitoring and response actions. Its purpose is to focus detailed studies and monitoring resources where they add most value; it does not estimate leakage probability or replace site-specific well-integrity, containment-risk, Monitoring Plan or Corrective Measures Plan assessments.

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Areas of the UK seabed that are licensed for carbon dioxide (CO2) storage are located close to existing subsea fibre-optic telecommunications cables. This UKCCSRC-funded project explored whether these cables could provide a cost-effective means of monitoring seismic activity around CO₂ storage operations. Data from cables installed in the Southern North Sea was used to (a) develop a method to automatically detect and locate small seismic events in near real time (b) explore whether subsurface structures and/or the location of injected CO₂ could be imaged. The project found that existing offshore fibre-optic infrastructure has significant potential to provide low-cost, continuous monitoring of CO2 storage sites, providing valuable insight to a range of CO2 storage stakeholders including site operators and regulators.

Read Germán’s Full Report

Fibre-optic cables could offer a cost-effective approach to monitoring carbon dioxide (CO2) storage sites. This UKCCSRC-funded project undertook laboratory calibration to help interpret fibre-optic measurements, with a focus on Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in offshore marine environments and detecting CO2 leakage to the seabed and water column. The project found that fibre-optic DAS can detect acoustic signals relevant to seabed CO2 leakage, though not as clearly as conventional acoustic tools and with varying sensitivity. Fibre performance depended strongly on local conditions, particularly how the fibre was installed, while changing water pressure did not consistently affect sensitivity. The project findings provide an initial calibration framework for interpreting DAS measurements in offshore CCS monitoring.

Read Hanif’s Full Report

Read Hanif’s Executive Summary