The Swiss Energy Strategy foresees CO₂ capture and underground storage, possibly abroad, among the necessary measures to reach the net zero target by 2050. DemoUpCARMA, the partner project of DemoUpStorage, explores as one pathway to negative emissions the transport and storage of Swiss biogenic CO₂ in Islandic basalt as well as this pathway’s potential for upscaling. Since a safe and permanent storage of the Swiss CO₂ is an indispensable requirement, DemoUpStorage takes the lead in closely monitoring the injection and the dispersion of the Swiss CO₂ in the Islandic underground at a site that has high potential for upscaling. For the injection, a novel technique is used, where the CO₂ is dissolved in sea water instead of fresh water. The findings of DemoUpStorage will further advance the Swiss Roadmap for geological CO₂ storage through knowledge acquisition and transfer, as well as capacity building.

DemoUpStorage has the following objectives:

• To independently evaluate if injecting CO₂ dissolved in seawater into basalts near the coast in Iceland is a safe, permanent, cost-effective, and environmentally acceptable pathway for CO₂. Together with DemoUpCARMA, DemoUpStorage will further evaluate if this approach has the potential to be upscaled and it would allow to store up thousands tons/year of Swiss CO₂ from 2024 onwards of Swiss CO₂ from 2024 onwards.
• To advance and benchmark borehole- and surface-based monitoring techniques and computational modelling tools to reliably track and forecast the migration of CO₂ in different geological settings, including those relevant for future CO₂ injection tests in Switzerland.
• To build up within Switzerland an interdisciplinary competence in monitoring and modelling CO₂-injection with the ultimate goal of being ready for future projects in Switzerland.