Isabel Lange

Report of GLOMAR PhD student Isabel Lange about her participation in the "NordVulk Summer School 2023 - Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in the Nordic Countries" in Reykjavík, Iceland from 27 August to 01 September 2023

On the 27th of August, all participants met at the Campus in Reykjavik to take a group bus to the Hotel Borealis, which is about one hour east of Reykjavik in the country side. We were 18 participants and 13 lecturers. After a warm welcoming, we enjoyed the tour through the Icelandic landscape and got many interesting information about the geology from Prof. Sigurdur Gislason, together with Dr. Rikke Pedersen, one of the main organizers of the Summer School. The Hotel Borealis was a lovely accommodation and the food was just perfect.

Hut for the lectures, poster sessions and social get-together — This was the cozy place where all the lectures, poster sessions and social gatherings in the evening took place.

Room inside for the presentations — And that’s how it looked from the inside. In this room we had all the presentations and interesting discussions.
Photo: Mauro Passarella.

The first day of the Summer School started with lectures on Carbon Capture and Mineralization. In the afternoon, the first half of the participants, of which I was part of, were presenting posters on their current research projects. It was a great opportunity to learn about each other’s projects, exchange experiences, discuss questions, and enjoy coffee and cake meanwhile. The atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed.

The second day, after breakfast, we had a long field trip with stops at the CarbFix field site in Hellisheiði, where CO2 is captured and injected in the basaltic subsurface. This project was started in 2014, and since then, approximately 96 000 tons of CO2 have been injected into the basalt to mineralize in the subsurface. The second stop was at the Climeworks site in Nesjavellir. Climeworks is a swiss company that installed Direct Air Carbon Capture facilities in Iceland to combine this technique with CO2 storage in the subsurface. The -almost- last stop of the day was at the Þingvellir rift zone, a continuation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, separating the North American and Eurasian plate. This national park has a great meaning for the Icelandic people, since it is the place where their first parliament was found in 930 and used to come together till 1798. Even though the weather was quite sunny, we were happy to go to a warm pool afterwards, which was the last stop of the day.

stairs at the Thingvellir National Park — At the Thingvellir National Park, Prof. Sigurdur Gislason was telling us about the history and geology of this unique place.
Photo: Mauro Passarella

Group photo at the Hotel Geysir — Group photo after the closing dinner at the Hotel Geysir.
Photo: Mauro Passarella

The forth and the fifth day were mostly covered with presentations on Carbon Capture, Storage and Transportation and Enhanced Rock Weathering and other alternatives. The second half of the poster sessions also took place, and we were doing a short trip to the Gullfoss waterfall and the Geysir geothermal springs. We had a great closing dinner at the Hotel Geysir on Thursday night.

On Friday, we did a trip to the Reykjanes Peninsula to visit the CO2SeaStone and Coda facilities in Helguvik. The trip ended in Reykjavik where we had to say Goodbye to everyone.

Field trip to the site of the recent eruptions. Unfortunately, we had to return to the bus at some point since a big storm was coming up.

It was a great week with great people. I am grateful that I got the support from GLOMAR to participate at the Summer School. I also want to thank all the organizers, lecturers, and participants for making the Summer School such a successful event. I was able to network with many people and I learned a lot from the presentations and discussions. Both my personal development and my scientific work will benefit greatly from this experience.