INTERVIEW Mapping for safety and economic growth Dr Taufeeq Dhansay, Manager of the Minerals and Energy Geoscience Mapping Programme, explains how important geoscientific mapping can be for every aspect of society and gives a progress report on the Council for Geoscience’s carbon capture research. Dr Taufeeq Dhansay, Manager, Council for Geoscience BIOGRAPHY After earning a bachelor’s degree in Geosciences from the University of Cape Town, Taufeeq spent time at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria on his way to a Master’s, where his focus was geothermal energy. Another overseas experience was at the Structural Geology and Tectonics Research Group at Jena University in Germany. Nelson Mandela University awarded Taufeeq a PhD in Geosciences in 2017. In recent mapping, what have you found in Mpumalanga? Mpumalanga is very rich is terms of its geological variety. You find some of the earth’s oldest rocks that tell you about how the earth evolved and formed. Many international scientists visit the province to investigate these rocks, some that are more than four-billion years old. You also find some of the youngest rocks, so that variety from the oldest to youngest means that you have the entire history of the earth’s processes within the province. Some of these processes include how various minerals systems formed and evolved. This implies that it is a very rich province in terms of its natural resources. This includes, coal, gold, platinum and other types of critical minerals that are needed to sustain future energy like renewable resources and batteries. Now we are looking at integrated research. What happens as we shift away from coal in the province? Does it mean that the coal was the only drawcard of the province in terms of its economy? We are finding that the answer is no. Is coal the province’s only resource? There are other mineral resources that can also be looked at. That is a primary focus at the moment. More than two thirds of the province’s economy is now reliant on coal so this brings into context the idea of the just transition. We are asking what geoscience can tell us about a transition in terms of sustainability. Coexistence between mining and agriculture only happens if you understand the geology. We have to maintain the integrity of the groundwater in such a way that you can have mining and agriculture existing perfectly in harmony. We are finding that this is possible. Secondly, if you can identify an area where you might find a fossil fuel on the surface like coal, then you can dig a bit deeper and find gas. Deeper still and you might find gold. That means that in terms of the valuation and the investment potential, the land is looked at differently, both for the GDP and for the sustainability of life in the province. MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2023/24 44
The geological profile beneath Leandra, Mpumalanga. If you draw a cross-section through Mpumalanga, within the top four kilometres we have found a number of mineral resources and natural resources such as groundwater. Secondly, this is a good natural laboratory where you can study and look into the issue of sustainability. Mpumalanga is also the site of your Carbon Capture Utilisation Storage (CCUS) project. How is that progressing? Mpumalanga has the highest CO2 emissions in the country, which is no surprise because this is where we have the bulk of the coal-fired energy plants. We were challenged as scientists to look at the issue. We have to transition towards a low-carbon economy. This is known. If tomorrow you had to turn off coal what would happen to the 150 000 people directly employed by the coal industry? The challenge is how to manage this transition in a way that actually enables sustainability. This is where the just transition comes in. Council for Geoscience scientists logging borehole core from Mpumalanga. The problem is CO2, carbon dioxide. Technologies exist where you can capture the carbon dioxide. You do not release the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide has many uses. There are a number of things that you can do with the carbon dioxide. Many industrial processes require carbon dioxide: we drink sparkling water, we drink fizzy cooldrinks. Those products use carbon dioxide, for example. We had assumed that South Africa’s larger storage potential for carbon dioxide was generally near-shore, so we were looking at coastal provinces and offshore. That’s because the relevant rocks are very spongy, or absorbent of CO2. Now we have gone back to Mpumalanga and we have looked underground to find if there are additional geological areas where you can viably and safely store the CO2. This is what we have found. We have recently published a paper that shows these rocks could very likely support the injection and sequestration of CO2. Would the gas disappear or would it stay there forever? The idea would be that we take the gas and convert it into a solid. When CO2 reacts with certain metals, it forms a new mineral that just has the carbon incorporated. By the way, this actually happens in nature. We stop the gas from going into the atmosphere, and put it in the ground. It reacts naturally with other types of minerals which are very reactive and then it forms a new mineral and it stays in the ground forever. That is the principle. How far advanced are you along that road? The first step is that we have identified the potential reservoirs. Everything comes down to 45 MPUMALANGA BUSINESS 2023/24
Loading...
Loading...