Nottingham - University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is one of the UK’s leading higher education institutions, with over 35,000 students from 143 nations, more than 6,700 members of staff and a long history of excellence in teaching. The University’s research mission is distinctive and internationally renowned, with strength in knowledge transfer and interaction with industry. The 2007 Research Assessment Exercise rated 90% of all research at Nottingham of an 'international standard' and 60% as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent', ranking Nottingham in the Top 7 of all British universities by research power.

The primary role of the University of Nottingham will be to lead Work package 3.2, which involves establishing a programme of field measurements at a controlled onshore leakage site (ASGARD). The ASGARD facility (Artificial Soil Gassing and Response Detection) was established in 2006 to simulate the elevated soil CO₂ concentrations that might be caused by a CCS leak. The design of the facility is a development of that used in the successful previous PRESENSE investigation of the impact of pipeline natural gas leaks on overlying vegetation (EU contract no. ENK6-CT2001-00553). The ASGARD site has been used for studies on the detectability of CO₂ leaks by remote sensing of plant stress, carbon isotope ratios as a discriminator of fossil-fuel from natural CO₂, changes in biodiversity, sensitivities of various species and responses of plant root systems to CO₂. Results to date demonstrate the facility’s ability to control CO₂ in soil and confirm the detectability of leaks both by plant responses and by isotope analysis.