• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.217-246
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• 2018

During the selection and characterization of target formations in the Small-scale Offshore $CO_2$ Storage Demonstration Project in the Pohang Basin, we have carefully investigated the possibility of induced earthquakes and leakage of $CO_2$ during the injection, and have designed the storage processes to minimize these effects. However, people in Pohang city have a great concern on $CO_2$-injection-intrigued seismicity, since they have greatly suffered from the 5.4 magnitude earthquake on Nov. 15, 2017. The research team of the project performed an extensive self-investigation on the safety issues, especially on the possible $CO_2$ leakage from the target formation and induced earthquakes. The target formation is 10 km apart from the epicenter of the Pohang earthquake and the depth is also quite shallow, only 750 to 800 m from the sea bottom. The project performed a pilot injection in the target formation from Jan. 12 to Mar. 12, 2017, which implies that there are no direct correlation of the Pohang earthquake on Nov. 15, 2017. In addition, the $CO_2$ injection of the storage project does not fracture rock formations, instead, the supercritical $CO_2$ fluid replaces formation water in the pore space gradually. The self-investigation results show that there is almost no chance for the injection to induce significant earthquakes unless injection lasts for a very long time to build a very high pore pressure, which can be easily monitored. The amount of injected $CO_2$ in the project was around 100 metric-tonne that is irrelevant to the Pohang earthquake. The investigation result on long-term safety also shows that the induced earthquakes or the reactivation of existing faults can be prevented successfully when the injection pressure is controlled not to demage cap-rock formation nor exceed Coulomb stresses of existing faults. The project has been performing extensive studies on critical stress for fracturing neighboring formations, reactivation stress of existing faults, well-completion processes to minimize possible leakage, transport/leakage monitoring of injected $CO_2$, and operation procedures for ensuring the storage safety. These extensive studies showed that there will be little chance in $CO_2$ leakage that affects human life. In conclusion, the Small-scale Offshore $CO_2$ Storage Demonstration Project in the Pohang Basin would not cause any induced earthquakes nor signifiant $CO_2$ leakage that people can sense. The research team will give every effort to secure the safety of the storage site.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.189-196
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• 2003

In this study, the vertical opening of the non-float midwater pair trawl net was maintained by controlling the length of upper warp. This was because the head rope was able to be kept linearly and the working depth was not nearly as changed with the variation of flow speed as former experiments in this series of studies have demonstrated. We confirmed that the opening efficiency of the non-float midwater pair trawl net was able to be developed according to the increase in front weight and wing-end weight. In this study, we described the opening efficiency of the non-float midwater pair trawl net according to the variation of front weight and wing-end weight obtained by model experiment in circulation water channel. We compared the opening efficiency of the proto type with that of the non-float type. The results obtained can be summarized as follows：1. The hydrodynamic resistance was almost increased linearly in proportion to the flow speed and was increased in accordance with the increase in front weight and wing-end weight. The increasing rate of hydrodynamic resistance was displayed as an increasing tendency in accordance with the increase in flow speed. 2. The net height of the non-float type was almost decreased linearly in accordance with the increase in flow speed. As the reduced rate of the net height of the non-float type was smaller than that of the net height of the proto type against increase of flow speed, the net height of the non-float type was bigger than that of the proto type over 4.0 knot. The net width of the non-float type was about 10 m bigger than that of the proto type and the change rate of net width varied by no more than 2 m according to the variation of the front weight and wing-end weight. 3. The mouth area of the non-float type was maximized at 1.75 ton of the front weight and 1.11 ton of the wing-end weight, and was smaller than that of the proto type at 2.0∼3.0 knot, but was bigger than that of the proto type at 4.0∼5.0 knot. 4. The filtering volume was maximized at 3.0 knot in the proto type and at 4.0 knot in the non-float type. The optimal front weight was 1.40 ton.