From 1964 to 2000, a natural gas processing plant was located at the Ketzin site. Imported natural gas was stored temporarily at 280 m depth, for energy consumption purposes. Therefore, the site is well studied: numerous seismic profiles and boreholes from previous investigations provide information about the geological situation and the physical properties of the geological formations.
From April 2004 to December 2017, research on secure CO2 storage has been carried out at the Ketzin pilot site west of Berlin. All aspects of geological storage were covered here:
Exploration - Installation - Operation - Abandonment.
A main focus at the Ketzin pilot site was reservoir monitoring.
An overview about all Ketzin related research projects can be found here.
Funding: 6th European Research Framework Programme 
With the EU project CO2SINK as a nucleus, the field lab at Ketzin has developed into the first geological CO2 storage project on the European continent. CO2SINK stands for CO2 Storage by Injection into a Natural Saline Aquifer at Ketzin. In total 18 national and international project partners (universities, research institutes and industry representatives) from nine European countries took part in the research.
Objectives of CO2SINK:
Since 2005, CO2 surface-flow measurements have been carried out at twenty measurement points within a 3 km x 3 km radius of the wells (see also figure below).
Because of previous knowledge and later exploratory investigations, three new wells were drilled in 2007 and new infrastructure was built for the CO2 storage. Subsequently, geophyiscal reference measurements, similar to those in 2005, took place in order to characterise the storage reservoir prior to CO2 injection.
CO2 injection started on June 30, 2008. More than 32,000 tons of CO2 were already safely injected by the end of the CO2SINK project. During this time numerous geophysical repeat measurements and geochemical tests were carried out, and the status of the boreholes was checked.
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF
CO2MAN stands for CO2-Reservoirmanagement and this project continues the research at the Ketzin pilot site since September 2010.
Objectives for the CO2MAN research project:
In August 2011 the 446 meters deep well P300 was drilled, that ends above the cap rock and is primarily used for the monitoring of the integrity of this formation. As a further deep observation well the Ktzi 203 was drilled in 2012. These drilling activities aimed at cores, which have been in contact with the injected CO2 for four years. About 90 m rock cores were gained in good quality for furhter investigations.
Within the CO2MAN project a yearly Open House Day was established, too. This event is warmly received by local residents and used to get an idea of the ongoing research on CO2 storage.
Until the end of injection on August 29, 2013 after more than five years of operation in total approx. 67,000 tons were injected into the reservoir (more).
The abandonment of one observation well (Ktzi 202) started at the Ketzin pilot site in September, 2013 by the order of GFZ and will be complemented by well logging (more).
In December 2013 the two tanks, in which the delivered CO2 was temporarily stored, as well as the above-ground facility with ambient air heaters and pumps were dismantled (more).
