The potential for large-scale, subsurface geological CO2 storage in Denmark

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is increasingly considered to be a tool that can significantly reduce the emission of CO2. It is viewed as a technology that can contribute to a substantial, global reduction of emitted CO2 within the timeframe that seems available for mitigating the effects of present and continued emission. In order to develop the CCS method the European Union (EU) has supported research programmes for more than a decade, which focus on capture techniques, transport and geological storage. The results of the numerous research projects on geological storage are summarised in a comprehensive best practice manual outlining guidelines for storage in saline aquifers (Chadwick et al. 2008). A detailed directive for geological storage is under implementation (European Commission 2009), and the EU has furthermore established a programme for supporting the development of more than ten large-scale demonstration plants throughout Europe. Geological investigations show that suitable storage sites are present in most European countries. In Denmark initial investigations conducted by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and private companies indicate that there is significant storage potential at several locations in the subsurface

A multidisciplinary study of a geothermal reservoir below Thisted, Denmark

The first geothermal plant in Denmark was established in 1984 near the town of Thisted (Fig. 1). For nearly 30 years the plant has successfully produced c. 43°C hot water (surface temperature) from a highly permeable sandstone reservoir in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Gassum Formation and used the heat from the geothermal water for district heating. The 45°C hot water (formation temperature) is pumped up from a vertical production well, Thisted-2, from a depth of c. 1250 m and the cooled water (c. 12°C) is re-injected into the formation through a vertical injection well, Thisted-3, located 1.5 km east of the production well

Increased CSF-decorin predicts brain pathological changes driven by Alzheimer's A beta amyloidosis

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers play an important role in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease (AD) which is characterized by amyloid-beta (A beta) amyloidosis. Here, we used two App knock-in mouse models, App(NL-F/NL-F) and App(NL-G-F/NL-G-F), exhibiting AD-like A beta pathology to analyze how the brain pathologies translate to CSF proteomes by label-free mass spectrometry (MS). This identified several extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins as significantly altered in App knock-in mice. Next, we compared mouse CSF proteomes with previously reported human CSF MS results acquired from patients across the AD spectrum. Intriguingly, the ECM protein decorin was similarly and significantly increased in both App(NL-F/NL-F) and App(NL-G-F/NL-G-F) mice, strikingly already at three months of age in the App(NL-F/NL-F) mice and preclinical AD subjects having abnormal CSF-A beta 42 but normal cognition. Notably, in this group of subjects, CSF-decorin levels positively correlated with CSF-A beta 42 levels indicating that the change in CSF-decorin is associated with early A beta amyloidosis. Importantly, receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that CSF-decorin can predict a specific AD subtype having innate immune activation and potential choroid plexus dysfunction in the brain. Consistently, in App(NL-F/NL-F) mice, increased CSF-decorin correlated with both AP plaque load and with decorin levels in choroid plexus. In addition, a low concentration of human A beta 42 induces decorin secretion from mouse primary neurons. Interestingly, we finally identify decorin to activate neuronal autophagy through enhancing lysosomal function. Altogether, the increased CSF-decorin levels occurring at an early stage of A beta amyloidosis in the brain may reflect pathological changes in choroid plexus, present in a subtype of AD subjects