Chapter 4: Geological Carbon Sequestration
Book
·
OSTI ID:902358
Carbon sequestration is the long term isolation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through physical, chemical, biological, or engineered processes. The largest potential reservoirs for storing carbon are the deep oceans and geological reservoirs in the earth's upper crust. This chapter focuses on geological sequestration because it appears to be the most promising large-scale approach for the 2050 timeframe. It does not discuss ocean or terrestrial sequestration. In order to achieve substantial GHG reductions, geological storage needs to be deployed at a large scale. For example, 1 Gt C/yr (3.6 Gt CO{sub 2}/yr) abatement, requires carbon capture and storage (CCS) from 600 large pulverized coal plants ({approx}1000 MW each) or 3600 injection projects at the scale of Statoil's Sleipner project. At present, global carbon emissions from coal approximate 2.5 Gt C. However, given reasonable economic and demand growth projections in a business-as-usual context, global coal emissions could account for 9 Gt C. These volumes highlight the need to develop rapidly an understanding of typical crustal response to such large projects, and the magnitude of the effort prompts certain concerns regarding implementation, efficiency, and risk of the enterprise. The key questions of subsurface engineering and surface safety associated with carbon sequestration are: (1) Subsurface issues: (a) Is there enough capacity to store CO{sub 2} where needed? (b) Do we understand storage mechanisms well enough? (c) Could we establish a process to certify injection sites with our current level of understanding? (d) Once injected, can we monitor and verify the movement of subsurface CO{sub 2}? (2) Near surface issues: (a) How might the siting of new coal plants be influenced by the distribution of storage sites? (b) What is the probability of CO{sub 2} escaping from injection sites? What are the attendant risks? Can we detect leakage if it occurs? (3) Will surface leakage negate or reduce the benefits of CCS? Importantly, there do not appear to be unresolvable open technical issues underlying these questions. Of equal importance, the hurdles to answering these technical questions well appear manageable and surmountable. As such, it appears that geological carbon sequestration is likely to be safe, effective, and competitive with many other options on an economic basis. This chapter explains the technical basis for these statements, and makes recommendations about ways of achieving early resolution of these broad concerns.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 902358
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-BOOK-222206
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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