RECS: How to determine the best sites for CO2 storage

This week we’ll be attending the Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) – a 10-day program that advances scientific research and professional training in the field of carbon capture and storage (CCS).

When it comes to the capture and safe storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), it’s important to learn about geology and permeability.

Research is underway all over the world to determine the best sites for the safe storage of CO2. At RECS, our team has heard a lot from scientists about permeability (the ability of fluids to flow through rock), which is measured in units called millidarcies.

As we’ve said, the National Energy Technology Laboratory estimates that North America has enough storage capacity at our current rate of production for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide. This storage capacity is located deep underground across the continent in varying types of geological formations – including unmineable coal seams and oil and gas reservoirs.

This week at RECS, we listened to Travis McLing, a research scientist and carbon sequestration technical lead at the Idaho National Laboratory. Later, Dr. Mark Holtz of Praxair talked about enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and carbon storage optimization.

We also talked with Dr. Michael Celia of Princeton University who studies “injectivity and leakage” in CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers. That is, it’s important to make sure geology can handle the rate at which the CO2 is injected—as well as to ensure that the CO2 does not leak out.

Here's what Dr. Celia had to say:

Sometimes people forget, but Basin Electric Power’s North Dakota-Weyburn project has been capturing CO2 for nearly a decade – the project involves sending the CO2 to an oil field in Saskatchewan for enhanced oil recovery.

And as the sessions so far have proven, there are other possibilities for carbon sequestration, with talented minds working on ways to ensure that we have the safe, effective storage of CO2 that we need.