HR: 1330h
AN: GC32A-0198    [PDF]
TI: The Global Distribution of Candidate Geological CO2 Reservoirs and Their Economic Implications for Deployment of Carbon Capture Technology
AU: * Friedmann, J
EM: juliof@geol.umd.edu
AF: Univ. of Maryland, Dept. of Geological Sciences, College Park, MD 20742-4211 United States
AU: Edmonds, J A
EM: jae@pnl.gov
AF: Joint Global Change Research Institute Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the Univ. of Maryland, 8400 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 201, College Park, MD 20740-2496 United States
AU: Dooley, J J
EM: jj.dooley@pnl.gov
AF: Joint Global Change Research Institute Battelle, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory at the Univ. of Maryland, 8400 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 201, College Park, MD 20740-2496 United States
AB: Geological storage of anthropogenic point-source CO2 is an increasingly important strategy for mitigation of greenhouse-gas emissions. Much research has focused on the costs of capture, with the assumption that storage options would be relatively cheap, plentiful and would be located in close proximity to future CO2 point sources. But, capture and disposal will take place at the local and regional scale and it must compete with other mitigation options. In this paper we provide an initial examination of the consequence of regionally disaggregated sources and sinks of carbon within the context of a globally disaggregated, long-term analysis of both the geology and the economics of carbon capture and disposal. In our analysis, we assume that large volume CO2 point sources will seek to sequester their CO2 in regional reservoirs. We consider sedimentary basins on land and continental shelves. We examine options for saline aquifer, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and coal storage based on calculated volumes and costs. Shelf and land options are treated as separate options, and very deep saline aquifers are also treated separately. Sedimentary basins are counted as targets broadly, while cratonal areas are excluded. Within basins, pore-volume estimates are made for targets below the critical point of CO2 assuming typical crustal heat flux and lithostatic pressure. By subdividing the globe into 14 economic provinces as defined by the MiniCAM energy and economic integrated assessment model, we are able to make regional estimates of sequestration loads (i.e., the amount of carbon needing to be sequestered in any time period) and the economic implications of this the degree to which there these candidate reservoirs are available in the region. Our preliminary analysis suggests that some regions will see their ability to deploy capture and disposal systems constrained by a lack of quality target reservoirs relative to major sources and population centers in that region, while other regions appear to have sufficient disposal capacity to easily carry them through this century. We examine the regional and global economic implications of the distribution of these sources and sinks in meeting various potential limits to CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. We also examine the degree to which the relative abundance of CO2 capture and disposal opportunities in a region influences the adoption of other emissions mitigation technologies.
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1694 Instruments and techniques
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting