USGS releases first "realistic view" of carbon storage capacity
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that in 2011, the United States emitted 5.5 metric gigatons (billion metric tons) of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2), while the global emissions of energy-related CO2 totaled 31.6 metric gigatons. The potential exists for the United States to store an average 3,000 (but up to 3,700) metric gigatons of CO2 in geologic basins throughout the country, according research by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) -- the first-ever detailed national geologic carbon sequestration assessment, which comes on the heels of President Obama's national plan to combat climate change.
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| Caption: Schematic
showing both terrestrial and geological sequestration of
carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired plant. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/LeJean Hardin and Jamie Payne |
"This USGS research is ground-breaking because it is the first realistic view of technically accessible carbon storage capacity in these basins," said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. "If enough of this capacity also proves to be environmentally and economically viable, then geologic carbon sequestration could help us reduce carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change."
Based on present-day geologic and hydrologic knowledge of the subsurface and current engineering practices, the assessment looked at the potential for CO2 storage in 36 basins in the United States. The largest potential is in the Coastal Plains region, which accounts for 65 percent of the storage potential. The Alaska region and the Rocky Mountains and Northern Great Plains region also hold significant storage capacity.
Technically accessible storage resources can be accessed using today's technology and pressurization and injection techniques, the most common being pressurizing CO2 gas into a liquid, and then injecting it into subsurface rock layers for long-term storage. Although the scope of sequestration included in this assessment is unprecedented, injecting CO2 into geologic formations is not a new process or technology. Carbon dioxide injection has been one method of enhanced oil recovery since the 1980s. The process works by flooding the oil reservoir with liquid CO2, which reduces the viscosity of the hydrocarbons and allows them to flow to the well more easily.
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