Retention of CO2 in Geologic Sequestration Formations: Desirable Levels, Economic Considerations, and the Implications for Sequestration R&D

Publisher Summary Recent modeling efforts strongly suggest that carbon capture and sequestration technologies will begin deploying in the relatively near future and will, by the middle of the century, be a significant aspect of the global energy infrastructure with the technology deploying in virtually every part of the world. Large scale penetration of this technology into the marketplace—perhaps as much as 30% of all climate mitigation by the end of this century could be attributable to this one class of technologies—allows society to significantly control the cost of addressing climate change. There is a growing body of literature that points to the significant potential of carbon capture and sequestration technologies to help society address the challenge posed by climate change. In particular, carbon capture and sequestration appears to be a fundamental key to controlling the costs of addressing climate change. Within this literature, there is also speculation that the retention of CO2 in sequestration reservoirs might be less than 100% effective in isolating CO2 from the atmosphere. The intent of this chapter is to explore tolerable levels of leakage, the economic value of "low or no-leakage" reservoirs to society and industry, and the implications of retention on the design of a near-term R&D portfolio.