Carbon storage: the economic efficiency of storing CO2 in leaky reservoirs

Abstract

Fossil fuels can be used with minimal atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide by capturing and storing the CO 2 away in geologic structures. However, stored CO 2 can leak back to the atmosphere reducing the utility of this technology. To explore the trade-offs between discounting, leakage, the cost of sequestration and the energy penalty (the energy necessary to capture, transport and inject carbon underground), we derive analytic expressions for the value of leaky CO 2 storage compared to perfect storage when storage is a marginal component of the energy system. If the annual leak rate is 1% and the discount rate is 4%, for example, then CO 2 mitigation using leaky storage is worth 80% of mitigation with perfect storage. Using an integrated assessment numerical model (DIAM) to explore the role of leakage when CO 2 storage is non-marginal, we find that a leakage rate of 0.1% is nearly the same as perfect storage while a leakage rate of 0.5% renders storage unattractive. The possibility of capturing CO 2 from the air, not only from flue gases, makes storage with higher leakage rates interesting. Finally, we speculate about the role of imperfect carbon storage in carbon accounting and trading. Carbon storage Original paper

The urgency of the development of CO 2 capture from ambient air

“…Stabilization of atmospheric CO 2 at 450 ppmv cannot be accomplished this century if point sources equipped with CCS keep on emitting at just 10% of their current rates (9). Air capture could also deal with fugitive emissions from the transport and storage stages of CCS and thereby manage the risk of CO 2 leakage from geological storage (10,11).…”

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Nigeria: fundamental science and potential implementation risks

“…Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is considered by many scholars as the separation of CO2 and its capture from mixture of emitted combustion gases, followed by transportation and appropriate storage under the ground, thereby preventing it from entering the atmosphere (Herzog 1997;Ha-Doung & Keith 2003;Anderson & Newell 2003). CCS will best be applied to large stationary emission points like industrial plants and fossil fuels power stations, where CO2 is emitted in large quantities and can be isolated from the emitted flue gases at some important stages.…”

“…Many studies show that the natural underground geological formations can provide adequate carbon dioxide storage for a very long period of time (Ha-Doung & Keith 2003). However, interaction of the acidic gas with the formation and its stored resources can pose serious environmental consequences.…”

On CO2 Behavior in the Subsurface, Following Leakage from aGeologic Storage Reservoir

“…A general consensus appears to be building in the technical community that storage losses should not exceed 0.1 % of inventory per year in order to be acceptable (Pacala, 2003;Hepple and Benson, 2003;Ha-Duong and Keith, 2003). Additional concerns arise from environmental impacts of leaking CO 2 and the associated potential for adverse effects to health and safety.…”