PNNL

Geological storage of anthropogenic point-source carbon dioxide (CO2) is increasingly viewed as an important strategy for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, and has the potential to be deployed globally in many different regions. Much research has focused on the costs of capture, with the assumption that storage options would be relatively cheap and plentiful while being located in close proximity to future CO2 point sources. However, capture and storage will take place at the local and regional scale and need to compete with other mitigation options that also exhibit local or regional differences. In this paper, the authors provide an initial examination of the consequence of regionally disaggregated demand for and supply of CO2 storage reservoirs within the context of a globally disaggregated, long-term analysis of both the geology and economics of carbon capture and storage. Our preliminary analysis suggests that some regions will see their ability to deploy capture and storage 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 storage capacity to easily carry them through this century. We examined 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 examined the degree to which the relative abundance of CO2 capture and storage opportunities in a region influences the adoption of other emissions mitigation technologies.