CO2 Interim storage: Technical characteristics and potential role in CO2 market development

Abstract

Abstract In the absence of legislation that imposes a price on CO 2 emissions, few significant economic incentives currently exist for largescale commercial application of CO 2 Capture and Storage (CCS). A novel technique, currently under development, shows potential to add value to sequestered CO 2 , promote its utilization, and bridge the gap between its supply and demand, thus allowing the development of fully-integrated and reliable CO 2 market. This technique is referred to as “ CO 2 Interim Storage”, or briefly, CIS. CIS involves storing CO 2 for a finite period of time to be subsequently utilized in CO 2 Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and potentially other industrial processes. The feasibility of CO 2 storage is assessed based on three major variables: The distance between CO 2 source and storage medium, the general trend of CO 2 storage in and delivery from the storage medium (primarily governed by the market dynamics of supply and demand), as well as the frequency of CO 2 injection into and extraction from the storage medium. The importance of CIS as a major tool for CO 2 market and infrastructure development becomes clear upon comparing this new technology to the widely implemented underground natural gas (NG) storage and assessing its role in energy hybridization and in meeting variable and localized CO 2 demand. In this study, the flow of CO 2 in underground storage reservoirs is numerically simulated to provide general analysis of the technical aspects associated with varying CO 2 injection rates. The simulations show that the CO 2 plume and pressure buildup profiles are comparable for constant and variable injection rates. Also, in the cases of variable injection, the pressure variation dampens as injection proceeds with time. In addition, a casestudy is conducted in which CIS is implemented to meet the CO 2 demand for EOR operations in the state of Wyoming from CO 2 emissions of in-state coal power plants. This is achieved via modeling an integrated source-sink CO 2 network. The results show that the economic attractiveness of the project is dependent on the availability of CO 2 , the distance between CO 2 sources, interim storage sites, and sinks, as well as the price and demand of CO 2 for EOR.