Sequestration Costs Research Articles

Towards carbon neutrality: How much do forest carbon sinks cost in China?

With the implementation of carbon neutrality strategies in China, both carbon emissions reduction and carbon sequestration should be considered. In order to exert the carbon neutrality potential of forest carbon sinks, it is necessary to calculate the cost of them in China. Based on the basic principles of land use opportunity cost and net present value from previous research, this paper constructs a forest carbon sink cost estimation model based on the afforestation cost method. Empirical analysis of the carbon sequestration cost is explored at the city level in China. According to the results, the regional distribution of carbon sink costs varies greatly. On the whole, Southwest China is suitable for afforestation to create carbon sinks since its cost is relatively low. It can obtain carbon benefits from forest carbon sinks projects, while there are higher carbon sink costs in the eastern coastal areas. Furthermore, it dynamically analyzes the impact of the rotation period, timber price, discount rate and afforestation cost on the cost of carbon sinks. The rotation period and afforestation cost have more sensitivity for the forest carbon sink cost. Therefore, it should implement different low-carbon policies in different regions, and encourage forest management to create carbon sinks in areas rich in forest resources. In addition, an inter-regional carbon sink trading mechanism can play the economic value of forest carbon sinks effectively and achieve win-win cooperation between regions.

Costs of forest carbon sequestration in the presence of climate change impacts

Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change, and, at the same time, are predicted to experience large-scale impacts of climate change that will affect the efficiency of forests in mitigation efforts. Projections of future carbon sequestration potential typically do not account for the changing economic costs of timber and agricultural production and land use change. We integrated a dynamic forward-looking economic optimization model of global land use with results from a dynamic global vegetation model and meta-analysis of climate impacts on crop yields to project future carbon sequestration in forests. We find that the direct impacts of climate change on forests, represented by changes in dieback and forest growth, and indirect effects due to lost crop productivity, together result in a net gain of 17 Gt C in aboveground forest carbon storage from 2000 to 2100. Increases in climate-driven forest growth rates will result in an 81%–99% reduction in costs of reaching a range of global forest carbon stock targets in 2100, while the increases in dieback rates are projected to raise the costs by 57%–132%. When combined, these two direct impacts are expected to reduce the global costs of climate change mitigation in forests by more than 70%. Inclusion of the third, indirect impact of climate change on forests through reduction in crop yields, and the resulting expansion of cropland, raises the costs by 11%–38% and widens the uncertainty range. While we cannot rule out the possibility of climate change increasing mitigation costs, the central outcomes of the simultaneous impacts of climate change on forests and agriculture are 64%–86% reductions in the mitigation costs. Overall, the results suggest that concerns about climate driven dieback in forests should not inhibit the ambitions of policy makers in expanding forest-based climate solutions.

Intertemporal allocation and cost of forest carbon sequestration in China under the carbon neutrality target

The situations are complex and variant in the three stages of "carbon emission peak", "rapid reduction of carbon emission" and "deep decarbonization for carbon neutrality" in China's carbon neutralization roadmap. Forest carbon sequestration is an important means to achieve the goal of carbon neutralization in China. Its intertemporal allocation is a vital way to balance industrial emission reduction and forest carbon sequestration, reduce the cost of carbon neutrality, and gradually achieve the goal of carbon neutrality based on optimal cost. Based on the cost optimization allocation theory, we simulated the cost change process of three stages of carbon neutralization in China by quoting the theory of marginal carbon sequestration cost and combining with the existing domestic marginal abatement cost theory. The results showed that annual forest carbon sequestrations with the optimal cost in China was 20 million t, 775 million t and 1.982 billion t respectively in the three stages of "carbon emission peak", "rapid reduction of carbon emission" and "deep decarbonization for carbon neutrality", accounting for 1.8%, 17.5%, and 37.6% of the total emission reduction in each period. Compared with the way relying only on industrial emission reduction, forest carbon sequestration under the optimal cost design reduced the total cost by 48, 79136, and 909253 million US$ in the three stages of carbon neutralization, respectively. Due to the limited cost advantage of forest carbon sequestration, industrial emission reduction should be emphasized in the "carbon emission peak" stage. In the "rapid reduction of carbon emissions" stage, the cost advantage of forest carbon sequestration will be increasingly prominent. In the stage of "deep decarbonization for carbon neutrality", it is necessary to fully exploit the cost advantage of forest carbon sequestration to achieve the goal of "zero carbon" to avoid the risk of high costs, especially for industries with high decarbonization cost or that will never be completely decarbonized. The optimal cost design for forest carbon sequestration can save 988.437 billion US $ in carbon-neutral costs.

Quantifying baseline costs and cataloging potential optimization strategies for kelp aquaculture carbon dioxide removal

To keep global surface warming below 1.5°C by 2100, the portfolio of cost-effective CDR technologies must expand. To evaluate the potential of macroalgae CDR, we developed a kelp aquaculture bio-techno-economic model in which large quantities of kelp would be farmed at an offshore site, transported to a deep water “sink site”, and then deposited below the sequestration horizon (1,000 m). We estimated the costs and associated emissions of nursery production, permitting, farm construction, ocean cultivation, biomass transport, and Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) for a 1,000 acre (405 ha) “baseline” project located in the Gulf of Maine, USA. The baseline kelp CDR model applies current systems of kelp cultivation to deep water (100 m) exposed sites using best available modeling methods. We calculated the levelized unit costs of CO2eq sequestration (LCOC; $ tCO2eq-1). Under baseline assumptions, LCOC was $17,048 tCO2eq-1. Despite annually sequestering 628 tCO2eq within kelp biomass at the sink site, the project was only able to net 244 C credits (tCO2eq) each year, a true sequestration “additionality” rate (AR) of 39% (i.e., the ratio of net C credits produced to gross C sequestered within kelp biomass). As a result of optimizing 18 key parameters for which we identified a range within the literature, LCOC fell to $1,257 tCO2eq-1 and AR increased to 91%, demonstrating that substantial cost reductions could be achieved through process improvement and decarbonization of production supply chains. Kelp CDR may be limited by high production costs and energy intensive operations, as well as MRV uncertainty. To resolve these challenges, R&D must (1) de-risk farm designs that maximize lease space, (2) automate the seeding and harvest processes, (3) leverage selective breeding to increase yields, (4) assess the cost-benefit of gametophyte nursery culture as both a platform for selective breeding and driver of operating cost reductions, (5) decarbonize equipment supply chains, energy usage, and ocean cultivation by sourcing electricity from renewables and employing low GHG impact materials with long lifespans, and (6) develop low-cost and accurate MRV techniques for ocean-based CDR.

Probabilistic net present value analysis for designing techno-economically optimal sequential CO2 sequestration and geothermal energy extraction

The use of CO2 as the heat transmission fluid, increases the efficiency of geothermal energy extraction from low-enthalpy resources such as depletion oil and gas reservoirs. In the resulting so-called CO2 plume geothermal (CPG) systems, the optimal choice of well position and operational parameters represents a strategic decision problem, due to its profound effect on efficiency. Combined simulation–optimization (SO) schemes have been recognized as a valuable tool in making these strategic decisions. Noting that the total lifespan of a CPG system consists of a ‘sequestration’ and a ‘circulation’ stage, past CPG SO studies only focus on the circulation stage, assuming that the reservoir is initially saturated with CO2. Hence they neglect the realistic state of the reservoir following CO2 sequestration, ignore brine-based power generation, and either neglect the sequestration costs or assume that the sequestration costs are part of the fixed initial investment. This study aims to fill this gap by developing a SO algorithm that takes into account both the sequestration and circulation stages of a CPG system lifespan in choosing optimal well location and operations. We frame the problem as a probabilistic risk-minimization scheme to allow for the consideration of geological uncertainty, and solve it through the combined application of a multi-phase numerical model, artificial neural networks, and a hybrid Monte Carlo-genetic algorithm method. Under this context, we successfully minimize the probability of having a negative net present value from the operation. We also examine the influence of economic factors on the profitability of the proposed system, and show that the net CO2 storage income is the economic variable that most affects the risk of non-profitability. Our case study involves a homogeneous, fault-blocked, inclined thin formation that is commonly present in oil and gas fields, but has been the subject of a very limited number of CPG studies.

Marginal cost of carbon sequestration through forest afforestation of agricultural land in the southeastern United States

AbstractOne tool to mitigate climate change is to sequester carbon through changes in land use. The purpose of this study is to analyze the cost‐effectiveness of carbon sequestration through afforestation of cropland via the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in the United States. We use the correlated random effects (CRE) probit model to estimate the impact of an increase in the CRP rental payments on land use transitions between cropland and forest. Our estimates are used to simulate land use change and carbon sequestration supply curves over different time horizons. Increasing the CRP rent to reflect the social cost of carbon of $154/tonne of carbon increases annual carbon sequestered by 7.42 million tonnes, 23.58 million tonnes, and 34.96 million tonnes over 1, 5, and 10‐year horizons.

Opportunity Costs of Forest Conservation in Nepal

Forest biomass may vary by species composition, location, management regimes, and management interventions. To assess the variation in biomass production by management regimes, we conducted a study in three physiographic regions (mid-hills, Siwaliks and Terai) of Nepal with four different management regimes (community forest, collaborative forest, protected area, and protected forest). As community forest is the dominant forest management regime in Nepal, it was studied in all physiographic regions whereas the other two regimes were drawn only from the Terai. We interviewed a total of 1,115 forest user households, which was supplemented by high-resolution satellite image analysis and forest inventory to estimate the costs and benefits of forest management and calculate the opportunity cost of conserving forest. Our estimates suggest that the opportunity cost of conserving forest in Nepal ranged from USD 654/ha in collaborative forest to USD 3,663/ha in protected forest in 2015. The associated opportunity cost of carbon sequestration was between USD 1.11 and USD 3.56 per tCO2. Of the forest management practices adopted, the silviculture-based intensive forest management practice had a far lower cost of forest conservation compared to the other forest management regimes. We found that such a practice is more beneficial to the forest-dependent communities as it allows them to collect the non-timber forest products that are necessary for their daily needs.

Speed of technological transformations required in Europe to achieve different climate goals

Europe's contribution to global warming will be determined by the cumulative emissions until climate neutrality is achieved. In this paper, we investigate alternative transition paths under carbon budgets corresponding to temperature increases between 1.5 and 2C. We use PyPSA-Eur-Sec, an open model of the sector-coupled European energy system with high spatial and temporal resolution. All the paths entail similar technological transformations, but the timing of the scale-up of important technologies like water electrolysis, carbon capture and hydrogen networks differs in the model. In our results, solar PV, onshore and offshore wind become the cornerstone of a net-zero energy system enabling the decarbonisation of other sectors via direct electrification (e.g. heat pumps and electric vehicles) or indirect electrification (e.g. using synthetic fuels). Under the cost and performance assumptions applied, for a social cost of carbon (SCC) of 120EUR/tCO2, transition paths under 1.5 and 1.6C budgets are, respectively, 8%, and 1% more expensive than the 2C-budget because building assets earlier costs more. These pathways also see a faster ramp-up of new technologies before 2035. Under these assumptions, the 1.5C-budget is cost-optimal in our model, if SCC of at least 300 EUR/tCO2 is considered. Moreover, we discuss the strong implications of the SCC and discount rate assumed when comparing alternative paths. We also analyse the consequences of different assumptions on the cost and potential of CO2 sequestration.

A Geospatial Cost Comparison of CO2 Plume Geothermal (CPG) Power and Geologic CO2 Storage

CO2 Plume Geothermal (CPG) power plants can use gigatonne-levels of CO2 sequestration to generate electricity, but it is unknown if the resources that support low-cost CPG power align with the resources that support low-cost CO2 sequestration. Here, we estimate and compare the geospatially-distributed cost of CPG and CO2 storage across a portion of North America. We find that the locations with lowest-cost CO2 storage are different than the locations with lowest-cost CPG. There are also locations with low-cost CO2 storage (<$5/tCO2) that do not support CPG power generation due to insufficient reservoir transmissivity or temperature. Thus, CPG development may require electricity prices that are greater than the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to offset the increased cost of sequestration. We introduce the “Additional Cost of Electricity (ACOE)” metric to account for this cost and add it to the LCOE to calculate breakeven electricity prices that are required for CPG development. We find that breakeven prices are lower when new CO2 injection wells are drilled specifically for CPG (i.e., “greenfield” CPG development) compared to if only existing CO2 sequestration injection wells are used (i.e., “brownfield” CPG development). This is because comparatively few wells are needed for sequestration-only, and the increased power capacity from having more CPG wells outweighs the increased costs from more drilling. We also find that sequestered CO2 could be used to approximately triple the United States geothermal electricity power capacity via a single CPG “sweet spot” in South Dakota, but that breakeven electricity price for this development is on the order of $200/MWeh.

China actively promotes CO2 capture, utilization and storage research to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality

China actively promotes CO2 capture, utilization and storage research to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality

A global analysis of the break-even prices to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide via forest plantation and avoided deforestation

A cross-country assessment of the cost of carbon sequestration in the forest sector is needed for planning and achieving climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement, at global, regional, national, or sectoral scales. We provide a global and bottom-up assessment of the break-even carbon price to undertake forest plantation and forest conservation at a country level for 166 nations. We construct a global dataset of key cost factors, examine their global distributions, and undertake a cross-country assessment of cost differences with alternative forest programs (plantation and conservation). Our bottom-up approach is also calibrated to sub-national case studies to investigate the average cost of forest carbon in Australian states and Canadian provinces. We find that the break-even carbon price varies by countries, locations within a country, forest programs and co-benefits. Our estimates provide an approximation of the cost-effectiveness of forest carbon sequestration relative to non-forest climate mitigation approaches.

Trade‐off mediated by pyrrolizidine alkaloids predicts alternative reproductive tactics in ithomiine butterflies

1. Trade‐offs between male mating success and survival are the basis of alternative male reproductive tactics.2. Adult male Greta morgane butterflies acquire protective pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs) from plants and use PA‐derived pheromones to attract females. Adult females acquire PAs from male spermatophores, thereby obtaining chemical defence against predation while avoiding costs of PA toxicity and sequestration.3. We found that males that fed longer on PA‐containing plants were more successful at mating, but males fed a diet containing PAs had a shorter lifespan than males fed a diet without PAs. Together, these results demonstrate a trade‐off between survival and reproduction in relation to male feeding behaviour.4. As predicted by the alternative reproductive tactics hypothesis, we found that some males fed preferentially on PA‐containing plants while others specialised on PA‐free plants.

Afforestation for carbon sequestration in the Lower Mississippi River Basin of Arkansas, USA: Does modeling of land use at fine spatial resolution reveal lower carbon cost?

We use optimization of a structural dynamic model to evaluate the cost of carbon sequestration when afforestation subsidies are used to encourage private landowners to switch from cropland to forestry. Our model allows for the planting of either softwood or hardwood forest types with flexible rotation lengths, in addition to irrigated crops. We apply the model to a portion of the Lower Mississippi River Basin in Arkansas where groundwater overdraft lowers the profitability of irrigated crops. In our baseline model with a 5% discount rate, a subsidy for afforestation from $1000 to $4500 per acre increases pine plantings, aquifer volume, and carbon sequestration above the levels without a subsidy. The average cost to sequester a ton of carbon increases from $13 ($3.55 per ton CO2eq) at the lowest subsidy to $36 ($9.84 per ton CO2eq) at the highest. Lower costs are achievable when soybeans are prominent on the landscape and high costs result when rice and corn dominate. Reducing the discount rate from 5% to 2% changes the afforestation type from fast growing softwoods to slow growing hardwoods, and this substantially lowers the cost of carbon sequestration. Delaying the implementation of an afforestation subsidy until irrigation costs rise from groundwater scarcity will increase the costs of carbon sequestration because many landowners will choose forest types with longer rotations without a subsidy. A carbon credit scheme leads to only afforestation by no harvest hardwoods.

Diffusion coefficients of CO2–SO2–water and CO2–N2–water systems and their impact on the CO2 sequestration process: Molecular dynamics and dissolution process simulations

AbstractThe high cost of the CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers is a barrier to the implementation of them. However, a large portion of the cost is invested to purify and transport the CO2 from the flue gas stream of the emission sources. Therefore, the possibility of injecting impure CO2 will reduce the costs strongly. The diffusion coefficient is an important factor that plays a significant role in different aspects of the process. In spite of its importance, it is got less attention due to complex experimental procedures and low range of temperature and pressure applicability in the experimental conditions. To shed light on the effects of the impurity on the diffusion coefficient of CO2‐water systems, two types of impurities (SO2 and N2) in two levels are considered in this study through the molecular dynamics simulation approach. Simulations are done on a wide range of pressure and temperature conditions to cover a wide range of operational conditions for CO2 sequestration projects. The outcomes of these simulations were used in the direct numerical simulations to analyze the effect of the diffusion coefficient matrix changes on the CO2 dissolution process such as dissolution flux, the motion and shape of convective fingers, and their patterns. Results indicate that impurity has a great impact on the diffusion coefficient, and consequently on the CO2 dissolution behavior. We hope that reported results will pave the way for future studies regarding impure CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Market Costs and Financing Options for Grassland Carbon Sequestration: Empirical and Modelling Evidence From Qinghai, China

Asia’s grasslands provide livelihoods for some of the region’s poorest people. Widespread grassland degradation reduces the resilience and returns to herding livelihoods. Reversing degradation and conserving grasslands could not only improve herders’ situation, but also make a huge contribution to mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon in soils. However, the means for reaching each of these objectives are not necessarily the same. To realize this potentially huge dual livelihood/climate change mitigation outcome from improved grassland management, it is necessary to have detailed understanding of the processes involved in securing better livelihoods and sequestering carbon. Based on household surveys on the Tibetan Plateau and modeling results, this study estimates economic and market costs of grassland carbon sequestration, and analyzes the implications of household and carbon project cash flows for the design of financing options. Five scenarios are modeled involving cultivation of grass on severely degraded grassland (all scenarios) and reduced grazing intensity on less degraded land, which requires destocking by 29, 38, 47, 56, and 65% in each scenario). Modeling results suggest that economic benefits for herders are positive at low levels of destocking, and negative at high levels of destocking, but initial investments and opportunity costs are significant barriers to adoption for households in all destocking scenarios. Existing rural finance products are not suitable for herders to finance the necessary investments. Market costs–the cost at which transactions between herders and carbon project developers are feasible–depend on the scale of project implementation but are high compared to recent carbon market prices. Large initial investments increase project developers’ financing costs and risk, so co-financing of initial investments by government would be necessary. Therefore, public policies to support grassland carbon sequestration should consider the potential roles of a range of financial instruments.

Technoeconomic analysis for hydrogen and carbon Co-Production via catalytic pyrolysis of methane

Catalytic Methane Pyrolysis (CMP) is an innovative method to convert gaseous methane into valuable H2 and carbon products. The catalytic approach to methane pyrolysis has the potential to decrease the required operating temperature for methane decomposition from >1000 °C to under 700 °C. In this work, a novel inexpensive catalyst is discussed that displays low operating temperatures, while still maintaining high reactivity and long proven lifetimes. The kinetics associated with the catalyst's performance are modeled and a correlation was developed for use with practical simulation tools. A techno-economic assessment was conducted applying experimentally determined kinetics for the CMP reaction with the specific catalyst. Two process concepts that utilize CMP using the novel catalyst are presented in this work. Optimizations were considered in these processes and the CO2 emissions and cost of hydrogen production of the two optimized cases, CMP with H2 combustion (CMP-H2) and CMP with CH4 Combustion (CMP-CH4), are compared to that of the current industrial standard for hydrogen production, Steam Methane Reforming with carbon capture and sequestration (SMR-CCS). Both of the proposed concepts convert methane into gaseous hydrogen and valuable carbon products, graphitic carbon to carbon Nano fibers. The carbon price was treated as a variable to determine the sensitivity of hydrogen production cost to the carbon price. The analysis indicates that cost of hydrogen production is highly dependent on the recovery and sale of carbon byproducts. Based on Aspen modeling of these two concepts for large scale hydrogen production (216 tons/day), the cost of hydrogen production, without considering carbon sales, was estimated to be $<3.25/kg, assuming a natural gas price of $7/MMBTU and conservative catalyst cost of $8/kg. Assuming 100% recovery of carbon, the price can be reduced to $0/kg by selling the carbon at <$1/kg. A market assessment suggests that values of graphitic carbon and carbon fibers range from ~$10/kg and ~$25–113/kg, respectively. The cost of H2 production via conventional SMR is ~$2.2/kg when accounting for the cost of CO2 sequestration. The proposed processes produce a maximum of 0–2 kg CO2/kg H2 in contrast to the 10 kg CO2/kg H2 produced via conventional SMR-CCS. The process displays an enormous potential for competitive economics accompanied by reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Cardenolides, toxicity, and the costs of sequestration in the coevolutionary interaction between monarchs and milkweeds

For highly specialized insect herbivores, plant chemical defenses are often co-opted as cues for oviposition and sequestration. In such interactions, can plants evolve novel defenses, pushing herbivores to trade off benefits of specialization with costs of coping with toxins? We tested how variation in milkweed toxins (cardenolides) impacted monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) growth, sequestration, and oviposition when consuming tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica), one of two critical host plants worldwide. The most abundant leaf toxin, highly apolar and thiazolidine ring-containing voruscharin, accounted for 40% of leaf cardenolides, negatively predicted caterpillar growth, and was not sequestered. Using whole plants and purified voruscharin, we show that monarch caterpillars convert voruscharin to calotropin and calactin in vivo, imposing a burden on growth. As shown by in vitro experiments, this conversion is facilitated by temperature and alkaline pH. We next employed toxin-target site experiments with isolated cardenolides and the monarch's neural Na+/K+-ATPase, revealing that voruscharin is highly inhibitory compared with several standards and sequestered cardenolides. The monarch's typical >50-fold enhanced resistance to cardenolides compared with sensitive animals was absent for voruscharin, suggesting highly specific plant defense. Finally, oviposition was greatest on intermediate cardenolide plants, supporting the notion of a trade-off between benefits and costs of sequestration for this highly specialized herbivore. There is apparently ample opportunity for continued coevolution between monarchs and milkweeds, although the diffuse nature of the interaction, due to migration and interaction with multiple milkweeds, may limit the ability of monarchs to counteradapt.

Outlook for the coal industry and new coal production technologies

Outlook for the coal industry and new coal production technologies

Impacts of Low-Carbon Targets and Hydrogen Production Alternatives on Energy Supply System Transition: An Infrastructure-Based Optimization Approach and a Case Study of China

Low-carbon transition pathways oriented from different transition targets would result in a huge variation of energy system deployment and transition costs. Hydrogen is widely considered as an imperative energy carrier to reach carbon neutral targets. However, hydrogen production, either from non-fossil power or fossil fuels with carbon capture, is closely linked with an energy supply system and has great impacts on its structure. Identifying an economically affordable transition pathway is attractive, and energy infrastructure is critical due to massive investment and long life-span. In this paper, a multi-regional, multi-period, and infrastructure-based model is proposed to quantify energy supply system transition costs with different low-carbon targets and hydrogen production alternatives, and China is taken as a case study. Results show that, fulfilling 2-degree and 1.5-degree temperature increase targets would result in 84% and 151% increases in system transition costs, 114% and 246% increases in infrastructure investment, and 211% and 339% increases in stranded investment, compared to fulfilling stated policy targets. Producing hydrogen from coal would be economical when carbon capture and sequestration cost is lower than 437 yuan per tonne, and reduce infrastructure investment and stranded coal investment by 16% and 35% respectively, than producing hydrogen from renewable power.

Could China meet its emission reduction goal by CO2-EOR

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss opportunities for pairing the carbon dioxide (CO2) points of supply from stationary sources such as power plants, steel and cement production, coal to liquid plants and refineries, with potential oil reservoirs in China.Design/methodology/approachThis study builds a linear optimization model to analyze the tradeoffs in developing CO2-enhance oil recovery (EOR) projects in China for a range of policy options to match points of supply with the points of demand (oil fields). The model works on optimizing CO2 application costs by meeting four principal components; CO2 storage, CO2 capture, transport costs and additional oil recovery.FindingsThis study reveals new opportunities and economic sources to feed CO2-EOR applications and offers reasonable options to supply CO2 for potential points of demand. Furthermore, power plants and coal to liquid industries had the most significant and economic contributions to potential CO2-EOR projects in China. Total annual emission reduction is expected to be 10% (based on 10 Gton annual emissions). The emission reductions and potential CO2 storage from the different industries as follow; 94% from power plants, 4% from biofuel and 2% from coal to liquid plants.Social implicationsCarbon capture and storage (CCS) is one practice aiming to reduce the amounts of anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere and reduce the related social costs. However, given the relatively high cost associated with this practice, coupling it with EOR could offer a significant financial incentive to facilitate the development of CCS projects and meet climate change objectives.Originality/valueThe model used in this study can be straightforwardly adapted to any geographic location where industry and policymakers are looking to simultaneously reduce CO2 emissions while increasing hydrocarbon recovery. The model is highly adaptable to local values in the parameters considered and to include additional local considerations such as geographic variation in capture costs, taxes and premiums to be placed on CO2 capture in so-called “non-attainment zones” where pollution capture make could make a project politically and economically viable. Regardless of how and where this model is applied, it is apparent that CO2 from industrial sources has substantial potential value as a coproduct that offsets its sequestration costs using existing, commercially available CO2-EOR technology, once sources and sinks are optimally paired.