The impact of geologic variability on capacity and cost estimates for storing CO 2 in deep-saline aquifers

Eccles, JK

Pratson, L

Newell, RG

Jackson, RB

2013-04-18T14:18:51Z

2012-09-01

While numerous studies find that deep-saline sandstone aquifers in the United States could store many decades worth of the nation's current annual CO 2 emissions, the likely cost of this storage (i.e. the cost of storage only and not capture and transport costs) has been harder to constrain. We use publicly available data of key reservoir properties to produce geo-referenced rasters of estimated storage capacity and cost for regions within 15 deep-saline sandstone aquifers in the United States. The rasters reveal the reservoir quality of these aquifers to be so variable that the cost estimates for storage span three orders of magnitude and average>$100/tonne CO 2. However, when the cost and corresponding capacity estimates in the rasters are assembled into a marginal abatement cost curve (MACC), we find that ~75% of the estimated storage capacity could be available for<$2/tonne. Furthermore, ~80% of the total estimated storage capacity in the rasters is concentrated within just two of the aquifers-the Frio Formation along the Texas Gulf Coast, and the Mt. Simon Formation in the Michigan Basin, which together make up only ~20% of the areas analyzed. While our assessment is not comprehensive, the results suggest there should be an abundance of low-cost storage for CO 2 in deep-saline aquifers, but a majority of this storage is likely to be concentrated within specific regions of a smaller number of these aquifers. © 2011 Elsevier B.V.

0140-9883

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/6609

Elsevier BV

Energy Economics

10.1016/j.eneco.2011.11.015

The impact of geologic variability on capacity and cost estimates for storing CO 2 in deep-saline aquifers

Journal article

Pratson, L|0000-0003-3613-3764

Newell, RG|0000-0002-3205-5562

1569

1579

5

Duke

Earth and Ocean Sciences

Economics

Environmental Sciences and Policy

Nicholas School of the Environment

Staff

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Published

34