Intermediate storage of carbon dioxide in geological formations: A technical perspective

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) through CO2 flooding has been practiced on a commercial basis for the last 35 years and continues today at several sites, currently injecting in total over 30 million tons of CO2 annually. This practice is currently exclusively for economic gain, but can potentially contribute to the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases provided it is implemented on a large scale. Optimal operations in distributing CO2 to CO2-EOR or enhanced gas recovery (EGR) projects (referred to here collectively as CO2-EHR) on a large scale and long time span imply that intermediate storage of CO2 in geological formations may be a key component. Intermediate storage is defined as the storage of CO2 in geological media for a limited time span such that the CO2 can be sufficiently reproduced for later use in CO2-EHR. This paper investigates the technical aspects, key individual parameters and possibilities of intermediate storage of CO2 in geological formations aiming at large scale implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) for deep emission reduction. The main parameters are thus the depth of injection and density, CO2 flow and transport processes, storage mechanisms, reservoir heterogeneity, the presence of impurities, the type of the reservoirs and the duration of intermediate storage. Structural traps with no flow of formation water combined with proper injection planning such as gas-phase injection favour intermediate storage in deep saline aquifers. In depleted oil and gas fields, high permeability, homogeneous reservoirs with structural traps (e.g. anticlinal structures) are good candidates for intermediate CO2 storage. Intuitively, depleted natural gas reservoirs can be potential candidates for intermediate storage of carbon dioxide due to similarity in storage characteristics.