Global CO2 storage capacity: Modelling limitations of geography and injectivity

The importance of carbon capture and storage in the mitigation of climate changes arises from the potential capacity for the injection of large volumes of CO2 into suitable subsurface geologic formations.

The assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that in the average of scenarios where CO2 concentration is stabilised at 450 ppm by 2100, storage demand approaches 15 Gt CO2 per year by 2050, and persists at around 20 Gt per year from 2060-2100. This represents approximately 1200 Gt CO2 stored underground by 2100.

However, these modeled estimates disregard potential limitations to achieving these rates and volumes of storage from either the geographic availability of subsurface storage reservoirs, or the pressure limitations to allowable rates of injection.

In this project the PhD candidate will work with experts in subsurface CO2 storage at Imperial College London, as well as the leading industry partners in developing and deploying industrial scale CO2 storage - Equinor, BP, and Shell.

The PhD project will evaluate the potential for geographic and reservoir injectivity constraints to lead to bottlenecks in the development of large scale CO2 storage globally.

Ultimately, we will construct models for plausible development trajectories in which constraints from geography and reservoir limitations are reflected.