Integrated pre-feasibility study for CO 2 geological storage in the Cascadia Basin, offshore Washington State, British Columbia

• Main Authors: Goldberg, David, Bonneville, Alain, Stute, Martin, Fisher, Andrew, Park, Ah-Hyung, Gerrard, Michael, Moran, Kate, Hnottavange-Telleen, Ken, Slagle, Angela, Demirkanli, Inci, White, Mark, Scherwath, Martin, Heesemann, Martin, Aston, Lara, Webb, Romany, Hsu, Emily, Evans, Curtis, Zahn, Luke
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: 58 GEOSCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 42 ENGINEERING; 99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS; Canada; Pacific; Iceland
• Online Access: http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1488562; https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1488562; https://doi.org/10.2172/1488562

The Cascadia CarbonSAFE project conducted a pre-feasibility study to evaluate technical and nontechnical aspects of storing 50 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide in a safe, ocean basalt reservoir offshore Washington State and British Columbia. Sub-seafloor basalts are very common on Earth and enable geological mineralization as a long-term storage mechanism, permanently sequestering the carbon in solid rock form. This project evaluated the offshore storage complex, developed potential industrial source/transport scenarios, built an inventory of existing geophysical/geological data and environmental monitoring capabilities, conducted laboratory studies and reservoir modeling to determine storage capacity, and analyzed economic factors, regulatory requirements, and project management risks. Our team included researchers at Columbia University in New York, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington, University of Victoria in British Columbia, University of California at Santa Cruz, and GHG Underground in Maine, as well as collaborators at University of Iceland in Reykjavik and University of Washington in Saint Louis. In the study region, large emitters (>100,000 MT/year) generate a total of approximately 40 MMT annually from stationary sources, such as power plants, refineries, ammonia production, and mineral processing plants. Five potential industry source/transport scenarios were identified (three in U.SA S. and two in Canada) to potentially provide 50 MMT of carbon dioxide to the offshore reservoir. One scenario included net carbon-negative sources that would reduce atmospheric levels. The inventory of existing data illustrated that basalt properties in the region are potentially beneficial for long-term storage. Permeability is on the order of 0.1 to 1 Darcies within the uppermost 600 m of ocean crust and density-derived porosity reaches 10–20% in thin layers that provide act as flow channels and provide access to porous and permeable basalt. Fine-grained sediments overlying basalt ...