Addressing the 13th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies in Switzerland last week, Global CCS Institute senior storage adviser Dr Chris Consoli said almost every high carbon emitting nation of the world had substantial storage potential.
"A great deal of the world's CO2 storage resource has now been assessed. For example, the US Department of Energy published an atlas last year that estimated between 2000 and 20,000 billion tonnes of storage resource in North America alone," he told delegates.
He also cited the International Energy Agency which forecast that about 90 billion tonnes of storage capacity is needed if CCS is to contribute its targeted 12% of emissions reductions. In 2050, this equates to about 6Btpa.
"This means that the issue becomes one more about deployment than available resource," Consoli, who was Geoscience Australia's project leader on CO2 storage from 2008 to 2014, said.
Australia, Canada, the US, Norway, China and the UK have all been assessed and boast large storage resources.
Consoli's comments came after Global CCS Institute CEO Brad Page, also based in Melbourne, told the 22nd conference of the parties (COP 22) in Marrakech, Morocco that having the potential CO2 storage resource available was critical to meeting the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to below 2C targets.
"Pleasingly, our latest review of global data demonstrates that there is vast storage potential when you compare storage resources with the IEA's target," Page, formerly Energy Supply Association of Australia CEO from 2004 to 2011, Page said.
Each country had undertaken each assessment differently.
Although many nations have not conducted full assessments, and their storage potential yet to be fully determined, a large number of countries were showing early signs of significant storage potential.
This included Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.
Page said CCS was a safe and proven technology which has been utilised for more than 20 years as a specific greenhouse gas mitigation technology.
"This indicates that awareness, investment and policy commitment are essential ingredients in the adoption of CCS," he said.
"There are 15 large-scale CCS facilities now operating globally (with a CO2 capture capacity of nearly 30 million tonnes per annum) and a further six anticipated to come on-stream in the next 12 months (three of which, located in the US, possibly before the end of 2016 or in early 2017). These 21 facilities have a total CO2 capture capacity of approximately 40MMtpa."
Page said the technology is already available to select, characterise, safely operate, complete and close storage projects.
Secure CO2 geological storage at various scales has already been demonstrated at a number of successful projects across the globe.
Various assessments suggest that storage resources to support CCS development are significant and in excess of projected capacity requirements over the coming decades.
What is needed is government commitment, investment and incentives, and the need to achieve policy parity across the board, Page said.
