Injection of CO2 into saline formations: Benchmarking worldwide projects

Abstract Carbon capture, transport and storage (CCS) is a very active field of research, because of its potential to make large reductions of emissions from fossil fuel combustion relevant to climate change. This paper reviews the recent and current work on practical injections of CO 2 as research tests for storage projects and specifically focuses on industrial-scale or relevant injections into saline formations (about 1 Mt CO 2 per year). All injection projects around the world have been reviewed, and 20 are reported to compile, depth, reservoir quality and injectivity, cost, and rate. This shows that testing of injection is concentrated onshore; however the projects with the highest total CO 2 storage estimate are offshore. Pipeline transport systems are mostly used for the large projects. Formations targeted in the injection process are sandstone or carbonate. In the majority of cases initial projections of injectivity are confirmed in tests. A variety of monitoring techniques are used in all projects, these have detected CO 2 , but have not shown unexpected CO 2 movement. Practical experiences of CO 2 injection operations therefore suggest that similar operations can be successfully carried out in the saline formations of the UK North Sea and other large sedimentary basins.