Monitoring protocols and life-cycle costs for geologic storage of carbon dioxide

Publisher Summary Every geologic storage project goes through a series of phases which constitute the life-cycle of the project. During each of these phases, monitoring serves different purposes. This chapter suggests that there are four distinct phases of life-cycle of a geologic storage project: a pre-operation phase, an operational phase, a closure phase and a post-closure phase. Key assumptions underlying the cost estimates such as reservoir size and depth are provided and major cost dependencies are also described. For each scenario a “package” of suitable monitoring techniques is proposed with a commentary on how the components were selected. For each monitoring scenario a basic and enhanced monitoring program is evaluated. Estimated costs for monitoring geologic storage over the full life-cycle of a project at a range from $0.05 to $0.10 per ton of CO 2 . The chapter summarizes one part of a study performed for the International energy agency greenhouse gas R&D program (IEA GHG) to provide an overview of monitoring techniques for geologic storage of CO 2 .