A scalable infrastructure model for carbon capture and storage: SimCCS

The impact of geologic variability on capacity and cost estimates for storing CO2 in deep-saline aquifers

“…Other factors beyond the scope of this study can also affect costs, such as obtaining legal rights to the pore space needed for storage, estimates for which range between $0.4 and $11/tCO 2 (Duncan et al, 2009;Gresham et al, 2010). Nonetheless, our assumptions and modeling yield average storage costs that are close to those arrived at by Middleton and Bielicki (2009) using a similar injection model for a fixed set of geological properties, and our ranges for storage costs evaluating a wider set of properties are similar to those of Wildenborg et al (2004). In fact, we are able to find previous cost estimates for CO 2 storage that range over much of our MACC (AL-JUAIED and Whitmore, 2009;Allinson et al, 2003;BCG, 2008;Bock, 2002;Hendriks et al, 2004;McKinsey Climate Change Initiative, 2008).…”

“…To date, studies using transport modeling have done the best job integrating the cost of transportation and storage. Middleton andBielicki(2009), McCoy andRubin (2008), and Wildenborg et al (2004) among others have developed transport optimization algorithms that can take into account geologic and economic differences between storage sites. The disclosure of costs in these studies, however, is generally in the form of summary statistics (e.g.…”

“…However due to lack of data and/or methods for adequately incorporating heterogeneity in reservoir quality, existing MACCs are based on an average or even single estimate of storage capacity and cost per aquifer (Middleton and Bielicki, 2009;Wildenborg et al, 2004); and in some cases the constant values are applied to all the aquifers evaluated (Dahowski et al, 2009;Dooley et al, 2004). Thus cost variations in the MACCs are predominantly the result of varying transport distances between the CO 2 point sources and saline aquifers, and do not reflect potential additional variability due to storage.…”

“…The value of integrating transport and storage in cost assessments has been demonstrated by efforts ranging from the IEA GHG Programme (Wildenborg et al, 2004) to the SimCCS modeling package developed by Middleton and Bielicki (2009). The integration is achieved by using a transport optimization algorithm to link each CO 2 point source in a region to a potential storage reservoir.…”

“…Energy Economics 34 (2012) [1569][1570][1571][1572][1573][1574][1575][1576][1577][1578][1579] Variability in storage costs is important because it can significantly affect transport costs for CCS. To optimize the overall cost efficiency of a CCS system, transport costs must be traded off against storage costs in such a way as to minimize their combined expense (e.g., Dooley et al (2008), Gresham et al (2010), Middleton and Bielicki (2009)). This makes accurate information about storage costs critical.…”