Current Status and Research Subjects of the CO₂ Geological Storage

Abstract

We often have unusual weather in these days and it might be due to an increase in the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere and the global warming. The recent IPCC report (AR5) concluded that it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the warming. The report also presented a new analytical model of the temperature increase based on several scenario of the measure against the CO₂ increase. The simulation showed that the greenhouse gas emission will be zero and the predicted temperature will rise but remain within 0.3 ℃ by the end of this century if we will perform adequately the measure. However, if not, the temperature increase will be expected to be 2.6 to 4.8 ℃ centring around 3.7 ℃. The establishment of the CCS technology, therefore, is important for the early measures. The number of participants and the titles of the papers in the GHGT show a kind of indicator of the current and necessary technologies. The number of participants had been increased since the first meeting but decreased in 2014, implying that it might be in response to the global economic decline. It is also reported that the capture and storage technologies are major but are shifting from the post-combustion capture technology to other technologies such as the oxy-fuel and the pre-combustion capture technologies. The CCS technology, which is combined of various technologies, has been developed on the basis of the development of the oil and the natural gas, especially, for the storage and monitoring know-how and technique which are used in the petroleum industry. The demonstration sites in US are selected in the EOR fields and the standardization of EOR in ISO is discussed while the CCS economy becomes more and more important.