A screening criterion for selection of suitable CO2 storage sites

Carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities has raised the alarm of global warming in the near future. CO2 storage in suitable subsurface geologic media has, therefore, been triggered in recent years. However, identification of suitable sites to store a large quantity of CO2 for a long period of time is not an easy and straightforward task. Although, a general criterion has already been presented based on local-scale projects in which depth, permeability, porosity, density and containment factors were considered for selection of an appropriate geologic medium, there are many other preliminary factors linked to the storage capacity, injectivity, trapping mechanisms, and containment which should not be neglected during a CO2 storage site selection. The aim of this paper is to propose a new screening criterion for the CO2 storage site selection based on a group of key parameters including reservoir and well types, classes of minerals, residual gas and water saturations, subsurface conditions, rock types, wettability, properties of CO2, and sealing potentials. These parameters were combined with those factors presented earlier by other scholars to provide a good insight into the suitable selection of storage sites. Although attempts were made to consider the whole parameters linked to a site selection, more studies are still required to get a final conclusion about the effective parameters which should be a part of the analysis. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.