Assessing the impacts of future demand for saline groundwater on commercial deployment of CCS in the United States

This paper provides a preliminary assessment of the potential impact that future demand for groundwater might have on the commercial deployment of carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technologies within the United States. A number of regions within the U. S. have populations, agriculture and industries that are particularly dependent upon groundwater. Moreover, some key freshwater aquifers are already over-utilized or depleted, and others are likely to be moving toward depletion as demand grows. The need to meet future water demands may lead some parts of the nation to consider supplementing existing supplies with lower quality groundwater resources, including brackish waters that are currently not considered sources of drinking water but which could provide supplemental water via desalination. In some areas, these same deep saline-filled geologic formations also represent possible candidate carbon dioxide (CO2) storage reservoirs. The analysis presented here suggests that future constraints on CCS deployment -due to potential needs to supplement conventional water supplies by desalinating deeper and more brackish waters -are likely to be necessary only in limited regions across the country, particularly in areas that are already experiencing water stress. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.