Operational
Protocols for Geological Carbon Storage and the Need for a New Hazard
Characterization Approach
Friedmann,
Large-scale deployment of carbon capture
and storage will require a new industrial operational base closely aligned to
the oil and gas industry. Current uncertainty in evolving permitting,
regulation, and public acceptance will limit investment, and CCS deployment
would benefit from clearly defined operational practices and protocols. To be
successful and relevant, protocols must be technically based and applicable to
a wide range of geological settings and operating conditions. In this context,
a scientific and technical program is required to underpin best practices and operational
protocols and should focus on rapidly providing answers to the top-tier
concerns of an operator, investor, regulator, or public stakeholder. The
program goal should be to provide insight and constraints that will accelerate
deployment of large-scale CCS in the
Thankfully, the list of potential earth
and atmospheric hazards that present substantial risk to CCS operations is
ultimately short. Three fundamental hazards—atmospheric release, groundwater
contamination, and crustal deformation—are associated with characteristic sets
of potential injection-triggered processes (risk elements) that may alone or in
combination result in hazard realization. For each hazard class, the
prioritization hierarchy assigned reflects perception of relative importance,
which has a significant component of site dependency; such prioritizations
would likely be different for the
AAPG Search and Discover Article #90063©2007 AAPG Annual Convention, Long Beach, California