Organizing Carbon Capture and Storage Deployment: Returns to Scale for the Coupled Technological System

About

Jeff will present his work-in-progress on understanding the returns to scale for carbon capture and storage (CCS) deployment. The talk will introduce an innovation in geospatial optimization methodology for infrastructure planning and deployment, the interaction of the returns to scale for each technological component of the CCS system and how they couple together to determine the returns to scale for the entire system, and a number of policy relevant questions such as the choice of where within a potential storage basin to focus on site-specific reservoir characterization, where to locate injection sites, and where to place trunk distribution pipelines.

CCS has the potential to dramatically reduce the atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from human activities while simultaneously serving as a bridging technology to less fossil-dependent energy systems. To do so, a system of interlinked technologies that captures CO2 from sources and transports it to geologic storage reservoirs into which the captured CO2 is injected must be deployed at a considerable scale. This technological coupling determines the returns to scale for the entire carbon capture and storage system and suggests how, given the spatial distribution of sources and potential reservoirs, CCS activities should be organized.

Lunch will be served.