There is an urgent need to store 10 Gigatons CO2 per annum (Gtpa) to meet IPCC goals of limiting global warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial level. Geologic storage in saline aquifers requires long-term monitoring to ensure conformance. Reactive geologic formations provide an alternative by mineralizing CO2 and thus preventing escape. During CO2 storage in basalt complexes, the injected fluid will react with the host rock leading to relatively rapid precipitation of solid and immobile carbonate as well as dissolution of the mineral frame. Thus, basalt complexes, which occur extensively worldwide, are expected to provide tera-tons of permanent carbon storage volume. Physical properties, chemical composition, geographic location and other aspects might reduce the economic feasible volume available. While offshore storage avoids conflicts with urban areas and other potential usage demands (e.g., remaining fossil carbon production, growing wind farms, fishing, etc.) and might find higher public acceptance, higher costs might render it uneconomic. Further investigations are required to identify optimal host rocks, economic applications of monitoring strategies (minimizing observation wells), and to evaluate transport and injection processes.
In this session we welcome contributions on all aspects of CO2 sequestration of large volumes of CO2 in basalt complexes. This may cover (and should not be limited to) CO2 transport (on/offshore), selection and characterization of injection sites (host rock specification, stratigraphy, physical parameters, reaction rates), CO2 injection operation, laboratory tests and/or modelling of CO2/host rock interaction, operation of an injection site (plumbing, pressure control), CO2 distribution (modelling, monitoring), mineralization process (modelling, monitoring) and techno-economic studies.