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Environmental Geosciences

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Characterization of sites for geological storage of carbon dioxide

¹ Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Alberta Geological Survey, 4999-98th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6B 2X3; Stefan.Bachu@gov.ab.ca
² Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, Alberta Geological Survey, 4999-98th Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6B 2X3; Matt.Grobe@gov.ab.ca

Stefan Bachu is senior advisor for Energy and Carbon Management Geoscience in the Alberta Geological Survey, Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. During his career, he has been involved in various research activities related to the subsurface flow of fluids and heat, with application to the Western Canada sedimentary basin. For more than a decade, Stefan has focused his efforts on the potential for CO₂ storage in geological media in Alberta as a mitigation strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Because of his expertise in this emerging field, Stefan was appointed lead author and contributed to chapter 5 on CO₂ Geological Storage of the IPCC Special Report on CO₂ Capture and Storage. In 2004, Stefan served on the CO₂ Task Force of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and currently is a member of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Strategic Project Grants Panel for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and also represents Canada on the Technical Group of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. Stefan holds advanced degrees in water resources, hydrogeology, and transport processes.

Matthias Grobe is a geologist and leader of the Acid Gas and CO₂ Storage Section at the Alberta Geological Survey of the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board. He received his M.Sc. degree in geology from the University of Tübingen, Germany, and his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, with a focus on the sedimentology and diagenesis of carbonate rocks. He considers geoscience data and knowledge as key components for the assessment of the suitability, capacity, and safety of geological storage options. Matt has been an associate editor for the journal Environmental Geosciences for several years and is currently a member of the Division of Environmental Geosciences Advisory Board.

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Interpretation of the temperature record on a scale of centuries to millennia indicates a slight increase in global average annual temperatures in the last 100–150 yr, in the order of 0.4–0.6°C (IPCC, 2001), with 2005 being the warmest year on record. The melting and retreat of polar ice caps and mountain glaciers corroborate this increase. Some severe weather effects around the globe, such as hurricanes and droughts, are attributed by some to global warming, and predictions are that humankind is facing significant climate change by the end of this century as a result of continuing warming forecasted to be in the order of 2–5°C (IPCC, 2001). The climatic changes anticipated during the next few hundred years are well within the range experienced during the Pleistocene, and the rates of change projected for the next 100 yr are no more rapid than those experienced on half-century scales (Jenkins, 2001). Although current data indicate a trend of change that is severe, it is probably no greater in rate and magnitude than many changes that have occurred in Earth's past (Bluemle et al., 2001).

It is generally but not unanimously accepted that the main cause of the observed global warming is the increase in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄). This increase, observed since the beginning of the industrial revolution at the middle of the 19th century, is caused by human activity in land use (agriculture and deforestation) and an ever-increasing consumption of fossil energy resources. Of all the greenhouse gases, CO₂, whose atmospheric concentrations have risen from preindustrial levels of 280 to 360 ppm, is responsible for about two thirds of the enhanced greenhouse effect (Bryant, 1997). The relationship between CO₂ emissions . . . [Full Text of this Article]