Natural Analogues for the Geological Storage of CO₂
- 1 March 2005
- Storage
This is the final report of the Natural Analogues for the Storage of CO₂ in the Geological Environment (NASCENT) project. The Nascent project has studied natural accumulations of carbon dioxide (CO₂ – an important greenhouse gas, thought to be responsible for climate change) as analogues of the geological storage of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions.Before large-scale underground CO₂ storage can take place, it will be necessary to demonstrate that the processes are well understood, risks to the environment and human populations are low, and environmental disturbances can be minimised. One way of demonstrating that CO₂ can remain trapped underground for geologically significant timescales is to provide evidence from existing naturally occurring accumulations. These accumulations occur in a variety of geological environments and many can be demonstrated to have retained CO₂ for periods longer than those being considered for CO₂ storage.
