NETL has released version five of a user-friendly, sophisticated database that can be used to estimate the carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage potential of underground geological environments, helping stakeholders make more informed decisions that could improve the efficiency, safety and long-term stability of CO₂ storage operations.

NETL’s updated CO₂-SCREEN tool, which stands for Carbon Dioxide Storage prospeCtive Resource Estimation Excel aNalysis, now features additional storage efficiency factors. These factors are based on experimental measurements and reservoir simulations conducted on rock cores from storage reservoirs that were targeted for CO₂ storage across the United States.

The tool also no longer limits storage efficiency factors to open boundary conditions, where reservoir fluids are assumed to be managed. Users can now estimate CO₂ storage based on both closed and semi-closed boundaries, which are found in reservoirs that are sealed or partially sealed and in which there is little to no CO₂ migration.

“These two new boundary conditions help simulate formations where fluids cannot be managed or where there are multiple storage projects within a formation, which is beneficial when estimating CO₂ storage potential while considering pressure interference between multiple wells or projects,” said NETL’s Angela Goodman. “This gives stakeholders more flexibility to apply the tool to reservoirs with specific boundary attributes.” 

Geologic formations found deep underground offer promising repositories for safe and effective storage of large volumes of human‐made CO₂. However, unlike engineered reactors in surface operations, subsurface geologic systems are inherently variable and often poorly characterized. This scarcity of appropriate data makes it difficult to know with certainty how a system will respond to large‐scale CO₂ injection and storage.

CO₂-SCREEN helps stakeholders understand the range of potential storage resources through national, regional, basin and formation scales. The tool continues to attract a wide range of international users as the world continues to address geologic carbon storage efforts for decarbonization. The database has been downloaded more than 2,200 times since its initial release. The tool has been used by over 90 different organizations and in more than 20 countries. 

“The tool is important because it establishes the scale of carbon capture and storage activities for governmental policy and commercial project decision-making,” Goodman said. “Low estimates predict we have 400 years of storage available.”

The validated, volumetric US-DOE-NETL Carbon Storage Method used by CO₂-SCREEN has been tailored for offshore saline environments by a complimentary NETL tool, the Offshore CO₂ Storage Calculator.

A team of experts from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, higher education, private organizations and other federal departments were involved in creating CO₂-SCREEN. Team members represented the Energy and Environmental Research Center, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey, Battelle, Matric, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University and Salem State University. 

NETL is a DOE national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By using its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.