Underground sequestration of carbon dioxide—a viable greenhouse gas mitigation option

Underground storage of industrial quantities of carbon dioxide in porous and permeable reservoir rocks has been taking place for the last 5 years at the Sleipner West gas field in the North Sea. Although there is still significant uncertainty in the actual figures, it appears that globally there is enough underground storage capacity for CO2 to make a significant impact on global emissions to the atmosphere. Some of the major issues that must be addressed if this technology is to spread to industrial plant such as power stations, and thus make an impact on global CO2 emissions, are cost of CO2 capture, demonstration of safety and security of storage and public acceptability.