September 2024
The necessary increase in carbon sequestration to reach national and global targets requires significant geological and technological developments to play a role in the mitigation of climate impacts. Therefore, many options are currently being considered for permanent carbon removal.
In this edition of Subsurface Insights, we discuss CO2 mineralization within mafic and ultramafic rocks, where carbon is incorporated into the rock structure through the crystallization of new, stable carbonate minerals. This technology potentially offers the means to store CO2 safely, rapidly, and permanently in large quantities, while requiring minimal effort to verify and monitor after disposal. We present screening workflow outputs that enable the rapid, global, and regional screening of sites that may be prospective for the storage of CO2 through mafic and ultramafic rock mineralization, within the subsurface or in tailings at relevant mine sites, as examples.
The screening for suitable carbon mineralization locations within mafic or ultramafic rocks, as discussed here, is just the latest in our expanding portfolio of workflows to suit all potential CO2 storage requirements. Over recent years, our geoscientists have been working on adapting traditional oil and gas workflows, gathering new datasets, and investigating stratigraphy to help with CO2 storage identification. Several of which are discussed in this issue. In this way, the Neftex® solution can provide a shortcut to understanding the subsurface in relation to CO2 storage.