The report comes as industries and governments look for ways to expand CO2 storage options to meet growing demand for large-scale CCUS projects. Naturally reactive rocks can allow projects to potentially avoid the need to transport captured CO2 over long distances when suitable sedimentary storage sites are not easily accessible.
"Expanding CO2 Storage: The role of CO2 mineralizing rocks such as basalts and peridotites" outlines how rocks that naturally react with CO2 to form stable carbonates, such as basalts and peridotites, can provide permanent storage opportunities beyond traditional sedimentary basins.
This means that mineralizing formations could increase the world’s available CO2 storage capacity and open new pathways for CCUS in regions where conventional geological reservoirs are limited.
The report provides a comparative overview of the technical and permitting considerations needed to scale mineralization safely and effectively. It also identifies opportunities for collaboration between research institutions, industry and governments to advance pilot projects and build confidence in these emerging storage solutions.
This work supports OGCI’s goal to accelerate the deployment of large-scale CCUS hubs capable of capturing and permanently storing hundreds of millions of tonnes of CO2 each year.
OGCI’s members are involved in developing more than 50 CCUS hubs with potential to remove or reduce as much as 500 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030. These include Ravenna CCUS and Northern Lights in Europe, STRATOS and LaBarge in the US, Jubail in Saudi Arabia, Junggar in China and a CCUS pilot near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.