CO₂ Storage and Trapping

Simulation in Reverse

Geological CO₂ storage is reservoir simulation run in reverse: instead of producing fluid it injects and must keep it underground for millennia. The same flow equations apply, now to a buoyant, reactive gas under a seal.

Four Trapping Mechanisms

Four mechanisms hold the CO₂ and take over in sequence. Structural trapping under the seal dominates during injection but leaves the CO₂ mobile and buoyant. Residual trapping snaps off bubbles by capillarity, solubility trapping dissolves the CO₂ into the brine, and mineral trapping locks it into carbonate.

Proving Security

Each step is more secure and slower than the last. Simulating storage means proving the trapped fraction climbs from mobile structural toward dissolved and mineral forms over the regulatory time frame, so the CO₂ cannot leak back to the surface.