Holistic Review on CO2 Geological Storage Potential Evaluation

Calculating CO2 storage potential is an important step in selecting target areas for CO2 storage, which is a crucial aspect of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) source–sink matching. At present, a variety of evaluation models are utilized to assess the potential for geo-storage media, such as coal beds, saline aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, etc. This review provides an overview of CO2 storage potential evaluation techniques, including carbon storage potential evaluation under different storage mechanisms and carbon storage potential evaluation models under different geo-storage media. By comparison of the evaluation models under the same or different geo-storage media, it is found that all evaluation models are built based on the four major storage mechanisms. Accordingly, we proposed a solution to divide the calculation of total storage potential into the calculation of storage potential under different CO2 storage mechanisms. Under this theoretical framework, we synthesized the models proposed by scholars for evaluating the storage potential under different geo-storage media. This solves the problem of the difficulty in selecting many carbon storage evaluation methods and provides clear guidance for the evaluation of carbon storage potential. It is expected that this review will help researchers quickly understand the theory of CO2 storage potential evaluation for future research in this field.