Advisory Committee Chair
Peter M Walsh
Advisory Committee Members
Shen-En Chen
Melinda M Lalor
Larry S Monroe
Jack C Pashin
Bharat K Soni
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2010
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Engineering
Abstract
Fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, currently play an enormous role in our nation's base-load energy supply and provide reliable domestic energy security. If fossil fuels are to remain a component of future energy production in a carbon constrained world, then carbon-neutral energy options must be available. With fossil fuels, point-source environmental control technologies will be required to help comply with future carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions standards. One very promising technology, carbon capture and storage (CCS), consists of the separation of CO2 from the products of combustion of fossil fuels or from fuel gas produced by gasification of fossil fuels, followed by pipeline transport and injection into deep underground geologic formations. CCS has been identified as a critical enabling technology with which to mitigate the large quantities of CO2 produced in coal-fired power plants and discharged to the atmosphere. For successful commercial-scale deployment of CCS, understanding the subsurface storage capacity of proposed injection target reservoirs, including the potential reuse of CO2 as a commodity in enhanced oil recovery, are key research and development issues. Electric utilities will also need to develop and evaluate potentially new business models for the commercial deployment of CCS technologies. This dissertation considers the larger picture of CCS from the perspective of electric utilities, with a focus on establishing capacity estimates for geologic formations; the design of a pilot injection project for enhanced oil recovery; and the development of prototypical physical and business models for future deployment of CCS.
Recommended Citation
Esposito, Richard A., "Business Models for Commercial-Scale Carbon Dioxide Sequestration; with Focus on Storage Capacity and Enhanced Oil Recovery in Citronelle Dome" (2010). All ETDs from UAB. 1607.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/1607