GEOLOGICAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN THE OHIO RIVER VALLEY: AN EVALUATION OF POSSIBLE TARGET FORMATIONS

The development of geological carbon sequestration within the Ohio River Valley is of major interest to the national electricity and coal industries because the valley is home to a heavy concentration of coal-burning electricity generation plants. The cost of the sequestration effort greatly decreases by sequestering CO₂ directly on site of these plants, or by minimizing the distance between fossil-fueled generation and sequestration (i.e., by eliminating the cost of transportation of supercritical CO₂ from plant to sequestration site). Thus, the practicality of CO₂ geologic sequestration within the Ohio River Valley is central to the development of such a commercial effort. Though extensive work has been done by the Regional Partnerships of the DOE/NETL in the characterization of general areas for carbon sequestration throughout the nation, few projects have narrowed their focus into a single geologic region in order to evaluate the sites of greatest commercial potential.

As an undergraduate of the Earth Sciences at Ohio State, I have engaged in thorough research to obtain a detailed understanding of the geology of the Ohio River Valley and its potential for commercial-scale carbon sequestration. Through this research, I have been able to offer an estimate of the areas of greatest interest for CO₂ geologic sequestration. This research has involved petrological, mineralogical, geochemical, and geophysical analyses of four major reservoir formations within Ohio—the Rose Run, the Copper Ridge, the Clinton, and the Oriskany—along with an evaluation of the possible effects of injection into these saline reservoirs.