Written by Ken Miller, John Schmelz, and Lisa Auermuller.
Addressing human carbon dioxide release of 10 billion tons of carbon (= 36.7 billion tons of Carbon dioxide) per year will require multiple mitigation approaches, including geological storage (Pachauri et al., 2014). The technology exists to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and other stationary (“point”) sources and possibly from the atmosphere itself, but where can this captured carbon be stored? It can be buried deep (greater than 2500 ft) as a compressed fluids beneath the Earth’s surfaces and stored in geological “reservoirs,” places with porous rocks that collect fluids. The process geological storage of carbon dioxide is termed carbon capture and sequestration/storage (CCS), and the region offshore of Rutgers provides an ideal location for CCS.
The US east coast produces ~800 of megatons of carbon dioxide emissions from electricity-generating power plants and other point sources. CCS represents a mature technology that can be used to permanently store the emissions produced in the northeastern and midwestern US in offshore geological reservoirs. Rutgers EPS has contributed to evaluating these reservoirs and show that they possess a potential capacity far exceeding 100 years of present-day emissions. CCS can serve as a bridge to adopting negative emissions by the combustion of biofuels, i.e., bioenergy with CCS (BECCS).
Rutgers has contributed to the geological characterization efforts since 2007 by mapping reservoirs of Cretaceous sandstones offshore, showing that these are sealed by impermeable shales. These efforts were conducted under the Mid-Atlantic U.S. Offshore Carbon Storage Resource Assessment Project that led to four EPS masters theses, Schmelz’s PhD thesis, several technical reports, and six journal publications evaluating the offshore sediments and implications for adoption of offshore CCS along the US mid-Atlantic continental margin (Miller et al., 2018, Schmelz et al., 2020a, 2020b, Baldwin et al., 2022, Jordan et al., 2022, Schmelz et al., in press). These efforts demonstrate the CCS potential of the onshore New Jersey and the offshore region from Georges Bank Basin (offshore Massachusetts) through the Baltimore Canyon Trough/Basin (offshore New York to Virginia). The geology is ideal for carbon storage (e.g., Battelle, 2019), and the next step is to move to implementing CCS in this region.
In 2024, Ken Miller (EPS Distinguished Professor), John Schmelz (EPS post-doc), and Lisa Auermuller (Administrative Director of Rutgers’ NSF-funded Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation) were awarded a 3-year Department of Energy grant in collaboration with Battelle National Laboratories for Integrated Validation of Mid-Atlantic Offshore Carbon Storage Resources for Commercial Development. The primary objective of this program is to facilitate future deployment of carbon dioxide storage technologies. Key elements of this new project include:
- More detailed geologic storage assessment and economic evaluation, building on geological studies Miller et al., 2018, Schmelz et al., 2020b, Baldwin et al., 2022, Jordan et al., 2022, Schmelz et al., in press) and economic studies (Schmelz et al. (2020a).
- A preliminary engineering and design analysis for offshore CCS including pipeline or ship deployment assessment, working with Battelle National Laboratories.
- Environmental justice assessment, evaluating the positive benefits of jobs and environmental gains versus the impact of deployment on onshore communities.
- Public outreach to evaluate and address stakeholder opportunities and concerns.
The project team will evaluate technology aimed at reducing the CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, CO2 storage in saline reservoirs, and its applicability for New Jersey and other Mid-Atlantic States and the offshore region, and its impact on economic development, state incentives, and Environmental Justice.
Baldwin, K., Miller, K. G., Schmelz, W. J., Mountain, G. S., Jordan, L. and Browning, J. V. 2022. Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy of the northern baltimore canyon trough: Implications for tectonic, paleogeographic, and sea-level evolution of the basin. Geosphere.
Battelle 2019. Mid-atlantic u.S. Offshore carbon storage resource assessment project: Final technical report. Columbus, OH: Battelle and U.S. Department of Energy
Jordan, L. M., Browning, J. V., Miller, K. G. and Schmelz, W. J. 2022. Quantitative biostratigraphic analysis and age estimates of middle cretaceous sequences in the baltimore canyon trough, offshore mid-atlantic u.S. Margin. Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 52, 229-247.
Miller, K. G., Lombardi, C. J., Browning, J. V., Schmelz, W. J., Gallegos, G., Baldwin, K. and Mountain, G. S. 2018. Back to basics of sequence stratigraphy: Early miocene and mid cretaceous examples from the new jersey paleoshelf. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 88, 148-176.
Pachauri, R. K., Allen, M. R., Barros, V. R., Broome, J., Cramer, W., Christ, R., Church, J. A., Clarke, L., Dahe, Q. and Dasgupta, P. 2014. Climate change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups i, ii and iii to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, Ipcc.
Schmelz, W. J., Hochman, G. and Miller, K. G. 2020a. Total cost of carbon capture and storage implemented at a regional scale: Northeastern and midwestern united states. Interface Focus, 10, 20190065.
Schmelz, W. J., Miller, K. G., Adams, A. C., Graham, S. J., Mountain, G. S., Browning, J. V. and Baldwin, K. E. in press. Cretaceous sequence stratigraphy of georges bank basin: Implications for carbon storage. AAPG Bulletin.
Schmelz, W. J., Miller, K. G., Mountain, G. S., Browning, J. V. and Baldwin, K. E. 2020b. Onshore–offshore correlations of cretaceous fluvial-deltaic sequences, southern baltimore canyon trough. AAPG Bulletin, 104, 411-448.
