Of the many methods that have been proposed to reduce the amount of CO2 that is released to the atmosphere, geological storage of CO2 is starting to be tested in many commercial-scale projects worldwide.
Widespread deployment of such technology will depend on gaining acceptance for the technology from policy makers and the general public. Hence there is a clear requirement for a capability to undertake safety and performance assessments for individual applications of this technology.
To ensure that any future assessments incorporate comprehensive consideration of all potentially significant factors, Quintessa has developed a generic FEP database http://www.quintessa.org/co2fepdbfor the geological storage of CO2. FEPs are the features, events, and processes that are relevant to describe the behaviour of CO2 in the system being assessed. The FEPs in the database have been included for their relevance to the long-term safety and performance of the storage system after injection of CO2 has been completed and the injection boreholes have been sealed.
The database currently includes around 200 FEPs in a hierarchical structure, with individual FEPs grouped into eight categories. Each FEP has a text description and an associated discussion of its relevance to long-term performance and safety. Key references from the published literature are included to enable retrieval of more detailed information for each FEP. The database incorporates hyperlinks to other relevant sources of information (reports, websites, maps, photographs, videos, etc.), and is searchable in a variety of ways.