(352b) Regional Resource Assessment for CO2 Storage Via Mineralization Process in New Mexico and Surrounding Areas

New Mexico is home to one of the largest exposures of basaltic rocks of varying age, composition, and eruptive styles in the southwestern United States. Basaltic rocks are largely exposed as lava flows sourced from cinder cones, stratocones, and shield volcanoes. The sequences of laterally extensive volcanic flows with intertrappean sediments can potentially create thick sections of stacked CO₂ storage. CO₂ capture into mafic and ultramafic rock formations and subsequent mineralization of CO₂ into Ca, Mg and Fe-carbonates is generally considered safe long-term storage. These methods have been successfully employed by several pioneering projects in the world.

Under the current DOE funded project (DE-FE00032257), we are conducting the resource assessment efforts on the potential sites for the CO₂ chemical trapping process. The primary objective of this project is to identify and access the statewide resources for potential CO₂ storage via mineralization process, including basalt formations and related stratigraphic units in the state of New Mexico, and characterize the targeted storage site/complex to provide the insights on its storage capacity evaluation. Specifically, the project objectives include: 1) To pre-screen and identify the potential CO₂ chemical storage site/complex in the state of New Mexico and manage the dataset to reveal the geological and hydrogeological information of the targeted site/complex. 2) To investigate and diagnose the petrological, mineralogical, geochemical, geophysical and geomechanial properties of the resource rock in the target site. 3) To study the reaction dynamics of the CO₂ mineralization process on the localized resource rock in order to indicate the optimum scenario for CO₂ storage. 4) To better understand the CO₂ storage potential through the reservoir-scale simulation and economic analysis on the up-scaling. 5) To provoke the interest on CO₂ geological storage to the communities and open the dialog between researchers and identified stakeholders potentially impacted by the proposed project through the effective outreach activities. This presentation will provide an overview of the work accomplished by the team and some lesson learned via the site screening and characterization.

The investigation in this area under this project has many advantages – the abundant basalt resources are in close proximity with the CO₂ source, the geology appears to be favorable for storage, and the local community is generally supportive of efforts to not only mining waste remediation for New Mexico, but to ensure that local economic under healthy development with decarbonization transformation. The success of the project will achieve positive environmental and economic outcomes. From an environmental perspective, capture and secure storage of a minimum of 20 million metric tons of anthropogenic CO2 per year would be an important part of the overall strategy to reduce carbon emissions in compliance with federal and state regulations. From an economic perspective, it plays a critical role in keeping the regional economy healthy.