| Title | Pathway to Utilizing Overlooked Pore Space: CO2 Plume Geothermal in the Columbia River Basalt Group |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan D. Ogland-Hand, Matt Villante, Benjamin M. Adams, Lydia Bailey, Stephanie DiRaddo, Richard S |
| Year | 2026 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | |
| Abstract | CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) is the process of capturing CO2 from point sources and storing it underground and is an innovation with strong ties to the oil and gas sector. Over the past decade, our team has led the research effort into CO2-plume geothermal (CPG), which is intentionally circulating a portion of the sequestered CO2 back to the surface and using it to make geothermal power. Overall, our work has demonstrated that, compared to using water, using CO2 results in more and cheaper geothermal power, and could unlock hundreds of gigawatts of new capacity in the US by enabling electricity generation in geologies that are otherwise too impermeable, too thin, too cold, or not deep enough. In this way, CPG is reimagining CCS as a geothermal innovation. Here, we present a geospatial technoeconomic resource assessment of CPG and CO2 mineralization potential in the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the US. The CRBG is a Miocene flood basalt province of approximately 223 km3 and is one of the most promising mafic formations suitable for commercial-scale CO2 mineralization in the US with a storage capacity of 40 GtCO2. We find that even 5% of this mineralization capacity could equate to over 10 GWe of geothermal power via GPC, depending on the availability of CO2. Towards this end, we also present a CO2 source discovery in the PNW to provide a roadmap for transforming gigatonnes of CO2 mineralization into gigawatts of geothermal power capacity. |