The Role of Reactive Transport Modeling in Geologic Carbon Storage

The engineered storage of CO₂ in Earth’s subsurface provides one of the most promising means of reducing net greenhouse gas emissions. Paramount to the success of this method is ensuring that CO₂ injected into the subsurface is securely stored. Reactive transport models can be used to answer the key question regarding CO₂ storage, “Will the injected CO₂ be secure, and over what timescale?” Here, we explore examples of how reactive transport models have been used to simulate the range of geochemical and hydrologic processes that will take place over thousands of years and across many spatial scales to answer that key question.