Preparing for a carbon constrained world; overview of the United States regional carbon sequestration partnerships programme and its Southwest regional partnership

The Southwest Carbon Partnership (SWP), one of seven United States Department of Energy-funded Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, has been tasked with assessing the CO (sub 2) sequestration potential within the southwestern United States. Carbon dioxide is considered a 'greenhouse' gas and is emitted, in large volumes, by the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial processes. CO (sub 2) capture from point source emitters and subsequent geological sequestration is being considered as a viable short- to intermediate-range mitigation option to combat the phenomena of global warming. Significant fossil fuel reserves and consumers exist within the seven member states of the SWP and, as such, the Partnership is dedicating a large amount of resources to the challenges posed by large scale CO (sub 2) sequestration. Three distinct phases of work have been or will be performed by the SWP: a Characterization Phase to identify carbon capture and sequestration potential; a Validation Phase to test small scale field injection of CO (sub 2) ; and a Deployment Phase to test commercial scale field injection of CO (sub 2) . Each phase presents challenges and opportunities to the refinement of the best approach to safe and efficient geological storage of CO (sub 2) within the SW region of the United States.