ORIGINAL ARTICLE Review of European energy policies regarding the recent ‘‘carbon capture, utilization and storage’’ technologies scenario and the role of coal seams Cristina Fernanda Alves Rodrigues 1 • Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis 1 • Manuel Joa ˜o Lemos de Sousa 1,2 Received: 2 July 2014 / Accepted: 4 March 2015 / Published online: 12 March 2015 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 Abstract European energy policy has made an effort in the last years in developing a coherent strategy towards the definition of a set of goals, involving the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, increasing renewable energy use. This paper presents the different options of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies regarding the legislative initiatives imple- mented in the new European energy policy. This new European energy strategy was established taking into con- sideration not only energy demand but also social and en- vironmental requirements. Taking that into account, the different strategies adopted by the European energy council are discussed and an overview of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies—a mitigation strategy able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—and the CO 2 potential utiliza- tion were also addressed. Conventional and unconventional CO 2 geological storage/sequestration reservoirs are anal- ysed, taking into consideration the different properties of both types of reservoirs. Finally, it is possible to conclude that coal seams must play a major role in CCS/CCUS technologies, since coal is considered as an efficient tech- nological solution to CO 2 geological storage/sequestration. Keywords European energy policy Á CCS technologies Á CCUS technologies Á CO 2 Á Coal seam Á Reservoir Introduction The beginning of the twenty-first century has been marked by new energy challenges, which are closely related to three major issues: the decline of conventional hydrocarbons re- serves, i.e., oil and associated natural gas; the escalation of the external energy dependency; and the need to promote a sustainable global environment. Nevertheless, without un- derestimating the first two previously mentioned chal- lenges, the external energy dependency appears as the major task to be solved in the new energy scenario. In fact, the need of a strategic vision and decision making, able to raise the energy supply, leads to the need of the diversifi- cation and replacement of existing resources and equipment and to providing infrastructures for and challenging energy requirements. It is also relevant to mention that these structural changes will have medium- and long-term con- sequences on the energy sector and consequently on society regarding medium- and long-term costs and security. In fact, due to the different problems we are dealing with today in the world, concerning not only the energy sector but also in terms of social and environment domains, the European Union has established five ambitious objectives: 1. Employment 2. R&D/innovation 3. Climate change/energy, to achieve the so-called ‘‘the three twenties’’—reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 % (or perhaps 30 %, depending on the condi- tions), increasing renewable energies to 20 %, and increasing energy efficiency to 20 % & Maria Alzira Pimenta Dinis madinis@ufp.edu.pt Cristina Fernanda Alves Rodrigues cfrodrig@gmail.com Manuel Joa ˜o Lemos de Sousa lemosdesousa@gmail.com 1 University Fernando Pessoa, Prac ¸a Nove de Abril 349, 4249-004 Porto, Portugal 2 Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, Rua da Academia das Cie ˆncias 19, 1249-122 Lisbon, Portugal 123 Environ Earth Sci (2015) 74:2553–2561 DOI 10.1007/s12665-015-4275-0