Development and Evaluation of Innovative Strategies for Mineral and Physical Trapping of CO 2 in Geological Formations and of Long-Term Cap Rock Integrity* By R. Meyer 1 , R. Azzam 2 , M. Back 3 , A. Bielinski 4 , A. Busch 5 , H. Class 4 , C. Clauser 1 , O. Dogan 4 , T. Fernández-Steeger 2 , R. Helmig 4 , T. Kempka 2 , B. M. Krooss 5 , M. Kühn 6 , R. Littke 5 , S. Peiffer 3 , H. Stanjek 7 , and M. Waschbüsch 2 Search and Discovery Article #80009 (2008) Posted January 31, 2008 *Reprinted, with some modification in format, from AAPG European Region Newsletter, December 2007, v.2 (http://www.aapg.org/europe/newsletters/index.cfm ), p. 4-5, with kind permission of the authors and AAPG European Region Newsletter, Hugo Matias, Editor (hmatias@repsolypf.com ). 1 RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Centre, Applied Geophysics and Geothermal Energy, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, D-52056 Aachen, Germany (c.clauser@geophysik.rwth-aachen.de ) 2 RWTH Aachen University, Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, Germany 3 University of Bayreuth, Hydrology, Bayreuth, Germany 4 University of Stuttgart, Hydraulic Engineering, Stuttgart, Germany 5 RWTH Aachen University, Geology and Geochemistry of Petroleum and Coal, Aachen, Germany 6 GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam GFZ, Potsdam, Germany 7 RWTH Aachen University, Clay and Interface Mineralogy, Aachen, Germany Introduction In order to retard further global warming, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is acknowledged as a technically and geoscientifically feasible option for reducing green house gas emissions into the atmosphere. Amongst several other R&D projects related to carbon dioxide storage in depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, saline aquifers, or unminable coal seams, the R&D project CO 2 TRAP (http://www.co2trap.org ) focuses on mineral and physical trapping of CO 2 as a permanent and inherently safe storage option. The CO 2 TRAP project is currently performed within the German R&D program “Geotechnologien, Investigation, Use and Protection of the Underground” (http://www.geotechnologien.de/index_en.html ), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Science Foundation (DFG). Besides from this, the project is supported by several industry partners, which are the power generating company RWE Power and the E&P company RWE Dea, Evonik New Energies GmbH as an electric power and heat provider, Deutsche Steinkohle AG DSK, involved in German hard coal mining, and, DMT, who offers, amongst others, services in mining, exploration, systems, and civil engineering. In the scope of the CO 2 TRAP project, we study and evaluate two different trapping technologies, mineralogical and physical, applied to future potential candidate storage sites, geothermal reservoirs, and abandoned coal mines. The project also considers site specific geological and technical settings, as well as the availability of different reactive raw materials.