Unleashing tomorrow's potential: A comprehensive exploration of risks in carbon capture and storage

Amid the pursuit of carbon neutrality goals worldwide, countries are shifting from mere plans to practical actions in response to climate change. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), an important carbon reduction technology, has received attention and research. However, the actual implementation scale of CCS projects falls short of expectations, with some projects encountering failure attributed to insufficient risk assessment. To tackle the challenges arising from potential deviations in future large-scale CCS deployment, this study employs bibliometric methods to analyze 834 published studies, clarifying the current global development status of CCS technology and the efforts of various countries in this field. We carefully investigate the potential multi-faceted risks that may cause inconsistencies between the speed of CCS deployment and the requirements for achieving carbon neutrality. The findings illuminate that existing research focuses on technical barriers and the technical risks caused by supply-demand mismatches, as well as safety and health risks stemming from CO₂ leakage, accounting for 27.1 % and 26.6 % respectively. A minor proportion of research indicates that ambiguity in the global understanding of geological utilization and storage potential, also presents significant challenges. Furthermore, there is a notable dearth of research addressing the intricate interdependencies and mutual feedback mechanisms among the diverse risks involved in CCS deployment, which include economic, market, health and safety, environmental, social, and regulatory factors. Finally, this study posits potential future research directions for CCS risk assessment, underscoring the need to propel CCS risk assessment initiatives to establish a comprehensive system and unlock its full emission reduction potential.