Carbon dioxide storage potential in Malaysian sandstone aquifer: an overview

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission rate from energy industries in Malaysia has increased exponentially in these few years. Based on this alarming increment of CO2 emission rate from previous data, carbon dioxide sequestration in deep saline aquifer has been identified as one of the way to reduce and overcome the increment of CO2 emission rate in Malaysian atmosphere. Malaysian geology consists of enormous amount of deep saline aquifer which most of the aquifer material is sandstone. Malay Basin has been identified as the most potential basin for CO2 sequestration in Malaysia by previous researchers. There are four sites in Malay Basin which has potential to be CO2 sequestration site such as Jerneh, Dulang, Tangga and Semangkok because they contain the formation of fine-grained sandstone, mudstone and coal properties. This paper aims to discuss CO2 storage potential in Malaysian sandstone aquifer particularly Malay Basin in terms of potential injection location, properties of Malaysian sandstone aquifer, available technologies of injection, injection parameter as well as issues and challenges of carbon sequestration implementation in Malaysia.