Optimal matching between CO2 sources in Jiangsu province and sinks in Subei‐Southern South Yellow Sea basin, China

An understanding of CO2 sources, sinks, and their optimal matching relationships is helpful when making an initial assessment or making decisions regarding CO2 sequestration. One of the most populous and developed provinces in China, Jiangsu, is facing tremendous pressure to reduce CO2 emissions. This study assessed CO2 emissions from large, stationary CO2 sources and the CO2 geological storage capacity for the Jiangsu province, and studied their optimal geographical matching relationships. The results of the study show that major, large, stationary sources have a total of 730.75 Mt/year CO2 emissions, and the majority of them are located in southern Jiangsu. The Subei‐Southern South Yellow Sea basin, with a total storage capacity of 5.21 × 104 Mt, can be subdivided into 28 storage blocks based on the faults. Source‐sink geographical matching shows that the locations of the sources and the matched sinks are approximately translational. When the entire Subei‐Southern South Yellow basin was chosen as an option for CO2 sinks, the sinks that matched to the northern Jiangsu CO2 sources were mainly located in the onshore northern Subei basin. The northern sources tended to match the north sinks of the northern Subei basin. The CO2 from the southern Jiangsu should be stored in the southern Subei basin and the offshore Southern South Yellow basin. When only the offshore storage blocks are optional CO2 sinks, the CO2 sources in the northern and central Jiangsu mainly match the sinks in the northwestern Southern South Yellow basin. The CO2 sources from southern Jiangsu mainly match the sinks in the southern and eastern Southern South Yellow basin. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.