Alaska Railbelt carbon capture and storage (ARCCS)

Project Details

• Project ID:

  1709

• Nickname/Abbreviation:

  Carbon Capture

• Parent Project:

  Energy Resources Section projects

• Status:

  Active

• Description:

  This 2-year project proposes to determine the feasibility of developing a commercial-scale CO2 geologic storage complex able to store 50+ million metric tons (Mt) of CO2 in southcentral Alaska safely, permanently, and economically and fulfill the goals of the U.S. DOE's CarbonSAFE Program. In cooperation with UAF, DGGS's role in this project will be conducting new geological studies in three areas where key Cook Inlet reservoir intervals are exposed in outcrop: Beluga River area, western Susitna Basin, and Kachemak Bay. Work will include measured stratigraphic sections, supplemented with structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry to analyze 2-D stratigraphic architecture and lateral reservoir heterogeneity. A suite of samples will be collected and analyzed to better understand sandstone provenance, petrology, and reservoir quality; mudstone facies will be systematically collected for mercury injection capillary pressure analyses to evaluate seal character. This effort will be integrated with available surface and subsurface geologic data to construct improved structural, stratigraphic, and tectonic models for Cook Inlet and the Susitna Basin, thereby increasing our understanding of the region's potential to store CO2. Field work for 2025 will be conducted in the Tyonek/Susitna area and Homer area

• Project Date(s):

  2024 - present

• Primary Contact:

  Wartes, Marwan A.

• DGGS section:

  Energy Resources

• Project Participants:

  Marwan A. Wartes, Robert J. Gillis, Trystan M. Herriott, Nina T. Harun, Peter P. Flaig, Joshua H. Long, Kamil A. Qureshi

Publications

There are no primary publications for the Alaska Railbelt carbon capture and storage (ARCCS) project at this time.

Posters and Presentations

Qureshi, K.A. and others, 2026

Qureshi, K.A., Long, J.H., and Wartes, M.A., 2026, Applications of drone imagery and thermal remote sensing in energy resource exploration (presentation): 2026 Alaska Geosummit, Girdwood, Alaska, September 21–-23, 2026: Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys, 7 p. https://doi.org/10.14509/32153