MORE | Spring 2025

Synthesis of Carbon Storage Reservoir Storage Durations: a Literature Review

Limiting global warming to 2.0°C requires anthropogenic CO₂ removal activities to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and “durably store” it in reservoirs. The available carbon reservoirs (mineral formations, ocean storage, soil reservoirs, etc.) have notably different storage durations, ranging from decades to over ten thousand years. These differing timescales have significant impacts on the development of carbon industry standards. To date, no study has synthesized source data of storage duration estimates for each type of reservoir. A literature review utilizing snowballing and Boolean methods was used to collect and categorize duration estimates for each reservoir to better inform standards development.