Geological Sequestration and Resource Utilization of Carbon Dioxide

Dear Colleagues,

In line with the global commitment to carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) is widely recognized as an indispensable technological pillar for deep decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors (iron and steel, cement, chemical engineering, fossil energy, etc.), and the only scalable approach to achieve long-term, large-scale negative carbon emissions. Within the CCUS technology chain, geological sequestration is the core link for permanent and safe isolation of CO₂ from the atmosphere, while geological resource utilization unlocks the economic value of captured CO₂ through subsurface engineering, creating a win-win model of carbon reduction and low-carbon circular economy. The integrated development of CO₂ geological sequestration and resource utilization has become a cutting-edge, high-priority research direction in the global energy, geological and environmental fields.

Despite rapid global advances in related technologies and engineering practices, critical scientific bottlenecks and technical challenges remain unaddressed: accurate characterization of CO₂ multi-physics and multi-phase flow mechanisms across pore–core–reservoir–basin scales, quantitative evaluation of storage capacity, long-term sealing integrity and safety of complex geological formations, development of low-cost, high-precision monitoring and early warning systems for storage projects, efficiency improvement and cost reduction of CO₂ in situ resource conversion, techno-economic optimization of sequestration–utilization synergy projects, and improvement of policy support and commercialization systems for CCUS industrialization. Emerging technologies, including physics-informed machine learning for multi-scale CO₂ storage simulation, large language model (LLM)-empowered full-lifecycle intelligent decision-making, AI-driven intelligent optimization of CO₂ storage operations, mineral carbonation, unconventional reservoir storage, and integrated systems coupling CO₂ geological utilization with renewable energy and underground energy storage, also require in-depth exploration and breakthroughs.

This Special Issue aims to gather cutting-edge original research, authoritative review articles, engineering case studies, and technical notes on CO₂ geological sequestration and resource utilization from global scholars and industry experts. We seek to build a high-level academic exchange platform for researchers, engineers, and policymakers in this field, to address key scientific questions and technical challenges, promote technological innovation and industrial application of CCUS, and ultimately contribute to the global net-zero emissions target.

We welcome submissions covering, but not limited to, the following topics:

1. Multi-physics, multi-phase and multi-scale flow mechanisms of CO₂ in geological formations during sequestration;
2. Quantitative evaluation of CO₂ storage potential, long-term stability and sealing integrity in saline aquifers, oil and gas reservoirs, coal seams, basalt formations and other geological media;
3. CO₂-enhanced resource recovery technologies (EOR, EGR, ECBM, EGE, etc.) with synergistic geological sequestration;
4. Innovative integrated technologies for CO₂ geological sequestration and in situ resource utilization, including mineral carbonation, underground chemical synthesis and bio-conversion;
5. Low-cost, high-precision monitoring, early warning and environmental risk management technologies for the full lifecycle of CO₂ geological storage projects;
6. Application of artificial intelligence, digital twins, big data and numerical simulation in CO₂ migration prediction, injection scheme optimization and intelligent monitoring;
7. Novel pathways, materials and processes for CO₂ geological resource utilization, including subsurface production of low-carbon fuels, chemicals and mineral products;
8. Full lifecycle techno-economic analysis, carbon accounting methodology and environmental impact assessment of CO₂ sequestration and utilization projects;
9. Case studies of global typical CCUS demonstration and commercial projects, as well as policy, regulation and commercialization path research;
10. Integrated energy systems coupling CO₂ geological sequestration/utilization with renewable energy, hydrogen energy and underground energy storage.

This Special Issue accepts submissions of full-length original research articles, comprehensive review papers, short communications, and so on. All submissions will go through Energies’ rigorous peer-review process, with fast-track online publication upon acceptance. High-quality outstanding papers will be selected as the Featured Papers of this Special Issue.

Dr. Yanwei Wang
Prof. Dr. Fengjiao Wang
Dr. Huixing Zhu
Prof. Dr. Chuanjin Yao
Dr. Yuhao Zhou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• CCUS
• CO₂ storage
• CO₂ utilization
• CO₂ sequestration