Abstract
The results provided by this study contribute to the geological characterization of a potential caprock-reservoir system for CO2 storage in the experimental area of the mining district of the Sulcis Coal Basin (south-western Sardinia, Italy). The work is aimed to improve the knowledge of the petrographic and petrophysical characteristics of the siliciclastic and carbonate geological formations that make up the potential caprock-reservoir system. Core samples from a number of wells drilled in the study area for mining purposes were analyzed especially for texture and physical properties (longitudinal velocity, density, porosity, and permeability). The preliminary integrated petrographic and petrophysical characterizations indicate that the Upper Paleocene to Early Eocene potential carbonate reservoir is heterogeneous but presents suitable reservoir zones for CO2. A preliminary analysis of the potential caprock siliciclastic lithologies of the Middle Eocene to Lower Oligocene suggests that they appear suitable for CO2 confinement. Finally, to account for the stability of the investigated area, an accurate geodynamical study of south-western Sardinia was carried out using global navigation satellite system and advanced differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar methodologies in order to estimate vertical and horizontal crustal displacements. The study area results stable, since it is characterized by surface crustal horizontal and vertical velocities smaller than 1 mm/year and few mm/year, respectively.
Highlights
The need to minimize the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is becoming greater and greater and carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are recognized by the scientific community as one of the essential approaches to contain global warming [1]
These analyses highlighted that the studied rocks of the Cixerri are of a siliciclastic nature and heterogeneous in terms of grain size and composition
The analysis of all the experimental data acquired during this study provides an essential contribution to the geological characterization of the caprock–reservoir system made up respectively of the Middle Eocene to Lower Oligocene continental siliciclastic Cixerri Fm. and the Upper Paleocene to
Summary
The need to minimize the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is becoming greater and greater and carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies are recognized by the scientific community as one of the essential approaches to contain global warming [1]. Sequestration of industrial emissions in adequate geologic formations—as well as the development of CO2 capture and utilization technologies—has become a current necessity. CO2 injection in depleted oil or gas fields) are currently fully commercial, even though they are still characterized by very high capital and operating costs [3,4]. This is the reason why further technology development is still essential. In geological areas suitable for CO2 storage, the stability of the land surface must be checked [7,8] both before injection and during and after storage, which includes during the characterization of the site
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