Abstract

CCS is generally estimated to have to account for about 20% of the reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. This paper focuses on the technical aspects of CO2 storage, even if the CCS challenge is equally dependent upon finding viable international solutions to a wide range of economic, political and cultural issues. It has already been demonstrated that it is technically possible to store adequate amounts of CO2 in the subsurface (Sleipner, InSalah, Snohvit). The large-scale storage challenge (several Gigatons of CO2 per year) is more an issue of minimizing cost without compromising safety, and of making international regulations.The storage challenge may be split into 4 main parts: 1) finding reservoirs with adequate storage capacity, 2) make sure that the sealing capacity above the reservoir is sufficient, 3) build the infrastructure for transport, drilling and injection, and 4) set up and perform the necessary monitoring activities. More than 150 years of worldwide experience from the production of oil and gas is an important source of competence for CO2 storage. The storage challenge is however different in three important aspects: 1) the storage activity results in pressure increase in the subsurface, 2) there is no production of fluids that give important feedback on reservoir performance, and 3) the monitoring requirement will have to extend for a much longer time into the future than what is needed during oil and gas production. An important property of CO2 is that its behaviour in the subsurface is significantly different from that of oil and gas. CO2 in contact with water is reactive and corrosive, and may impose great damage on both man-made and natural materials, if proper precautions are not executed. On the other hand, the long-term effect of most of these reactions is that a large amount of CO2 will become immobilized and permanently stored as solid carbonate minerals. The reduced opportunity for direct monitoring of fluid samples close to the reservoir, the general pressure build up, and the reactive nature of CO2 , have created a need for new research and knowledge, to be used in conjunction with operating competence from the oil and gas industry. Experimental work on fluid flow, deformation and reaction, as well as simulations to predict the future performance of the injected CO2 , are much more important in connection with CO2 storage, as compared with conventional oil and gas production. To conclude this overview of the CO2 storage challenge, the technical feasibility of large-scale CO2 storage has been demonstrated. The cost is however going to be significant, especially in the initial phase. The public acceptance of CCS, and the willingness to pay the bill, will depend on several important factors: a serious acceptance of the climate problem, economic and political regulations that are globally fair, and the willingness of each and one of us to accept a higher price for energy.

Highlights

  • The Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) is a research foundation with a broad focus on all the important energy sources and carriers

  • Summary. — carbon capture and storage (CCS) is generally estimated to have to account for about 20% of the reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere

  • This paper focuses on the technical aspects of CO2 storage, even if the CCS challenge is dependent upon finding viable international solutions to a wide range of economic, political and cultural issues

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Summary

– Introduction

The largest challenge for effective large-scale CO2 storage is probably the displacement of the water that is occupying the sediments prior to injection This displacement has to take place at a much larger scale than the reservoir itself, and the time factor associated with the displacement is much shorter than for most other natural flow processes. A consequence of this is that large-scale storages must either rely on very large open system reservoirs with excellent flow properties laterally outside the reservoir, or alternatively the water displacement can be achieved by concomitant water production from wells at a distance from the CO2 injection wells This will add some cost to storage operations, but it will significantly increase the effective storage capacity, and at the same time reduce the risk for pressure build up and vertical leakage.

Strong cementation close to stylolites
Caprock Storage
Water wet cement
Findings
– Experiments

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