Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership Research Articles

The PCOR Partnership Initiative: The State of the Region

The PCOR Initiative, a 5-year project beginning in early 2020, is one of four newly selected regional initiative awards funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The PCOR Initiative will accelerate the deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in the central and northwestern region of North America, comprising ten U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. With extensive fossil fuel resources, large-scale anthropogenic CO2 sources, and geologic storage options, this region provides all of the essential elements necessary for infrastructure development and widespread CCUS deployment. The project builds on 16 years of applied research undertaken by the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership throughout the northern Great Plains, including the successful assessment and monitoring of over 6 million metric tons of associated CO2 storage, incidental to enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations at the Bell Creek oil field in southeastrn Montana. Managed by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the PCOR Initiative is supported by the North Dakota Industrial Commission, through the Oil and Gas and Lignite Research Programs, and by research partners at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and the University of Wyoming. Many of the 120+ previous PCOR Partnership member organizations are supporting this new initiative, with additional members also expected. Our team also includes the partners associated with Project Tundra, which constitutes the largest planned capture of CO2 in the world from a power generation facility. With many partners actively engaged in commercial projects, the PCOR Initiative draws together a powerful team to advance and accelerate CCUS deployment in the region and satisfy the objectives put forth by DOE. The PCOR Initiative will identify and address onshore regional storage and transport challenges facing commercial deployment of CCUS within its region. To achieve this, the PCOR Initiative will 1) address key technical challenges by advancing critical knowledge and capabilities; 2) facilitate data collection, sharing, analysis, and collaboration; 3) evaluate regional infrastructure challenges and needs; and 4) promote regional technology transfer. The PCOR Initiative will engage federal and state regulators in the region to support the continued development and knowledge transfer of regulatory policies to accelerate the deployment of CCUS. The regulatory efforts will focus on understanding the federal and state permitting processes and timing and address major regulatory topics, including pore space ownership, practical approaches to defining the area of review, and management of the long-term liability associated with a closed storage site. The PCOR Initiative will facilitate dialogue regarding the status of CCUS projects and regulatory challenges, with an emphasis on knowledge transfer between states with active CCUS projects and Class VI primacy and states with less CCUS development and no CCUS regulations established. North Dakota is the only state currently with Class VI primacy, and Wyoming has a pending Class VI primacy application. These states can provide valuable insight to other states by sharing their learnings from the Class VI primacy application process and Class VI regulatory program implementation at the state level. The expected outcomes of the PCOR Initiative include: • Solving technical challenges through collaboration, and addressing issues including stacked storage; storage optimization; effective monitoring, verification, and accounting strategies; and risk assessment resulting in increased regulator and industry confidence. • Advancing knowledge transfer and data sharing to develop key technologies, including National Risk Assessment Partnership tools and machine-learning applications, through collaboration with the DOE National Laboratory Network complex. • Accelerating CCUS through the evaluation and promotion of infrastructure requirements, building stakeholder support through techno- and socioeconomic assessments. • Promoting regional technology transfer to accelerate infrastructure development and deployment of CCUS, and building regulatory confidence and supporting business case developments that support the CCUS goals of the DOE Fossil Energy Program.

An Improved Numerical Modeling and Simulation Study of the Aquistore CO2 Storage Project

The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership (PCOR) Program, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), regularly updates a numerical model of the Aquistore storage site and conducts simulation work as more injection and monitoring data become available for integration. The significance of the latest work presented in this paper is related to the integration of periodic monitoring data (CO2 flow profile at the injection well and CO2 breakthrough profile at the observation well) into the history-matching workflow using an assisted history-matching workflow to calibrate the simulation model further and provide a better predictive model to help optimize CO2 storage performance.

Regionwide Outreach in a Project-level World – Lessons from the PCOR Partnership

Public acceptance is critical to the successful implementation of geologic CO2 storage projects. As such, the U.S. Department of Energy mandated that project-based outreach be included in its regional partnerships as part of its Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Initiative. In 2003, the Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership initiated a multifaceted, multilevel outreach program in tandem with its characterization and demonstration activities in the north central portion of North America. This paper discusses the role of outreach in the PCOR Partnership, methods employed, and select lessons learned over 13 years of doing public outreach.

Numerical Modeling of the Aquistore CO2 Storage Project

Serving as a storage site for the world's first commercial postcombustion carbon capture, utilization, and storage project from a coal-fired power generation facility, the Aquistore project commenced injection operations in April 2015 at a site near SaskPower's Boundary Dam Power Station. The Energy & Environmental Research Center, through its Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, is collaborating with the Petroleum Technology Research Centre and SaskPower to continue PCOR Partnership efforts to numerically model and interpret the performance of the project's injection well and observation well to improve monitoring, verification, and accounting strategies based on history-matching and predictive simulation results.

Monitoring 3.2 Million Tonnes of CO2 at the Bell Creek Oil Field

A research-monitoring program is being conducted at the Bell Creek oil field by the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center, to evaluate and demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of strategies for monitoring CO2 storage associated with a commercial enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project. The Bell Creek oil field, operated by Denbury Onshore LLC as a commercial EOR project, is an oil-bearing, Lower Cretaceous sandstone reservoir located in southeastern Montana, USA. CO2 injection for commercial EOR began in May 2013 and has resulted in over 3.2 million tonnes of associated CO2 storage as of July 2016.

Model development of the Aquistore CO2 storage project

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, through the Energy & Environmental Research Center, is collaborating with Petroleum Technology Research Centre in site characterization; risk assessment; public outreach; and monitoring, verification, and accounting activities at the Aquistore project. The PCOR Partnership constructed a static geological model to assess the potential volumetric storage capacity of the Aquistore site and provide the foundation for dynamic simulation for the dynamic CO2 storage capacity. Results of the predictive simulations will be used in the risk assessment process to define an overall monitoring plan and assure stakeholders that the injected CO2 will remain safely stored.

CO2-Sequestration Projects Adding Value

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper IPTC 17089, ’The Plains CO2-Reduction Partnership: CO2-Sequestration Demonstration Projects Adding Value to the Oil and Gas Industry,’ by Charles D. Gorecki, Edward N. Steadman, John A. Harju, James A. Sorensen, John A. Hamling, SPE, Lisa S. Botnen, Scott C. Ayash, and Katherine K. Anagnost, Energy & Environmental Research Center, prepared for the 2013 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Beijing, 26-28 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) in geological media can be an important means for reducing anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions. Several geological settings are appropriate for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), including depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep brine-saturated formations, CO2-flood enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) operations, and enhanced coalbed-methane recovery. The US Department of Energy is pursuing a program to demonstrate CCUS technology through its Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (RCSP) program. Introduction The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center, is one of seven regional partnerships established under the RCSP program. The PCOR partnership region includes all or part of nine US states and four Canadian provinces (Fig. 1) and is made up of many private- and public-sector groups working to identify the most-suitable CO2-storage strategies and technologies, aid regulatory development, educate the general public, and investigate appropriate infrastructure for CCUS commercialization within its region. The Phase-III program includes two commercial-scale projects—the Fort Nelson carbon- capture and -storage (CCS) feasibility project and the Bell Creek CO2-EOR/CO2-storage project. Fort Nelson. The PCOR partnership and Spectra Energy Transmission are investigating CCUS to mitigate CO2 emissions produced by the Fort Nelson Gas Plant (FNGP) as a waste stream from natural-gas processing. FNGP is near the town of Fort Nelson in northeastern British Columbia, Canada (Fig. 2). The gas stream will include up to 5% hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and a small amount of methane (a sour-CO2 stream). The goal is to capture the stream of sour CO2 that is separated by the current gas-processing operations and store it long term in a deep saline formation. Currently, this sour CO2 is processed in an existing sulfur plant to recover elemental sulfur, and the residual CO2 and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are passed through an incinerator before venting to the atmosphere.

Methodology for Phased Development of a Hypothetical Pipeline Network for CO2 Transport during Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage

If implemented on a commercial scale, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) has the potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Moving the CO2 from the point sources to the geologic storage locations will likely require a pipeline network. The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership developed a four-step methodology that can be used to estimate the length, cost, and time frame of a hypothetical pipeline network that would be built in phases. The methodology was tested during a case study in which a hypothetical phased pipeline network was estimated for the PCOR Partnership region. The hypothetical pipeline network consisted of trunk lines roughly 10 780 km in total length that could provide an overall CO2 reduction for the region of about 555.6 Mtonnes of CO2/year by 2050. The results also indicate that an extensive pipeline network may not be required to transport to storage locations the quantity of CO2 required to meet the emission reduction targets for the PCOR Partners...

Overview of the Bell Creek Combined CO2 Storage and CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Project

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center, is working with Denbury Onshore LLC (Denbury) to characterize and monitor a large-scale CO2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and CO2 storage project at the Bell Creek oil field located in southeastern Montana, USA. Denbury owns and operates the field and will carry out the commercial EOR project. The PCOR Partnership is applying an integrated approach to site characterization, modeling, predictive simulation, risk assessment, and monitoring to improve understanding of the interrelationship between CO2 storage and EOR in a clastic reservoir.

A Phased Approach to Building a Hypothetical Pipeline Network for CO2 Transport During CCUS

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage continue to receive attention as a way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and would likely employ a pipeline network to transport the CO2 to the storage locations. The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership estimated how a theoretical CO2 pipeline network might be built out in the PCOR Partnership region, over what time frame it might be built, and how much it might cost. It was found that a hypothetical pipeline network of trunk lines roughly 10,780km in total length could provide an overall CO2 reduction for the region of about 555.6 Mtonnes CO2/yr by 2050.

The Role of Static and Dynamic Modeling in the Fort Nelson CCS Project

Spectra Energy Transmission and the Energy & Environmental Research Center, through the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, are investigating potential commercial-scale carbon capture and storage in a saline formation near Fort Nelson, British Columbia, Canada, by conducting detailed modeling and predictive simulations of injection at the Fort Nelson site. The results of the Fort Nelson modeling activities are providing insight regarding the movement of sour CO2; the potential effects that large-scale sour CO2 injection may have on neighboring natural gas production fields; and the deployment of selected monitoring, verification, and accounting techniques.

Overview, Status, and Future of the Fort Nelson CCS Project

The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership, led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center, and Spectra Energy Transmission (SET) are investigating the feasibility of a carbon capture and storage project to mitigate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced by SET's Fort Nelson Gas Plant in British Columbia, Canada. The project applies an integrated philosophy combining geologic characterization, modeling, risk assessment, and monitoring into an iterative process, producing superior-quality results during the project feasibility and development periods. Results to date suggest that the geology and hydrogeology of the project area are amenable to large-scale, long-term geologic storage of CO2.

Experimental investigations of the effects of acid gas (H2S / CO2 ) exposure under geological sequestration conditions

Abstract Acid gas (mixed CO 2 and H 2 S) injection into geological formations is increasingly used as a disposal option. For example, more than 40 acid gas injection projects are currently operating in Alberta, Canada . In contrast to pure CO 2 injection, there is little understanding of the possible effects of acid gases under geological sequestration conditions on exposed materials ranging from reactions with reservoir minerals to the stability of proppants injected to improve oil recovery to the possible failure of wellbore cements. The number of laboratory studies investigating effects of acid gas has been limited by safety concerns and the difficulty in preparing and maintaining single-phase H 2 S/ CO 2 mixtures under the experimental pressures and temperatures required. In an effort to address the lack of experimental data addressing the potential effects of acid gas injection, the Plains CO 2 Reduction Partnership (PCOR) in the United States has developed approaches using conventional syringe pumps (ISCO 260D pumps) and reactor vessels (Parr Instruments) to prepare and maintain H 2 S/ CO 2 mixtures under relevant sequestration conditions of temperature, pressure, and exposure to water and dissolved salts. Exposures up to several months can be conducted at temperatures and pressures up to 350 °C and 414 bar (6000 psi) using any desired H 2 S/ CO 2 mole ratio. Up to 16 individual samples racked in separate glass vials can be exposed at one time, and the use of separate glass vessels allows different salt brine concentrations to be evaluated. In addition to performing static exposure experiments, the pumps and vessels are sufficiently leakfree that reaction rates can be determined by monitoring mass flow at the pumps. Interestingly, this is much easier to perform for reactions with H 2 S than with CO 2 , because H 2 S is much less compressible and has lower Joule–Thompson heating/cooling effects than CO 2 . Thus, obtaining accurate values for the mass of CO 2 used during an experiment based on pump volume is much more difficult than for H 2 S, although controlling the pump cylinder temperature with a water jacket allows reasonable measurements to be made. These systems have been used to determine reaction rates of model systems, such as the formation of magnesium carbonate from magnesium silicate and the formation of pyrite from iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ). For example, the use of H 2 S (as measured at the pump) was steady at ca. 0.5 grams per day (for 18.6 grams of Fe 3 O 4 ) until the reaction was complete. The half-life of the reaction was 20 days, and the mass balance (0.54 moles H 2 S actual compared to 0.48 moles theoretical) was reasonable.

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership: Developing Carbon Management Options for the Central Interior of North America

Abstract The Plains CO 2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership has developed a regional vision for the widespread commercial development of carbon capture and storage (CCS). This regional vision includes several key elements: (1) targeting relatively low-cost anthropogenic CO 2 sources such as gas-processing facilities; (2) employing CO 2 -based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) opportunities as initial sink targets whenever the economics and geology are favorable; (3) using the existing oil and gas regulatory structure and agencies for oversight; (4) developing a protocol for the establishment of geologic sequestration units that is based on the standard oil field practice of unitization; (5) developing rigorous site selection criteria that will allow for the adoption of commercially viable monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) procedures; (6) developing integrated risk management, MVA, and simulation project plans that continue to evolve as the project progresses and more data become available; and (7) developing the technical information needed for our commercial partners to ultimately monetize carbon credits to reduce the costs of CCS projects. The realization of this vision will result in the development of commercial CCS projects, both saline formation injection and EOR-based opportunities in the PCOR Partnership region, which has very favorable geology and socioeconomic conditions for the widespread adoption of CCS.

Northwest McGregor field CO2 Huff ‘n’ Puff: A case study of the application of field monitoring and modeling techniques for CO2 prediction and accounting

Northwest McGregor field CO2 Huff ‘n’ Puff: A case study of the application of field monitoring and modeling techniques for CO2 prediction and accounting

The Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership: developing CO2 sequestration opportunities for the central interior of North America

Abstract The Plains CO 2 (PCOR) Reduction Partnership is demonstrating the efficacy of CO 2 sequestration in the central interior of North America through regional characterization and multiple validation and demonstration activities. Four CO 2 sequestration field validation tests are at various stages of implementation: three that will store CO 2 in the deep subsurface and one that will store carbon in the near-surface soils and sediments of wetlands and associated grasslands. The PCOR Partnership is initiating two demonstration projects focusing on full-scale injection of CO 2 into deep saline geologic formations for CO 2 sequestration. Public outreach is addressed in part through the creation of several 30-minute documentaries.