Underground Storage Of Carbon Dioxide Research Articles

Evaluation of various available options in hydrodynamic modeling packages for modeling the underground storage of carbon dioxide in geological structures of various types

Evaluation of various available options in hydrodynamic modeling packages for modeling the underground storage of carbon dioxide in geological structures of various types

Kinetics of CO[formula omitted] dissolution for underground applications

In the current energy transition context, underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in salt caverns and aquifers has emerged as a promising solution for the Power-to-Gas process complications. However, mass exchange between the CO2 and the aqueous phase present in the storage site remains a major problem. This paper addresses the question of the kinetics of this mass exchange by performing both experimental and numerical investigations. A series of experiments under storage conditions were carried out in a PVT (Pressure–Volume–Temperature) cell, exposing a volume of CO2 to pure water or brine at low and high pressure values ranging between 10 and 16.8 MPa and at constant temperatures of 30 and 40 °C. In order to interpret the obtained experimental results and to characterize the transient mass exchange, two modeling approaches were developed: a simplified one based on pure diffusion, and a second combining pure diffusion with density-driven natural convection. Both modeling approaches have proven accurate in predicting the kinetics of CO2 dissolution. The scope of this study is limited to the laboratory scale but it can be used to quantify the CO2 dissolution on the storage site scale.

Applicability of natural geological objects for storage, disposal and utilization of carbon dioxide (review)

In the context of the current trend, today we are focused on low-carbon energy, so the question of carbon dioxide utilization is very important. Underground storage of carbon dioxide is an important part of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and a key technology to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. There are currently many carbon dioxide capture projects around the world, but each project has its own specifics. The article discusses the features of carbon dioxide capture in natural geological reservoirs and the principles of carbon dioxide retention in them. An example of some Carbon Capture in a natural geological reservoirs projects are given. The choice of a natural reservoir, the development of a technology for its identification and justification criteria are of key importance for the environmentally sustainable capture of carbon dioxide.

Selecting Geological Formations for CO2 Storage: A Comparative Rating System

Underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in geological formations plays a vital role in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. It involves capturing CO2 emissions from industrial processes and power generation and storing them underground, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and curbing the impact of climate change. This review paper features a comparative analysis of CO2 storage in deep saline aquifers, depleted reservoirs, coal seams, basaltic formations and clastic formations. The comparison has been drawn based upon seven factors carefully selected from the literature, i.e., safety, storage capacity, injection rates, efficiency, residual trapping, containment and integrity and potential to improve, and all of these factors have been rated from low (1) to high (5) based upon their individual traits. Based upon these factors, an overall M.H. rating system has been developed to categorize geological formations for CO2 storage and it is observed that deep water aquifers and basaltic formations are the most effective options for CO2 storage. Lastly, a detailed way forward has been suggested, which can help researchers and policymakers to find more viable ways to enhance the efficiency of CO2 storage in various geological formations.

Underground storage of carbon dioxide

Decarbonization in the global economy is impossible without large-scale implementation of trapping, disposal and storage of carbon. Holding colossal resources for natural storage, Russia can greatly reduce its carbon footprint by burying carbon dioxide. Reliability of carbon dioxide burial depends on the geological, geochemical and methodological conditions of underground storage of this gas. Researchers have found that favorable underground storages are the depleted oil and gas reservoirs, nonminable coal seams, deep-level salt-bearing strata and other porous media in the Earth’s crust. It recommended to introduce a three-level monitoring of atmospheric emission of carbon dioxide as a result of natural phenomena (outgassing from the Earth) and human activities both on land and sea. The first level is the space monitoring: monitoring of atmospheric concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide in various ranges; monitoring of natural gas and oil occurrences on land and sea. The second level is the use of unmanned vehicles. The third level is the ground surface monitoring: real-time monitoring of the underground geological environment from a geophysical observatory; spectral laser and radar detection; monitoring of carbon dioxide concentrations using laser absorption spectroscopy and distributed sensor networks.

Experimental evaluation of rock mineralogy on hydrogen-wettability: Implications for hydrogen geo-storage

Global energy demand is increasing every year, and we face the drawbacks of extensive fossil fuel use in our daily lives more than ever. Hydrogen (H2) is currently assessed as an alternative energy source useful for industries due to its zero post-combustion emission. However, H2 is extremely compressible and volatile, making it difficult to transport and store at the surface. The underground storage of carbon dioxide has been practiced for many years in the oil and gas industry. Thus, implementing a similar approach for H2 seems promising. There is a serious lack of wettability and interfacial tension (IFT) data on H2 exposed to subsurface formations and fluids. Such data are essential for studying the H2 storage/withdrawal capacity in subsurface reservoirs. The role of mineralogy on the wettability of rock is well established; therefore, the influence of the rock type (e.g., calcite, dolomite, quartz, shale, anhydrite, gypsum, granite, and basalt) on the wettability (i.e., the contact angle) of a rock/H2/brine system was evaluated in this work based on realistic (aged with stearic acid) subsurface conditions (pressure: 10–100 bar and temperature: 20 °C–80 °C). In addition, the IFT in the H2/aqueous phase (distilled water and formation brine) was determined. With H2, the organically aged surfaces of calcite, dolomite, shale, and anhydrite become neutral-wet or slightly nonwater-wet. However, the wettability of quartz, granite, gypsum, and basalt samples remain slightly or strongly water-wet with increased pressure and temperature, suggesting higher capacities for H2 geo-storage purposes. The results also indicate that the H2/liquid IFT in DI water and brine increase with increased temperature and salinity, whereas the H2/liquid IFT drops sharply with increased pressure. Thus, the H2/liquid IFT and H2-wettability data for various minerals provide a comprehensive view and reveal the importance of mineral composition. The reservoir schemes and models should gauge the data in this work to correctly estimate geo-storage capacity based on rock mineralogy. The data can improve the feasibility of industrial-scale H2 geo-storage projects and reduce uncertainty and improve containment security.

Generalizable Framework of Unpaired Domain Transfer and Deep Learning for the Processing of Real-Time Synchrotron-Based X-Ray Microcomputed Tomography Images of Complex Structures

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions by underground carbon dioxide storage or by coupling intermittent renewable energy with underground hydrogen storage are solutions essential to the future of energy. Of particular importance to the success of underground storage is the fundamental understanding of geochemical reactions with mineralogical phases and flow behavior at the length scale at which interfaces are well resolved. Fast synchrotron-based three-dimensional x-ray microcomputed tomography (\textmu{}CT) of rocks is a widely used technique that provides real-time visualization of fluid flow and transport mechanisms. However, fast imaging results in significant noise and artifacts that complicate the extraction of quantitative data beyond the basic identification of solid and void regions. To address this issue, an image-processing workflow is introduced that begins with unpaired domain transfer by cycle-consistent adversarial network, which is used to transfer synchrotron-based \textmu{}CT images containing fast-imaging-associated noise to long-scan high-quality \textmu{}CT images that have paired ground truth labels for all phases. The second part of the workflow is multimineral segmentation of images using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Four CNNs are trained using the transferred dynamic-style \textmu{}CT images. A quantitative assessment of physically meaningful parameters and material properties is carried out. In terms of physical accuracy, the results show a high variance for each network output, which indicates that the segmentation performance cannot be fully revealed by pixel-wise accuracy alone. Overall, the integration of unpaired domain transfer with CNN-based multimineral segmentation provides a generalizable digital material framework to study the physics of porous materials for energy-related applications, such as underground ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ and ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ storage.

Experimental and simulation study of the tensile strength of wet carbonate rocks using the Brazilian Test

Mechanical behavior of rocks would have substantial implications for different operations from fluid injection and hydraulic fracturing in hydrocarbon reservoirs to underground carbon dioxide storage in the crust of the earth. In all of these operations, restricting the undesired seismicity events and preserving the integrity of formations is a crucial subject that enforces engineers to evaluate the mechanical behaviors of constituent rocks and predict the formation response. Tensile strength is an important factor for maintaining caprock and reservoir formation from induced tensile cracking which can be influenced by the pore fluid. This paper focuses on the tensile strength of carbonate rock, as an important reservoir rock, in the presence of seawater, as a common injection fluid candidate for enhanced oil recovery objectives. For this purpose, twelve dolomite samples from the Asmari-Jahrum Formation outcrop in Fars province, Iran, were prepared for performing tensile tests. Also for a thorough comparison, sample properties, fluid contents, digital image correlation measurements, and a finite element simulation have been investigated. The experimental results showed a noticeable reduction in the tensile strength of dolomite samples in the presence of distilled water and seawater. In comparison with a dry sample though, a reduction of 16% tensile strength for a seawater saturated sample was observed for similar samples. Among the various mechanisms, which are reported in the open literature, the hydration force seems to be the main reason for the tensile strength reduction and this conclusion was examined by measuring the mass of vaporized adsorbed water on the powder of the same dolomite sample. In addition by testing flooded samples, the impact of flow on the tensile strength was examined. For both cases of seawater and distilled water flooding, the samples which were placed in the outlet zone during the flooding showed lower tensile strength. Moreover, simulation results confirmed the similarity of the weakening trend and impact of seawater.

FEES GOVERNED BY THE GEOLOGICAL AND MINING LAW IN THE LIGHT OF THE PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The article evaluates the fees governed by the act of 9 June 2011 Geological and Mining Law using the criteria determined by the directives of the principle of sustainable development. It focuses on subjects and rates of the fees in order as follows: the fees for the prospecting for or exploration of mineral deposits and an underground carbon dioxide storage complex, the exploitation fee and the fees for underground storage of substances, storage of waste, or storage of carbon dioxide. After that the article analyzes more general aspects of problem, connected with application of relevant provisions of the act of 29 August 1997- the Tax Ordinance and with the redistribution of fees. The author came to the conclusion that the fees concentrate on the fiscal function and do not sufficiently contribute to the implementation of the principle of sustainable development.

Determining phenol partition coefficient values in water- and industrial process water-supercritical CO2 systems using direct aqueous SFE apparatus simultaneously interfaced with on-line SFC and on-line HPLC

Instrument configurations and methods have been developed to rapidly obtain partition coefficient (K) values of organic compounds distributed between SF−CO2 and water. The procedures use a stirred aqueous SFE system interfaced with both on-line SFC and HPLC instruments. Phenol served as model compound. Initial work involved determining phenol K values using pure water standards through temperatures 318 K, 328 K, 338 K and eight pressures from 8.62 MPa to 20.68 MPa. Due to operational requirements of the two different chromatography interfaces, on-line SFC provided more advantages than on-line HPLC to determine K values. The combined instrumentation is ideally suited to determine K data for individual organic compounds present in complex mixtures partitioned between SF−CO2 and various industrial and geological sources of water including those associated with underground carbon dioxide storage facilities. The K values of phenol in steel industry process water containing many other SF−CO2 soluble organic pollutants were determined.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PORE SPACE IN LOWER TRIASSIC SANDSTONES OF THE WARSAW REGION

Reservoir and sealing properties of Lower Triassic sandstones from seven boreholes of the central part of the Koszalin-Zamość Synclinorium were investigated in terms of potential levels for underground storage of carbon dioxide. Extensive petrographic studies, image analysis, and investigations of petrophysical properties of rocks and pore space were carried out. The research shows that diagenetic processes both variously affected the intensity of alteration and variously shaped the pore space. Not only primary but also secondary porosity, resulting from diagenetic alteration and dissolution, is observed in the rocks. Microscopic observations revealed that the pore space in studied samples is dominated by macropores. The results obtained indicate a poor suitability of the Lower Triassic deposits for the purpose of carbon dioxide sequestration.

Permeability characteristics of layered composite coal-rock under true triaxial stress conditions

It is important to understand the gas flow properties in coal and sandstone under different stress conditions for underground carbon dioxide storage and coal bed gas drainage in underground engineering. In an actual project, the rock layers are complex and varied, and the in situ stress presents a significant three-dimensional anisotropy (σ1 > σ2 ≠ σ3). Although a large amount of data on the permeability of coal have been reported previously, studies on the permeability of layered composite coal rock under true triaxial stress conditions are lacking. In this study, the permeability of layered composite coal rock under true triaxial stress conditions was measured by using a true triaxial apparatus. Under experimental stress conditions, the permeability always decreased as the principal stress increased. The thickness changes in coal seams and sandstone formations have major influences on the evolution of composite coal rock permeability. Furthermore, the normalized permeability increases with the thickness ratio of sandstone to coal. We analyzed the stress state of layered composite coal rock by considering the interaction of coal and sandstone under true triaxial stress conditions. Based on the anisotropy consideration of coal rock and the stress difference of composite coal rock masses, a permeability model for layered composite coal rock under true triaxial stress condition was proposed (TCP model: layered composite coal rock permeability model). It was found that this model can well reflect the permeability characteristics of composite coal rock under true triaxial stress conditions while simultaneously considering the effect of the three principal stresses and the mutual strain restraint effects of coal and sandstone.

Integrated Assessment of Ground Surface Displacements at the Ketzin Pilot Site for CO2 Storage by Satellite-Based Measurements and Hydromechanical Simulations

There has been growing interests in recent years for the safe underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a potential technology for preventing this greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. As suitable locations for geological storage may be diverse, the applicability of various geodetic and geophysical methods for surveillance and monitoring purposes must be investigated. In this paper, we evaluate the ground surface displacement at the Ketzin pilot site for CO2 storage in Germany, using satellite-based measurements and hydromechanical simulations. The InSAR observations, using more than four years of TerraSAR-X data from 2009 to 2013, reflect the stability of the Ketzin pilot site (long-term velocity <0.5 mm/year) in conjunction with the accumulated CO2 volume in the reservoir. This can be due to the low overall pressure change, with a maximum of 16 bar, which is not causing significant surface displacement. However, such overall stability can be interrupted temporarily, as detected within the InSAR time series for a distinct period of noninjection from May to December 2012 (subsidence of 2.8 mm). This is supported by our hydromechanical simulation results, exhibiting a maximum ground surface subsidence of approximately 1 mm during this period, and by a comparison with variations in bottomhole pressure, indicating a positive correlation of 80%.

Research Progress in Carbon Dioxide Storage and Enhanced Oil Recovery

With the rapid development of global economy, human beings have become highly dependent upon fossil fuel such as coal and petroleum. Much fossil fuel is consumed in industrial production and human life. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions have been increasing, and the greenhouse effects thereby generated are posing serious threats to environment of the earth. These years, increasing average global temperature, frequent extreme weather events and climatic changes cause material disasters to the world. After scientists’ long-term research, ample evidences have proven that emissions of greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide have brought about tremendous changes to global climate. To really reduce carbon dioxide emissions, governments of different countries and international organizations have invested much money and human resources in performing research related to carbon dioxide emissions. Manual underground carbon dioxide storage and carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery are schemes with great potential and prospect for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Compared with other schemes for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, aforementioned two schemes exhibit high storage capacity and yield considerable economic benefits, so they have become research focuses for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. This paper introduces the research progress in underground carbon dioxide storage and enhanced oil recovery, pointing out the significance and necessity of carbon dioxide-driven enhanced oil recovery.

CCS AS ONE OF the CO2 EMISSION REDUCTION METHODS

Information presented in the article allows us to introduce one of the ways of reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions responsible for the temperature increase and climate change. This is the technology of capture and underground storage of carbon dioxide in geologic structures (Carbon Capture and Storage/Sequestration – CCS). Most of the large-scale CCS projects (i.e. capture and storage of an order of magnitude of 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year) operate in the United States and Canada. Many of them are associated with the use of CO2 captured from the industrial processes for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The presented examples of projects are: Boundary Dam Integrated Carbon Capture and Sequestration Demonstration Project (Canada), Great Plains Synfuels and Weyburn-Midale Project (Canada), and Kemper County IGCC Project (United States). CCS projects are crucial for demonstrating the technological readiness and reduce the cost of wider commercial implementation of capture and geological storage of CO2. The status of the projects on geological storage of CO2 in 2015 is 15 large-scale CCS projects operating around the world, and 7 projects in execution.

Underground storage of carbon dioxide in the Harvey area, south-west Western Australia

Underground storage of carbon dioxide as a means of reducing atmospheric emissions of CO2 has been examined both theoretically and practically over the past decade. There is a large amount of research and field experience in the energy sector to show that underground storage of CO2 is feasible. The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute has identified 38i large-scale projects (operating and/or in the planning) with many companies currently sequestering tons of CO2 per year. This paper reports on static and dynamic modelling studies conducted on the Harvey structure, onshore Perth Basin, to assess the suitability of the Lesueur Sandstone in the Lower Lesueur Region of Western Australia as a potential geological CO2 sequestration site. The study area for this project within this structure covers 332 km2 and is located approximately 13 km north-west of the town of Harvey, south of Perth. The static and dynamic modelling investigated a suite of full field simulation models that cover a range of subsurface uncertainties providing confidence that the CO2 plume stays below 800 mTVDss (metres true vertical depth sub sea) within the storage complex for more than 1000 years after injection ceases. The results of the modelling show that it could be feasible to inject 800 000 tonnes CO2 per annum over 30 years into the storage complex. Modelling studies shows that the main factors controlling CO2 plume migration are trapped gas saturation and the solubility of CO2 in brine.

Reactive transport modeling of leaking CO2-saturated brine along a fractured pathway

One concern regarding the underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) is its potential leakage from reservoirs. Over short period of time, the leakage risk is related mainly to CO2 as a separate supercritical fluid phase. However, over longer periods upon complete dissolution of injected CO2 in the fluid, the leakage risk is associated with dissolved phase CO2. Over the geological time scales, large-scale groundwater motion may cause displacement of brine containing dissolved CO2 along the conducting pathways. In this paper, we present a comprehensive modeling framework that describes the reactive transport of CO2-saturated brine along a fracture in the clay caprock based on the future, hypothetical leakage of the dissolved phase CO2. This study shows that the transport of leaked dissolved CO2 is significantly retarded by a combination of various physical and geochemical processes, such as mass exchange between conducting fracture and the neighboring rock matrix through molecular diffusion, sorption and calcite dissolution in the rock matrix. Mass stored in aqueous and adsorbed states in the rock matrix caused retention of dissolved CO2 along the leakage pathway. Calcite dissolution reaction in the rock matrix resulted in consumption of leaking dissolved CO2 and reduced its mass along the leakage pathway. Consumption and retention of dissolved CO2 along the leakage pathway have important implications for analyzing the potential reduction of CO2 fluxes from storage reservoirs over large periods and long travel pathways.

Interplay of Montmorillonite–H2O–scCO2 System between Mechanical Behavior and Adsorption: Molecular Dynamics

Montmorillonite (MMT) constitutes most of fine-grained sedimentary rock, such as shale, mudstone, and siltstone. It is also applied in underground storage of carbon dioxide, petroleum drilling engineering, and material engineering. Although adsorption and mechanical behavior in MMT–H2O–CO2 is widely studied, little is known about interplay between them. In this work, we have investigated the interplay between mechanical behavior and adsorption in MMT with different proportion of H2O and CO2 content under super critical condition by molecular dynamic (MD) method. With respect to the calculated results, adsorption of H2O and CO2 can diminish stiffness of MMT. Meanwhile, diffusion of H2O and CO2 weakens because of stronger constrains deriving from geometry structure and hydrogen bond as the system undergoing compression test. Moreover, motion of H2O is restrained by CO2 molecules as self-diffusion coefficient decrease with the increase of CO2. Hydrated MMT is more sensitive to deformation vertical to clay sh...

Development of a Novel Method To Evaluate Well Integrity During CO2 Underground Storage

Summary A safe and ecologic underground storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) requires long-term integrity of the wells affected by the injected CO2, including both active wells and abandoned wells. In line with other investigators, technical integrity is assumed if there is no significant leak in the subsurface system from the storage reservoir. The evaluation of integrity of abandoned wells over a long time frame during CO2 underground storage can only be performed indirectly and requires a comprehensive understanding of relevant thermal/hydraulic/mechanical/chemical processes affecting well integrity. This paper presents an integrated approach coupling qualitative features, events, and processes (FEPs) and scenario analysis with quantitative-model development and consequence analysis. The qualitative analysis provides a solid and comprehensive study on all the FEPs that affect well integrity. The mechanical model presents the stress distribution of the casing/cement/rock composite system and provides a quantification of the defect dimension caused by different load conditions. The defect dimension can be used to compute equivalent permeability of the cement sheath by use of empirical correlations, which is an important input parameter for the following CO2-leakage simulation, provided it is considered that CO2 can only migrate through the defects instead of the cement matrix. When integrity is compromised, the storage reservoir will leak CO2. For this leakage, a numerical model is presented to simulate the flow of CO2 along abandoned wellbores during the storage period, such as 1,000 years. It is found from the FEP analysis that the most-critical system components are caprock, casing/cement/rock composite system, and abandonment elements. By building a geomechanical model and a leakage model, it is also found that in the simulated scenarios the CO2-leakage rate is very small except for when using cement sheaths of very poor quality, which can lead to a leakage rate exceeding the maximum-allowable value. The sensitivity analysis shows that the vertical permeability of the cement sheath plays the most critical role. In comparison with previous studies, this method is comprehensive and easy to implement.

Determination of changes in the reservoir and cap rocks of the Chabowo Anticline caused by CO2–brine–rock interactions

The article describes the changes taking place in the rock matrix (reservoir and cap rock) due to the effect of carbon dioxide in the presence of brine. The experiment was carried out on samples of Lower Jurassic sandstones (reservoir rocks) and claystones (cap rocks) from Chabowo 1 and Chabowo 3 boreholes, Chabowo Anticline (NW Poland)—a potential structure for underground storage of carbon dioxide. Rock samples were placed for a period of 18months in a designed apparatus system and the experiment was performed under the conditions of T=25°C and P=6MPa, by soaking the rock samples in a brine of simplified chemical composition similar to the brine present in the rock formation analysed. Mineral composition was determine by observation in transmitted light, XRD and SEM-EDS. In order to perform the changes in the individual mineral phases, using the SEM- EDS method, the results of mineralogical and petrographic observations of the same rock samples before and after the experiment are presented. Dissolution and precipitation processes of minerals were observed as the result of the experiment. Corrosion-prone minerals were feldspars, etchings were observed on pyrite and mica grains. The dominant mineral phase formed after the experiment was halite (which caused the precipitation of this mineral after the evaporation of brine). Precipitation of poorly developed kaolinite crystals was also observed. The long-term experiment conducted at low temperature and pressure showed similar changes that are obtained in the experiments carried out for the actual reservoir conditions, but on a smaller scale.