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Effectiveness of Geophysical Monitoring Methods in Detecting Brine and CO2 Leakage in Underground Sources of Drinking Water

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1460065· OSTI ID:1460065
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  1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  2. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, (United States)
The US DOE National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP), funded through the Office of Fossil Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is developing methods to evaluate the effectiveness of monitoring techniques to detect brine and CO2 leakage from legacy wells into underground sources of drinking water (USDW) overlying a CO2 storage reservoir. As part of the NRAP Strategic Monitoring task group, we have generated Kimberlina Rev. 1.1 of the simulated aquifer impact data (140 simulations) from a model framework based on a hypothetical, compartmentalized, CO2 storage reservoir near Kimberlina in the southern San Joaquin Basin, California. Brine and CO2 leakage along damaged wellbores results in subsurface changes in pressure, CO2 saturation and total dissolved solids (TDS). CO2 buoyancy allows a significant fraction of leaked CO2 to reach shallow permeable zones, which is more detectable by surface geophysical sensors. We generated synthetic geophysical data from the simulated aquifer impact data to assess electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), magnetotellurics (MT), gravity and seismic methods for remote and indirect detection of brine and CO2 leakage.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE); National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, and Morgantown, WV (United States)
Contributing Organization:
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States); Missouri State Univ., Springfield, MO (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1460065
Report Number(s):
LLNL-TR--752304; 938413
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English