Modeling the potential impacts of CO 2 sequestration on shallow groundwater: The fate of trace metals and organic compounds before and after leakage stops

Zheng, Liange; Spycher, Nicolas

doi:10.1002/ghg.1728

Modeling the potential impacts of CO ₂ sequestration on shallow groundwater: The fate of trace metals and organic compounds before and after leakage stops

Journal Article · Thu Sep 28 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1728· OSTI ID:1476617

^[1]; Spycher, Nicolas ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA USA

Large-scale deployment of CO₂ geological sequestration requires understanding and assessing the risks of such an operation. One of these risks is the potential contamination of groundwater by CO₂/brine leakage into shallow aquifers. Although our understanding of this issue has improved significantly over the last decade, several questions still need to be better addressed, including the fate of organic constituents, the dominant source of trace metals (are they mainly coming from aquifer sediments, or leaking brine), and whether the trace metals released during the leakage phase recover to background levels if the leakage were to be detected and stopped. In this paper, reactive transport simulations that model the behavior of trace metals and organic compounds in response to the leakage of CO₂ and brine into a shallow aquifer are presented to address these questions. Model results show that the metals and organic compounds brought by the leaking brine form a plume at the bottom of the aquifer because the density of the brine is higher than that of groundwater. In contrast, metals are mobilized by CO₂ over a larger vertical extent because of the spreading of gaseous CO₂ by buoyancy. The concentration of organic contaminants is strongly attenuated by adsorption and degradation, with degradation playing the major role in the modeled scenarios. Although the leaking brine is assumed to contain elevated concentrations of As, Pb, Cd, and Ba, it does not contribute significantly to the contamination of the modeled shallow aquifer by these elements. Once the leakage stops, mobilized organic compounds that undergo degradation vanish, while less degradable compounds linger for a longer time; the dissolved concentrations of trace metals decrease significantly, as a result of re-sorption and reversal of processes leading to Ca-driven cation exchange.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1476617

Journal Information:: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Journal Name: Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 8; ISSN 2152-3878

Publisher:: Society of Chemical Industry, WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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