Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security. Final Report
For the past two decades a slowly growing consensus has been that rising temperature is being caused by increases in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere. What is less consensual is what to do about it. Solutions range from reducing emissions to various ways to capture CO2 (from effluents of power plants, as plants, etc.) and store it away from the atmosphere. The problem is of such magnitude that it is likely that we will need many methods. Also some methods would cause draconian harm to global economies. This work is about the storage part of the reducing of CO2 in the atmosphere. There have been many methods proposed for storing CO2: in vegetation, at the bottom of oceans, in land farms, and in subsurface formations. The latter is particularly prominent given the large estimated volume in porous formation in the Earth, and the 50-year old experience in injecting CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. This report is about the science behind subsurface storage, called here geological carbon storage or GCS. Effective GCS requires that billions of metric tons of CO2 be injected into storage reservoirs annually. GCS feasibility requires balancing the opposing impacts of large emplacement (injection) rates without compromising caprock seal integrity during injection. Once injected, the challenge is to assure the injected CO2 remains permanently stored. Under most conditions, CO2 is in a supercritical state, or scCO2. scCO2 is immiscible with the subsurface brine and has a factor of ten smaller viscosity, leading to the development of two-phase fluid flow and scCO2 bypassing. After the injection of large volumes of scCO2, the pore pressure, state of stress, chemical, thermal, and biological steady-state or equilibrium conditions in the subsurface are disrupted, which may lead to unpredictable behavior because the responses to these changes are often non-linear. Current challenges for efficient and reliable scCO2 storage are: (1) sustaining large injection rates; (2) using available pore space efficiently, and (3) controlling undesired or unexpected behavior, such as scCO2 leakage. Various aspects of these challenges are addressed by collaborative projects within Center for Frontiers in Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES). Challenge 1 Sustaining large storage rates To offset the annual CO2 emissions of in the United States, ~7 billion metric tons of CO2 must be injected into the storage reservoirs annually. Injected CO2 forms a plume that starts spreading, displacing originally resident brine, though inefficiently so. Because of its low viscosity, and buoyant forces, a CO2 plume rises to the reservoir rock-caprock interface. Injecting large volumes of scCO2 at sufficiently high rates into subsurface storage formations leads to increases in pore pressures, potential expansion of the reservoir rock, and may result in fracturing of the reservoir rock and/or caprock. CFSES research uses existing and new experimental and modeling approaches to identify chemical-physical controls on the permeability and pore pressure dynamics, anticipating geomechanical (fracturing) events, predicting multi-phase flow patterns and trapping of CO2. Challenge 2 – Using pore space with unprecedented efficiency Since large volumes of scCO2 are to be stored, the volume available in storage reservoirs must be used efficiently. Storage efficiency is defined as a fraction of pore space occupied by carbon dioxide. Current estimates are that less than 5 percent of available pore volume is available for storage because scCO2, having a smaller density and viscosity than reservoir brine, tends to form viscous fingers, and bypass available pore space. This flow regime results in a CO2 plume spreading over large areas in subsurface. The research goal in Challenge 2 is to advance the fundamental understanding of two-phase flow through porous media, including molecular-to meter- scale experimental and modeling approaches. This work leads to novel strategies to ensure that injected CO2 occupies more than 5% of the pore space, ideally up to 50%. Challenge 3 – Controlling undesired or unexpected behavior Following the injection of scCO2, the subsurface reservoir re-equilibrates to different physical and chemical states. This re-equilibration in space and time could lead to unexpected and/or undesired behavior: fracturing of reservoir rock and/or caprock, development of preferential flow paths, CO2 leakage (to the surface or overlaying fresh water reservoirs), induced seismicity, and activation of faults. One of the main research goals of CFSES was to advance the fundamental understanding of how individual chemical and physical processes are coupled. We particularly focused on the chemical-mechanical coupling, and flow-mechanical coupling. We collected experimental and modeling data to determine the temporal and spatial scales of the coupled processes, which may lead to pore collapse caused by creep, activation of fractures and faults, chemically-induced fracture propagation, and self-focusing of scCO2 flow.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001114
- OSTI ID:
- 1503847
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UTAustin-0001114
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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