Targeted Pressure Management During CO2 Sequestration: Optimization of Well Placement and Brine Extraction
Large-scale pressure increases resulting from carbon dioxide (CO2) injection in the subsurface can potentially impact caprock integrity, induce reactivation of critically stressed faults, and drive CO2 or brine through conductive features into shallow groundwater. Pressure management involving the extraction of native fluids from storage formations can be used to minimize pressure increases while maximizing CO2 storage. However, brine extraction requires pumping, transportation, possibly treatment, and disposal of substantial volumes of extracted brackish or saline water, all of which can be technically challenging and expensive. This paper describes a constrained differential evolution (CDE) algorithm for optimal well placement and injection/ extraction control with the goal of minimizing brine extraction while achieving predefined pressure contraints. The CDE methodology was tested for a simple optimization problem whose solution can be partially obtained with a gradient-based optimization methodology. The CDE successfully estimated the true global optimum for both extraction well location and extraction rate, needed for the test problem. A more complex example application of the developed strategy was also presented for a hypothetical CO2 storage scenario in a heterogeneous reservoir consisting of a critically stressed fault nearby an injection zone. Through the CDE optimization algorithm coupled to a numerical vertically-averaged reservoir model, we successfully estimated optimal rates and locations for CO2 injection and brine extraction wells while simultaneously satisfying multiple pressure buildup constraints to avoid fault activation and caprock fracturing. The study shows that the CDE methodology is a very promising tool to solve also other optimization problems related to GCS, such as reducing ‘Area of Review’, monitoring design, reducing risk of leakage and increasing storage capacity and trapping.
- 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:
- 1829103
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1203640
- Journal Information:
- Energy Procedia (Online), Journal Name: Energy Procedia (Online) Vol. 63 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 1876-6102
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- Netherlands
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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