Title: Injectivity Evaluation for Offshore CO ₂ Sequestration in Marine Sediments

Abstract

Global and regional climate change caused by greenhouse gases emissions has stimulated interest in developing various technologies (such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) geologic sequestration in brine reservoirs) to reduce the concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Our study develops a statistical framework to identify gravitational CO₂ trapping processes and to quantitatively evaluate both CO₂ injectivity (or storage capacity) and leakage potential from marine sediments which exhibit heterogeneous permeability and variable thicknesses. Here, we focus on sets of geostatistically-based heterogeneous models populated with fluid flow parameters from several reservoir sites in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM). A computationally efficient uncertainty quantification study was conducted with results suggesting that permeability heterogeneity and anisotropy, seawater depth, and sediment thickness can all significantly impact CO₂ flow and trapping. Large permeability/porosity heterogeneity can enhance gravitational, capillary, and dissolution trapping, which acts to deter CO₂ upward migration and subsequent leakage onto the seafloor. When log permeability variance is 5, self-sealing with heterogeneity-enhanced gravitation trapping can be achieved even when water depth is 1.2 km. This extends the previously identified self-sealing condition that water depth be greater than 2.7 km. Our results have yielded valuable insight into the conditions under which safe storage of CO₂ canmore » be achieved in offshore environments. The developed statistical framework is general and can be adapted to study other offshore sites worldwide.« less

Authors:

Dai, Zhenxue  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Dai, Zhenxue"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0805-7621"

Zhang, Ye ^[2]; Stauffer, Philip  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Stauffer, Philip"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6976-221X"

Xiao, Ting ^[3]; Zhang, Mingkan ^[2]; Ampomah, William ^[4]; Yang, Changbing ^[5]; Zhou, Youqin ^[5]; Ding, Mei ^[1]; Middleton, Richard  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Middleton, Richard"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8039-6601"

Soltanian, Mohamad Reza ^[6]; Bielicki, Jeffrey M. ^[7]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Division
2. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Geology and Geophysics
3. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Energy and Geosciences Inst.
4. Petroleum Recovery Research Center, Socorro, NM (United States)
5. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States). Bureau of Economic Geology
6. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). School of Earth Sciences
7. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Civil, Environmental, and Geodetic Engineering

Publication Date:

Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017

Research Org.:

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE

OSTI Identifier:

1378916

Report Number(s):

LA-UR-16-27675
Journal ID: ISSN 1876-6102

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC52-06NA25396; FC26-05NT42591

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Energy Procedia (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Energy Procedia (Online); Journal Volume: 114; Journal Issue: C; Conference: GHGT-13 ; 2016-11-14 - 2016-11-18 ; Lausanne, Switzerland; Journal ID: ISSN 1876-6102

Publisher:

Elsevier

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 58 GEOSCIENCES; Earth Sciences; gravitational trapping; offshore sediment; CO2 sequestration; injectivity; leakage potential; sediment heterogeneity