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Title: Merits of pressure and geochemical data as indicators of CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer

Abstract

This study assesses the merits of pressure data and geochemical data as indicators of a combined CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer. We simulate the changes in three aquifer responses (pressure, total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH) due to CO2/brine leakage at an abandoned well with an uncertain location and hypothesize that these changes can only be observed from a single shallow monitoring well, mimicking the low density of observation wells for the considered aquifer. Specifically, detection likelihoods are calculated to describe how frequently pressure, TDS, and pH signals will coincide with a leak for observations made at different distances and times from the initiation of the CO2/brine leakage rate. The pressure signal gives a more spatially extensive signal than either TDS or pH, and pressure detection probabilities increase upstream of flow barriers (pressurizing-affect). The pH and TDS rebound down-stream of the flow barriers. Finally, when only considering the samples that experience the highest leakage volumes, there is a 50% likelihood of detecting a pressure change 400 m away at times ≥30 years. However, the TDS and pH detection likelihoods are <20% at 100 m distance for times ≥30 years.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States). Dept. of Geophysics
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
OSTI Identifier:
1466953
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1396560
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-737589
Journal ID: ISSN 1750-5836; 890471
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 52; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1750-5836
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; CO2 storage; CO2 and brine leakage; Monitoring; Reactive transport; Detectability

Citation Formats

Trainor-Guitton, Whitney, Mansoor, Kayyum, Sun, Yunwei, and Carroll, Susan. Merits of pressure and geochemical data as indicators of CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.07.002.
Trainor-Guitton, Whitney, Mansoor, Kayyum, Sun, Yunwei, & Carroll, Susan. Merits of pressure and geochemical data as indicators of CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.07.002
Trainor-Guitton, Whitney, Mansoor, Kayyum, Sun, Yunwei, and Carroll, Susan. Mon . "Merits of pressure and geochemical data as indicators of CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.07.002. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1466953.
@article{osti_1466953,
title = {Merits of pressure and geochemical data as indicators of CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer},
author = {Trainor-Guitton, Whitney and Mansoor, Kayyum and Sun, Yunwei and Carroll, Susan},
abstractNote = {This study assesses the merits of pressure data and geochemical data as indicators of a combined CO2/brine leakage into a heterogeneous, sedimentary aquifer. We simulate the changes in three aquifer responses (pressure, total dissolved solids (TDS), and pH) due to CO2/brine leakage at an abandoned well with an uncertain location and hypothesize that these changes can only be observed from a single shallow monitoring well, mimicking the low density of observation wells for the considered aquifer. Specifically, detection likelihoods are calculated to describe how frequently pressure, TDS, and pH signals will coincide with a leak for observations made at different distances and times from the initiation of the CO2/brine leakage rate. The pressure signal gives a more spatially extensive signal than either TDS or pH, and pressure detection probabilities increase upstream of flow barriers (pressurizing-affect). The pH and TDS rebound down-stream of the flow barriers. Finally, when only considering the samples that experience the highest leakage volumes, there is a 50% likelihood of detecting a pressure change 400 m away at times ≥30 years. However, the TDS and pH detection likelihoods are <20% at 100 m distance for times ≥30 years.},
doi = {10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.07.002},
journal = {International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control},
number = C,
volume = 52,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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Cited by: 13 works
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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Sensitivity thresholds of groundwater parameters for detecting CO2 leakage at a geologic carbon sequestration site
journal, October 2019

  • Berger, Peter M.; Wimmer, Bracken; Iranmanesh, Abbas
  • Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Vol. 191, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1007/s10661-019-7880-7