Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection

Keating, Elizabeth; Dempsey, David; Pawar, Rajesh

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529

Title: Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO₂ Injection

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

The capacity for fault systems to be reactivated by fluid injection is well-known. In the context of CO₂ sequestration, however, the consequence of reactivated faults with respect to leakage and monitoring is poorly understood. Using multi-phase fluid flow simulations, this study addresses key questions concerning the likelihood of ruptures, the timing of consequent upward leakage of CO₂, and the effectiveness of pressure monitoring in the reservoir and overlying zones for rupture detection. A range of injection scenarios was simulated using random sampling of uncertain parameters. These include the assumed distance between the injector and the vulnerable fault zone, the critical overpressure required for the fault to rupture, reservoir permeability, and the CO₂ injection rate. We assumed a conservative scenario, in which if at any time during the five-year simulations the critical fault overpressure is exceeded, the fault permeability is assumed to instantaneously increase. For the purposes of conservatism we assume that CO₂ injection continues ‘blindly’ after fault rupture. We show that, despite this assumption, in most cases the CO₂ plume does not reach the base of the ruptured fault after 5 years. As a result, one possible implication of this result is that leak mitigation strategies such as pressure managementmore »« less

Authors:

Keating, Elizabeth ^[1]; Dempsey, David ^[2]; Pawar, Rajesh ^[1]

Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
The Univ. of Aukland, Auckland (New Zealand)

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 Office of Fossil Energy (FE), Clean Coal and Carbon Management

OSTI Identifier:: 1417169

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-17-28171
Journal ID: ISSN 1876-6102

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

Resource Type:: Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:: Energy Procedia

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 114; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 1876-6102

Publisher:: Elsevier

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 58 GEOSCIENCES; Earth Sciences; leak detection; pressure monitoring; fault rupture

Citation Formats


                    Keating, Elizabeth, Dempsey, David, and Pawar, Rajesh. Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection.  United States: N. p., 2017. 
Web.  doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529.

Copy to clipboard


                    Keating, Elizabeth, Dempsey, David, & Pawar, Rajesh. Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529

Copy to clipboard


                    Keating, Elizabeth, Dempsey, David, and Pawar, Rajesh. Fri .  
"Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1417169.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1417169,

  title        = {Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection},

  author       = {Keating, Elizabeth and Dempsey, David and Pawar, Rajesh},

  abstractNote = {The capacity for fault systems to be reactivated by fluid injection is well-known. In the context of CO2 sequestration, however, the consequence of reactivated faults with respect to leakage and monitoring is poorly understood. Using multi-phase fluid flow simulations, this study addresses key questions concerning the likelihood of ruptures, the timing of consequent upward leakage of CO2, and the effectiveness of pressure monitoring in the reservoir and overlying zones for rupture detection. A range of injection scenarios was simulated using random sampling of uncertain parameters. These include the assumed distance between the injector and the vulnerable fault zone, the critical overpressure required for the fault to rupture, reservoir permeability, and the CO2 injection rate. We assumed a conservative scenario, in which if at any time during the five-year simulations the critical fault overpressure is exceeded, the fault permeability is assumed to instantaneously increase. For the purposes of conservatism we assume that CO2 injection continues ‘blindly’ after fault rupture. We show that, despite this assumption, in most cases the CO2 plume does not reach the base of the ruptured fault after 5 years. As a result, one possible implication of this result is that leak mitigation strategies such as pressure management have a reasonable chance of preventing a CO2 leak.},

  doi          = {10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529},

  journal      = {Energy Procedia},

  number       = C,

  volume       = 114,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017},

  month        = {Fri Aug 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Publisher's Version of Record

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1529

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 1 work

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Effective detection of CO₂ leakage: a comparison of groundwater sampling and pressure monitoring

Journal Article Keating, Elizabeth ; Dai, Zhenxue ; Dempsey, David ; ... - Energy Procedia (Online)

Shallow aquifer monitoring is likely to be a required aspect to any geologic CO₂ sequestration operation. Collecting groundwater samples and analyzing for geochemical parameters such as pH, alkalinity, total dissolved carbon, and trace metals has been suggested by a number of authors as a possible strategy to detect CO₂ leakage. The effectiveness of this approach, however, will depend on the hydrodynamics of the leak-induced CO₂ plume and the spatial distribution of the monitoring wells relative to the origin of the leak. To our knowledge, the expected effectiveness of groundwater sampling to detect CO₂ leakage has not yet been quantitatively assessed.more »« less
Cited by 19
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.448

Full Text Available
Geomechanical effects on CO₂ leakage through fault zones during large-scale underground injection

Journal Article Rinaldi, Antonio P. ; Rutqvist, Jonny ; Cappa, Frédéric - International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

The importance of geomechanics—including the potential for faults to reactivate during large-scale geologic carbon sequestration operations—has recently become more widely recognized. However, notwithstanding the potential for triggering notable (felt) seismic events, the potential for buoyancy-driven CO₂ to reach potable groundwater and the ground surface is actually more important from public safety and storage-efficiency perspectives. In this context, this paper extends the previous studies on the geomechanical modeling of fault responses during underground carbon dioxide injection, focusing on the short-term integrity of the sealing caprock, and hence on the potential for leakage of either brine or CO₂ to reach the shallowmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.11.001

Full Text Available
Simulation of Coupled Processes of Flow, Transport, and Storage of CO₂ in Saline Aquifers

Technical Report Wu, Yu-Shu ; Chen, Zizhong ; Kazemi, Hossein ; ...

This report is the final scientific one for the award DE- FE0000988 entitled “Simulation of Coupled Processes of Flow, Transport, and Storage of CO₂ in Saline Aquifers.” The work has been divided into six tasks. In task, “Development of a Three-Phase Non-Isothermal CO₂ Flow Module,” we developed a fluid property module for brine-CO₂ mixtures designed to handle all possible phase combinations of aqueous phase, sub-critical liquid and gaseous CO₂, supercritical CO₂, and solid salt. The thermodynamic and thermophysical properties of brine-CO₂ mixtures (density, viscosity, and specific enthalpy of fluid phases; partitioning of mass components among the different phases) use themore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/1167349

Full Text Available
Influence of Chemical, Mechanical, and Transport Processes on Wellbore Leakage from Geologic CO₂ Storage Reservoirs

Journal Article Carroll, Susan A. ; Iyer, Jaisree ; Walsh, Stuart D. C. - Accounts of Chemical Research

Wells are considered to be high-risk pathways for fluid leakage from geologic CO₂ storage reservoirs, because breaches in this engineered system have the potential to connect the reservoir to groundwater resources and the atmosphere. Given these concerns, a few studies have assessed leakage risk by evaluating regulatory records, often self-reported, documenting leakage in gas fields. Leakage is thought to be governed largely by initial well-construction quality and the method of well abandonment. The geologic carbon storage community has raised further concerns because acidic fluids in the CO₂ storage reservoir, alkaline cement meant to isolate the reservoir fluids from the overlyingmore »« less
Cited by 34
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.accounts.7b00094
Seismic rupture and ground accelerations induced by CO₂ injection in the shallow crust

Journal Article Cappa, Frédéric ; Rutqvist, Jonny - Geophysical Journal International

We present that because of the critically stressed nature of the upper crust, the injection of large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into shallow geological reservoirs can trigger seismicity and induce ground deformations when the injection increases the fluid pressure in the vicinity of potentially seismic faults. The increased fluid pressure reduces the strength against fault slip, allowing the stored elastic energy to be released in seismic events that can produce felt ground accelerations. Here, we seek to explore the likelihood ground motions induced by a CO₂ injection using hydromechanical modelling with multiphase fluid flow and dynamic rupture, including fault-frictionalmore »« less
Cited by 64
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2012.05606.x

Full Text Available

Similar Records

Title: Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO2 Injection

Abstract

Citation Formats

Title: Pressure Monitoring to Detect Fault Rupture Due to CO₂ Injection