skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Using Pressure and Volumetric Approaches to Estimate CO2 Storage Capacity in Deep Saline Aquifers

Journal Article · · Energy Procedia (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3]
  1. Total, Pau (France)
  2. Alberta Innovates Technology Futures, Edmonton (Canada)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. British Geological Survey, Nottingham (United Kingdom)
  5. TNO, Utrecht (Netherlands)

Various approaches are used to evaluate the capacity of saline aquifers to store CO2, resulting in a wide range of capacity estimates for a given aquifer. The two approaches most used are the volumetric “open aquifer” and “closed aquifer” approaches. We present four full-scale aquifer cases, where CO2 storage capacity is evaluated both volumetrically (with “open” and/or “closed” approaches) and through flow modeling. These examples show that the “open aquifer” CO2 storage capacity estimation can strongly exceed the cumulative CO2 injection from the flow model, whereas the “closed aquifer” estimates are a closer approximation to the flow-model derived capacity. An analogy to oil recovery mechanisms is presented, where the primary oil recovery mechanism is compared to CO2 aquifer storage without producing formation water; and the secondary oil recovery mechanism (water flooding) is compared to CO2 aquifer storage performed simultaneously with extraction of water for pressure maintenance. This analogy supports the finding that the “closed aquifer” approach produces a better estimate of CO2 storage without water extraction, and highlights the need for any CO2 storage estimate to specify whether it is intended to represent CO2 storage capacity with or without water extraction.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1207904
Journal Information:
Energy Procedia (Online), Vol. 63, Issue C; ISSN 1876-6102
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (11)

CO2 storage capacity estimation: Issues and development of standards journal April 2007
CO2 storage capacity estimation: Methodology and gaps journal October 2007
Investigations regarding the storage of carbon dioxide in aquifers in the Netherlands journal May 1992
Disposal of carbon dioxide in aquifers in the U.S. journal June 1995
A method for quick assessment of CO2 storage capacity in closed and semi-closed saline formations journal October 2008
Have We Overestimated Saline Aquifer CO 2 Storage Capacities? journal January 2011
Basin-scale hydrogeologic impacts of CO2 storage: Capacity and regulatory implications journal December 2009
Modeling Basin- and Plume-Scale Processes of CO2 Storage for Full-Scale Deployment journal December 2009
On scale and magnitude of pressure build-up induced by large-scale geologic storage of CO2 journal March 2011
The impact of boundary conditions on CO2 storage capacity estimation in aquifers journal January 2011
CO 2 migration in saline aquifers. Part 1. Capillary trapping under slope and groundwater flow journal September 2010

Cited By (3)

Response surface modeling of CO 2 dynamic storage efficiency factor in high permeability thick sandstones journal August 2019
Cost Implications of Uncertainty in CO2 Storage Resource Estimates: A Review journal August 2016
Assessment of CO2 storage capacity based on sparse data: Skade Formation journal December 2018