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Title: Applicability of aquifer impact models to support decisions at CO2 sequestration sites

Journal Article · · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The National Risk Assessment Partnership has developed a suite of tools to assess and manage risk at CO 2 sequestration sites. This capability includes polynomial or look-up table based reduced-order models (ROMs) that predict the impact of CO 2 and brine leaks on overlying aquifers. The development of these computationally-efficient models and the underlying reactive transport simulations they emulate has been documented elsewhere (Carroll et al., 2014a,b; Dai et al., 2014; Keating et al., 2016). In this paper, we seek to demonstrate applicability of ROM-based analysis by considering what types of decisions and aquifer types would benefit from the ROM analysis. We present four hypothetical examples where applying ROMs, in ensemble mode, could support decisions during a geologic CO 2 sequestration project. These decisions pertain to site selection, site characterization, monitoring network evaluation, and health impacts. In all cases, we consider potential brine/CO 2 leak rates at the base of the aquifer to be uncertain. We show that derived probabilities provide information relevant to the decision at hand. Although the ROMs were developed using site-specific data from two aquifers (High Plains and Edwards), the models accept aquifer characteristics as variable inputs and so they may have more broad applicability. We conclude that pH and TDS predictions are the most transferable to other aquifers based on the analysis of the nine water quality metrics (pH, TDS, 4 trace metals, 3 organic compounds). Guidelines are presented for determining the aquifer types for which the ROMs should be applicable.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV (United States); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; AC05-76RL01830; AC02-05CH11231; AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1394966
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1396565; OSTI ID: 1454486; OSTI ID: 1463023
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-28985; PNNL-SA-114632; LLNL-JRNL-737443
Journal Information:
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 52, Issue C; ISSN 1750-5836
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 23 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Geologic Carbon Sequestration: Sustainability and Environmental Risk book December 2017
Application of the Aquifer Impact Model to support decisions at a CO 2 sequestration site : Modeling and Analysis: Application of the Aquifer Impact Model to support decisions at a CO journal October 2017
Modeling the potential impacts of CO 2 sequestration on shallow groundwater: The fate of trace metals and organic compounds before and after leakage stops : Original Research Article: Modeling the potential impacts of CO journal September 2017
Geologic Carbon Sequestration: Sustainability and Environmental Risk book January 2019

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Earth Sciences
Carbon sequestration
Groundwater impacts
Risk assessment
Reduced-order modeling
58 GEOSCIENCES