Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization of Geological Sequestration of CO2

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh K. Agarwal

With heightened concerns on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal power plants, there has been a major emphasis in recent years on development of safe and economical geological carbon sequestration (GCS) technology. However, the detailed multiphase fluid dynamics and processes of GCS are not fully understood because various CO2 trapping mechanisms in geological formations have large variations in both spatial and temporal scales. As a result, there remain many uncertainties in determining the sequestration capacity of the reservoir and the safety of sequestered CO2 due to leakage. Furthermore, the sequestration efficiency is highly dependent on the CO2 injection strategy, which includes injection rate, injection pressure, and type of injection well, and its orientation, etc. The goal of GCS is to maximize the sequestration capacity and minimize the plume migration by optimizing the GCS operation. In this paper, first the basic fluid dynamics and trapping mechanisms for CO2 sequestration are briefly discussed. They are followed by a brief summary of current GCS projects worldwide with special emphasis on those in the United States. Majority of the paper is devoted to the numerical modeling, simulation, and optimization of CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers at macro spatial scales of a few to hundreds of kilometers and macro temporal scales of a few to hundreds of years. Examples of numerical simulations of a few large industrial scale projects are presented. The optimization studies include the investigation of various injection and well placement strategies to determine the optimal approach for maximizing the storage and minimizing the plume migration.

Author(s):  
Zheming Zhang ◽  
Ramesh Agarwal

With recent concerns on CO2 emissions from coal fired electricity generation plants; there has been major emphasis on the development of safe and economical Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology worldwide. Saline reservoirs are attractive geological sites for CO2 sequestration because of their huge capacity for sequestration. Over the last decade, numerical simulation codes have been developed in U.S, Europe and Japan to determine a priori the CO2 storage capacity of a saline aquifer and provide risk assessment with reasonable confidence before the actual deployment of CO2 sequestration can proceed with enormous investment. In U.S, TOUGH2 numerical simulator has been widely used for this purpose. However at present it does not have the capability to determine optimal parameters such as injection rate, injection pressure, injection depth for vertical and horizontal wells etc. for optimization of the CO2 storage capacity and for minimizing the leakage potential by confining the plume migration. This paper describes the development of a “Genetic Algorithm (GA)” based optimizer for TOUGH2 that can be used by the industry with good confidence to optimize the CO2 storage capacity in a saline aquifer of interest. This new code including the TOUGH2 and the GA optimizer is designated as “GATOUGH2”. It has been validated by conducting simulations of three widely used benchmark problems by the CCS researchers worldwide: (a) Study of CO2 plume evolution and leakage through an abandoned well, (b) Study of enhanced CH4 recovery in combination with CO2 storage in depleted gas reservoirs, and (c) Study of CO2 injection into a heterogeneous geological formation. Our results of these simulations are in excellent agreement with those of other researchers obtained with different codes. The validated code has been employed to optimize the proposed water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection scheme for (a) a vertical CO2 injection well and (b) a horizontal CO2 injection well, for optimizing the CO2 sequestration capacity of an aquifer. These optimized calculations are compared with the brute force nearly optimized results obtained by performing a large number of calculations. These comparisons demonstrate the significant efficiency and accuracy of GATOUGH2 as an optimizer for TOUGH2. This capability holds a great promise in studying a host of other problems in CO2 sequestration such as how to optimally accelerate the capillary trapping, accelerate the dissolution of CO2 in water or brine, and immobilize the CO2 plume.


2014 ◽  
Vol 137 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrauf Rasheed Adebayo ◽  
Hasan Y. Al-Yousef ◽  
Mohammed Mahmoud

This study investigates the prospect of using permanent downhole resistivity and temperature sensors for scale monitoring during CO2 sequestration in saline carbonate aquifer. Current industry practice involves continuous geochemical analysis of produced formation water and petrographic analysis of cuttings at the surface. A major limitation of such methods is that formation scale dynamics is not captured in situ and in real time. Moreover, high cost and compositional change of produced fluid caused by evolution of dissolved gases are other setbacks. In this study, resistivity and temperature measurements were logged continuously for several months at 30 min interval during CO2 storage in brine saturated core samples. Carbonate samples were acquired from Indiana outcrops in the United States and cut into cylindrical cores. Samples were saturated with synthetic formation brine and CO2 was injected and stored at a temperature of 45 °C, pore pressure of 2000 psig, and an overburden pressure of 2500 psig. The pressure, temperature and resistivity of samples were collected and transmitted to a PC computer at an interval of 30 min for the period of storage. A base line log recorded after CO2 injection but prior to CO2/brine/rock interaction (CBRI) allowed us to track onset of dissolution and precipitation. Deflection away from the baseline either inward or outward during the period of storage marks two distinct reaction phenomenon-dissolution and precipitation. Our hypothesis was justified by results of geochemical analysis of prestorage brine and poststorage brine, and also by petrographic study of the cores. Several other tests were also run to ensure consistency. This study is new compared to previous works in the following ways: Many previous works focused on the applicability of electrical resistivity measurements to track CO2 migration by way of resistivity change as a function of CO2 saturation changes during CO2 sequestration. Many others also studied the effect of CO2 injection on the petrophysical and electrical properties of rocks. Previous works of these types used continuous flow of fluid in and out of the sample and such flow experiments lasted only few hours. The fate of formation resistivity under static condition and at longer storage period was not considered.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pankaj Kumar Tiwari ◽  
Debasis Priyadarshan Das ◽  
Parimal Arjun Patil ◽  
Prasanna Chidambaram ◽  
Zoann Low ◽  
...  

Abstract The increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas (GHG) is creating environmental imbalance and affecting the climate adversely due to growing industrialization. Global leaders are emphasizing on controlling the production of GHG. However, growing demands of natural gas, industry is embarking on the development of high CO2 contaminant gas fields to meet supply gap. Development and management of contaminated hydrocarbon gas fields add additional dimension of sequestration of CO2 after production and separation in project management. CO2 sequestration is a process for eternity with a possibility of zero-degree failure. Monitoring, measuring and verification (MMV) of injected CO2 volume in sequestration is critical component along with geological site selection, transportation, storage process. The present study discusses all the impacting parameters which makes whole process environment friendly, economically prudent and adhering to national and international regulations. The migration of injected CO2 plume in the reservoir is uncertain and its monitoring is equally challenging. The role of MMV planning is critical in development of high CO2 contaminant fields of offshore Sarawak. It substantiates that injected CO2 in the reservoir is intact and safely stored for hundreds of years after injection and possesses minimum to no risk to HS&E. The deployment of Multi-Fiber Optic Sensor System (M-FOSS) promises a cost-effective solution for monitoring the lateral & vertical migration of CO2 plume by acquiring 4D DAS-VSP (Distributed Acoustic Sensor – Vertical Seismic Profile) survey and for the well integrity by analyzing DAS/DTS (Distributed Temperature Sensor)/DPS (Distributed Pressure Sensor)/DSS (Distributed Strain Sensor) data. Simulation results and injectivity test at laboratory for in-situ CO2 injection has demonstrated the possibility of over 100MMscfd/well injection in aquifer to meet the total CO2 injection of 1.2Bscfd for full field development while maintaining the reservoir integrity. Uncertainty & risk analysis shows possible presence of seismically undistinguished fractures and minor faults, an early breakthrough of injected CO2 cannot be ruled out. The depleted reservoir storage study divulges the containment capacity of identified carbonate reservoirs as well as conformance of potential storage sites. The fault-seal analysis and reservoir integrity studies determine the robustness of the long-term security of the CO2 storage. Injectivity study demonstrates the optimum and maximum possible rates of CO2 injection into these depleted gas reservoirs. VSP simulation results show that a subsurface coverage of 3-4 km2 per well is achievable, which along with simulated CO2 plume extent help to determine the number of wells required to get maximum monitoring coverage for the MMV planning. The deployment of M-FOSS technology is novel and proactive approach to monitor the CO2 plume migration and well integrity. First ever development of MMV Planning for CO2 Sequestration in offshore Sarawak, Malaysia using novel and cutting-edge M-FOSS technology for proactive monitoring of CO2 plume migration and well integrity.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pankaj Kumar Tiwari ◽  
Debasis Priyadarshan Das ◽  
Parimal Arjun Patil ◽  
Prasanna Chidambaram ◽  
Zoann Low ◽  
...  

Abstract CO2 sequestration is a process for eternity with a possibility of zero-degree failure. Monitoring, Measurement and Verification (MMV) planning of CO2 sequestration is crucial along with geological site selection, transportation and injection process. Several geological formations have been evaluated in the past for potential storage site which divulges the containment capacity of identified large, depleted gas reservoirs as well as long term conformance. Offshore environment makes MMV plan challenging and demands rigorous integration of monitoring technologies to optimize project economic and involved logistics. The role of MMV is critical for sustainability of the CO2 storage project as it ensures that injected CO2 in the reservoir is intact and safely stored for hundreds of years post-injection. Field specific MMV technologies for CO2 plume migration with proactive approach were identified after exercising pre-defined screening criteria. Marine CO2 dispersion study is carried out to confirm the impact of any potential leakage along existing wells and faults, and to understand the CO2 behavior in marine environment in the event of leakage. Study incorporates integration of G&G subsurface and Meta-Ocean & Environment data along with other leakage character information. Multi-Fiber Optic Sensors System (M-FOSS) to be installed in injector wells for monitoring well & reservoir integrity, overburden integrity and monitoring of early CO2 plume migration by acquiring & analyzing the distributed sensing data (DTS/DPS/DAS/DSS). Based on 3D couple modeling, a maximum injection rate of approximately 200 MMscfd of permeate stream produced from a high CO2 contaminated gas field can be achieved. Injectivity studies indicate that over 100 MMSCFD of CO2 injection rates into depleted gas reservoir is possible from a single injector. Injectivity results are integrated with dynamic simulation to determine number and location of injector wells. 3D DAS-VSP simulation results show that a subsurface coverage of approximately 3 km2 per well is achievable, which along with simulated CO2 plume extent help to determine the number of wells required to get maximum monitoring coverage for the MMV planning. As planned injector wells are field centric and storage site area is large, DAS-VSP find limited coverage to monitor the CO2 plume. To overcome this challenge, requirement of surface seismic acquisition survey is recommended for full field monitoring. An integrated MMV plan is designed for cost-effective long-term offshore monitoring of CO2 plume migration. The present study discusses the impacting parameters which make the whole process environmentally sustainable, economically viable and adhering to national and international regulations.


1994 ◽  
Vol 09 (08) ◽  
pp. 1197-1238 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. MIGDAL

This is an extended version of the preprint,4 based on the lectures given at Cargese Summer School and Chernogolovka Summer School in 1993. The incompressible fluid dynamics is reformulated as dynamics of closed loops C in coordinate space. We derive explicit functional equation for the pdf of the circulation PC (Γ) which allows the scaling solutions in the inertial range of spatial scales. The pdf decays as exponential of some power of Γ3/A2, where A is the minimal area inside the loop.


2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (47) ◽  
pp. 12069-12074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel G. Roy ◽  
Emi Uchida ◽  
Simone P. de Souza ◽  
Ben Blachly ◽  
Emma Fox ◽  
...  

Aging infrastructure and growing interests in river restoration have led to a substantial rise in dam removals in the United States. However, the decision to remove a dam involves many complex trade-offs. The benefits of dam removal for hazard reduction and ecological restoration are potentially offset by the loss of hydroelectricity production, water supply, and other important services. We use a multiobjective approach to examine a wide array of trade-offs and synergies involved with strategic dam removal at three spatial scales in New England. We find that increasing the scale of decision-making improves the efficiency of trade-offs among ecosystem services, river safety, and economic costs resulting from dam removal, but this may lead to heterogeneous and less equitable local-scale outcomes. Our model may help facilitate multilateral funding, policy, and stakeholder agreements by analyzing the trade-offs of coordinated dam decisions, including net benefit alternatives to dam removal, at scales that satisfy these agreements.


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