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GLOBAL CLIMATE AND ENERGY PROJECT | STANFORD UNIVERSITY

Overview of Geologic CO2 Storage

RECS 2011| Birmingham, Alabama

Sally Benson
Director, Global Climate and Energy Project Stanford University
June 7, 2011 GLOBAL CHALLENGES GLOBAL SOLUTIONS GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIES

The Plan
1. General overview of geological storage 2. Why we think CO2 storage will work 3. What does it take to do CO2 storage safely 4. What could go wrong and what we can do about it

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Carbon Dioxide Capture and Geologic Storage

Capture

Compression

Pipeline Transport

Underground Injection

Basic Concept of Geological Sequestration of CO2 Injected at depths of 1 km or deeper into rocks with tiny pore spaces Primary trapping
Beneath seals of low permeability rocks

Courtesy of John Bradshaw

Image courtesy of ISGS and MGSC

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What Types of Rocks are Suitable for CO2 Storage?

Igneous rocks
Rocks formed from cooling magma Crystalline Examples
Granite Basalt Low porosity Low permeability Fractures

Granite

Metamorphic Rocks

Rocks that have been subjected to high pressures and temperatures after they are formed Crystalline Examples
Schist Gneiss

Sedimentary rocks

Low porosity Low permeability Fractures

Schist

Rocks formed from compaction and consolidation of rock fragments High porosity Example
Sandstone Shale

Sandstone

High permeability Few fractures

Rocks formed from precipitation from solution Example

Limestone

What Types of Rocks are Suitable for CO2 Storage?

Igneous rocks
Rocks formed from cooling magma Crystalline Examples
Granite Basalt Low porosity Low permeability Fractures

Granite

Metamorphic Rocks

Rocks that have been subjected to high pressures and temperatures after they are formed Crystalline Examples

Sedimentary rocks
Sandstone Shale

Schist Gneiss

Low porosity Low permeability Fractures

Schist

Rocks formed from compaction and consolidation of rock fragments High porosity Example Rocks formed from precipitation from solution Example
Limestone

Sandstone

High permeability Few fractures

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X-ray Micro-tomography at the Advanced Light Source

Micro-tomography Beamline

Image of Rock with CO2 CO2 Water

Mineral grain

2 mm

Analysis of 3-D Images

1 mm

Sand Grains

Water
sw = 27% sw = 55%

CO2
8
Silin, Tomutsa, Benson and Patzek, 2010, Transport in Porous Media.

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Thermodynamic Properties of CO2 Important Properties

Phase (e.g. solid, gas, liquid, supercritical) Density (kg/m3) Viscosity (Pa-s)

Conditions
Storage reservoir Leaks (shallower than the storage reservoir)

Typical Subsurface Temperature and Pressure Gradients

o Ts=10oC Temperature ( C)

Watertable = 0 m
80 100
0 0

Pressure (bar)
100 200 300 400

0 0

20

40

60

500 1000

500

1000

Depth (m)

Depth (m)

1500 2000

1,250 m

1500

1,250 m

2000

2500 3000

2500

3000

T = 10oC + 25oC/1,000 m x 1,250 m = 41.25oC

p= 105 Pa + 1,000 kg/m3 x 9.81 m/s2*1,250 m = 12.36 Mpa (123.6 bar)

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Phases of CO2 for CCS System

Pipeline Transportation

Supercritical Fluid
1,600 m 1,250 m 900 m 500 m (31.0oC, 73.8 bar) 200 m

Leak in the atmosphere

CO2 Density
Water is 1.3 to 1.5 times denser than supercritical CO2 at these depths

900 m

1,600 m

500 m 200 m

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CO2 Viscosity
Water is 10 to 20 times more viscous than supercritical CO2 at these depths

1,600 m 900 m 500 m 200 m

High Density of Supercritical CO2 Defines Storage Depth

Storage below 800 m
Supercritical CO2 Dense phase CO2 (500 to 800 kg/m3) Low viscosity (0.04 to 0.06 cp)

Rule-of-thumb
Depends on P and T profile Will vary from site to site
Watertable depth Geothermal gradient Mean annual surface temperature Storage below 800 m

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Location of Deep Sedimentary Basins

Three primary conditions

Sedimentary rocks with storage reservoirs and seals Pressure and temperature > critical values (31oC, 78.3 bars) Not a source of drinking water

IPCC, 2005

Example of A Cross Section of a Sedimentary Basin

Example of a sedimentary basin with alternating layers of coarse and fine textured sedimentary rocks.

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Specific Types of Formations Within Sedimentary Basins

Oil and gas reservoirs
Enhanced oil and gas recovery Depleted oil and gas recovery

Deep rock formations that contain salt water (saline formations) Coal beds

North American Sequestration Resources in Oil and Gas Reservoirs

Oil and gas reservoirs could potentially store about 60 years of current emissions from power generation.

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North American Sequestration Resources in Coal Beds

Unminable coal formations could potentially store about 80 years of current emissions from power generation.

North American Sequestration Resources in Saline Aquifers

Saline aquifers could potentially store more than 1,000 years of current emissions from power production.

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Global Sequestration Capacity Estimates

From KM13 GEA, 2011.

Expert Opinion about Storage Safety and Security

Observations from engineered and natural analogues as well as models suggest that the fraction retained in appropriately selected and managed geological reservoirs is very likely* to exceed 99% over 100 years and is likely** to exceed 99% over 1,000 years. With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods to stop or control CO2 releases if they arise, the local health, safety and environment risks of geological storage would be comparable to risks of current activities such as natural gas storage, EOR, and deep underground disposal of acid gas.
* "Very likely" is a probability between 90 and 99%. ** Likely is a probability between 66 and 90%.

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Evidence to Support these Conclusions

Natural analogs
Oil and gas reservoirs CO2 reservoirs

Performance of industrial analogs

40+ years operating experience with CO2 EOR in more than 100 projects 100 years experience with natural gas storage Acid gas disposal

30+ years of cumulative performance of actual CO2 storage projects

Sleipner, off-shore Norway, 1996 Weyburn, Canada, 2000 In Salah, Algeria, 2004 Snohvit, Norway, 2008
~50 Mt/yr are injected for CO2-EOR

Natural Gas Storage

Seasonal storage to meet winter loads Storage formations

Depleted oil and gas reservoirs Aquifers Caverns

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Sleipner Project, North Sea

1996 to present 1 Mt CO2 injection/yr Seismic monitoring

Picture compliments of Statoil

Seismic Monitoring Data from Sleipner

From Chadwick et al., GHGT-9, 2008.

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Weyburn CO2-EOR and Storage Project

2000 to present 1-2 Mt/year CO2 injection CO2 from the Dakota Gasification Plant in the U.S.

Photos and map courtesy of PTRC and Encana

In Salah Gas Project

Gas Processing and CO2 Separation Facility

In Salah Gas Project - Krechba, Algeria Gas Purification - Amine Extraction 0.6 Mt/year CO2 Injection Operations Commence - June, 2004

Courtesy of BP

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Snohvit, Norway
Snohvit Liquefied Natural Gas Project (LNG)
Barents Sea, Norway

Gas Purification (removal of 5-8% CO2)

Amine Extraction

0.7 Mt/year CO2 Injection

Saline aquifer at a depth of 2,600 m (8530 ft) below sea-bed

Sub-sea injection Operations Commence

April, 2008

Courtesy StatoilHydro

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

Fundamental Storage Mechanisms

Injected at depths of 1 km or deeper into rocks with tiny pore spaces Primary trapping
Beneath seals of low permeability rocks with high capillary entry pressures

Secondary trapping
CO2 dissolves in water CO2 is trapped by capillary forces CO2 converts to solid minerals CO2 adsorbs to coal

Image courtesy of ISGS and MGSC

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Seal Rocks and Mechanisms

1.E-07

Entry Pressure (Bars)

Shale, clay, and carbonates Permeability barriers to CO2 migration Capillary barriers to CO2 migration

Permeablity (m2)

1.E-10 1.E-13 1.E-16 1.E-19 Gravel Course Sand Silty sands Clayey sands Clay Shale

Capillary Barrier Effectiveness Cappilary Barrier Effectiveness

1000

100

10 Increasing Effectiveness 1
Delta Plain Shales Channel Abandonment Silts Pro-Delta Shales Delta Front Shales Shelf Carbonates

Multiphase Flow of CO2 and Brine

Influence of Heterogeneity
What fraction of the pore space will be occupied? What will be the footprint of the plume? How much dissolution and capillary trapping can be expected?

Relative Permeability
Waare C Sandstone

Influence of Buoyancy

Berea Sandstone

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Secondary Trapping Mechanisms Increase Over Time

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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Site Characterization and Site Selection

Oil and gas reservoirs
Current and future abandoned wells Geomechanical impacts to seal Capacity

Saline formations
Seal adequacy over ~ 100 km2
Closed trap vs. open trap

Injectivity Capacity Plume size Pressure buildup

Coal beds
Injectivity Containment
Adsorption Seals Hydraulic fractures

Current Approach for Assessing Capacity in Saline Aquifers

Models

Geology Statistics
Probability Distributions

Simulations
CO2 Storage Capacity = 1 to 5% Total Pore Volume1
North American Carbon Sequestration Atlas, 2011
1

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Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

Storage Security: Long Term Risk Profile

Acceptable Risk Site selection Active and abandoned well completions Storage engineering Pressure recovery Secondary trapping mechanisms Confidence in predictive models

Health Safety and Environmental Risk Injection begins

Injection stops Calibrate & Validate Models

2 x injection period Calibrate & Validate Models

3 x injection period

n x injection period

Monitor

Model

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Storage Engineering
Site selection Monitoring High quality well completions Improved storage engineering Higher quality well completions Plume containment Improved understanding of trapping Accelerated trapping

Acceptable Risk

Health Safety and Environmental Risk Injection begins

Injection stops

2 x injection period

3 x injection period

n x injection period

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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What Could Go Wrong?

World Map of Active and Abandoned Wells

Potential Consequences (rank ordered by impact)

1. 2. 3. Potential Release Pathways
Well leakage (injection and abandoned wells) Poor site characterization (undetected faults) Excessive pressure buildup damages seal

Worker safety Groundwater quality degradation Resource damage Ecosystem degradation Public safety Structural damage Release to atmosphere

4. 5. 6. 7.

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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Seismic Monitoring Data from Sleipner

Monitoring Methods
3-D Seismic Walk Away VSP Flux Tower Flux Accumulation Chamber Injection Rate Wellhead Pressure Annulus Pressure Casing Logs CO2 Sensors Cross-Well Seismic Active Source Thermal Sensors Injection Well Monitoring Well Pressure Transducer Pressure Transducer

Seismic Monitoring
Surface Seismic 2-D, 3-D, and 4D Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP) Well Cross-Well Tomography

CO2

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Plume and topmost layer 2001 - 2006

From Andy Chadwick, BGS, 2010

Surface Monitoring
Detection Verification Facility (Montana State University) 80 m
Flux Tower

Field Site Horizontal Injection Well

Hyperspectral Imaging of Vegetation

Soil Gas Flow Controllers

Flux accumulation chamber

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How Do You Find a Leak?

Large Plume Footprint

g/m2/s

Large Fluctuations in Background CO2 Fluxes

3000 2000 Willow Creek

~ 100 km2
Small Leakage Footprint < 1 km2 ?

1000 0 -1000 -2000 0 60 120 180 240 300 360

Time (days)

Courtesy of Ken Davis and Paul Bolstad

CO2 and 13C Isotopes Anomalies for Monitoring Leakage

High precision isotopic 13C analyzer: Picarro Instruments cavity ring down spectrometer

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Raw 12CO2 and 13CO2 Data

Krevor et al., 2010, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Technology

Source Term Characterization

Leak Rate = 200 kg/day (73 tonnes/year!)

From Krevor et al., 2010, International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Technology

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Scaling Up Isotopic Monitoring

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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Remediation Options: Groundwater

Passive methods
Natural attenuation by dissolution, migration, and mineralization

Active methods
Gas phase pumping Groundwater extraction to dissolve plume Picture taken from http://www.clu-in.org/download/remed/542r01021b.pdf Single well dissolution system: inject and produce water

Methods to deal with other contamination due to dissolution of minerals by CO2

Pump and treat wells Containment by managing hydraulic heads Treatment walls

Evaluation of Three Scenarios

Simulations by Ariel Esposito, Stanford University

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Extraction Remediation Scenarios

Simulations by Ariel Esposito, Stanford University

Key Elements of a Geological Storage Safety and Security Strategy

With appropriate site selection informed by available subsurface information, a monitoring program to detect problems, a regulatory system, and the appropriate use of remediation methods

Financial Responsibility Regulatory Oversight Remediation Monitoring Safe Operations Storage Engineering Site Characterization and Selection Fundamental Storage and Leakage Mechanisms

risks similar to existing activities such as natural gas storage and EOR. the fraction retained is likely to exceed 99% over 1,000 years.
IPCC, 2005

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Institutional Issues

Regulations for storage: siting, monitoring, performance specifications Financial responsibility for for long term stewardship Legal framework for access to underground pore space Carbon trading credits for CCS Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) credits for CCS Public acceptance

None is likely to be a show stopper, but all require effort to resolve.

Maturity of CCS Technology

Are we ready for CCS?
Oil and gas reservoirs Saline aquifers Coalbeds

State-of-the-art is well developed, scientific understanding is excellent and engineering methods are mature Sufficient knowledge is available but practical experience is lacking, economics may be sub-optimal, scientific understanding is good Demonstration projects are needed to advance the state-of-the art for commercial scale projects, scientific understanding is limited Pilot projects are needed to provide proof-of-concept, scientific understanding is immature

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Worldwide CCS Projects

Concluding Remarks
CCS is an important part of the portfolio of technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions Progress on CCS proceeding on all fronts
Industrial-scale projects Demonstration plants R&D

Technology is sufficiently mature for large scale demonstration projects and commercial projects with CO2-EOR Research is needed to support deployment at scale Institutional issues need to be resolved to support widespread deployment

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