Speaker
Description
Model-based design tools will play a crucial role in the site selection, design, and safe operation of carbon storage facilities within deep saline formations. When selecting sites, key factors such as the permanence of storage through stable trapping and mineralization must be considered. The design process involves strategic decisions regarding injection placement and timing. Ensuring safe operation entails addressing potential leakage of stored CO2 and the formation brine, which can arise from pressure build-up that may fracture the caprock or reactivate existing faults. These issues pose a risk of contaminating shallow aquifers used for drinking water and other economic activities. To effectively characterize sites, comprehensive data on the expected geologic conditions is essential. Continuous monitoring is also required during operation to detect any potential leakage events and if such an event occurs how to reduce the risk of shallow aquifer contamination. The significant depths of these formations create numerous technical challenges and cost constraints in gathering relevant geological information and monitoring data. As leakage events have not yet been observed at existing sites (primarily during pilot testing), there is currently a lack of data to validate the models necessary for effective carbon storage design.
In this paper, we present an approach utilizing an intermediate-scale text system to test and validate numerical modeling tools. The term "intermediate scale" refers to a dimension where multi-dimensional experiments can be conducted to simulate field conditions. This allows for the generation of accurate spatial and temporal data based on well-defined soil packing configurations that account for heterogeneity under known initial and controlled boundary conditions. The data generated through these experiments was utilized to validate models that produced synthetic data for analyzing the effects of geological uncertainties in the storage zone, fracture configurations in the caprock, the aquifer zone above the caprock, and the shallow aquifer. We discuss how this data can be leveraged to develop optimized monitoring systems that rely on fewer deep zone data while utilizing more readily available shallow zone data. Additionally, we present examples of remediation strategies involving pressure release in the storage zone
| Country | USA |
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