Browsing by Subject "Carbon capture and storage"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Assessing an offshore carbon storage opportunity at Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana
(2023-05-04) Li, Yushan, M.S. in Energy and Earth Resources; Hovorka, Susan D. (Susan Davis); Uroza, Carlos; Gil Egui, Ramon
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is considered a crucial technology for climate change mitigation. Its primary objective is to reduce CO₂ emissions caused by human activities by capturing gas from large point sources or from direct air capture and injecting it into deep geologic formations. This study focuses on the geological characterization and CO₂ storage capacity estimation for an offshore state water site – Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana. Form literature review, the storage window is narrowed to Middle and Upper Miocene. 3-D seismic data was used for fault and horizon picking, stratal slicing and attribute mapping. Three attributes/methods were used in the stratal slices: Sum Negative Amplitude, RMS amplitude, and Spectral Decomposition. The slices give a qualitative overview of the depositional trends and faulting in Chandeleur Sound and concluded that the ideal storage intervals include the Upper Miocene in the southern area, the upper part of Middle Miocene, and a massive channel system near the top of Upper Miocene which is likely to be a deposit from the paleo Tennessee River. Well log correlation was used to identify seven reservoir zones. Detailed reservoir properties were defined for these zones. The thickest net sand interval within the Chandeleur Sound area is found in the center. Static and dynamic storage capacity calculations estimate a total storage capacity of 306 to 2,000 million metric tons. of CO₂, depending on boundary condition. The value of 306 Mt is the most realistic and is used for source-sink matching. Chandeleur Sound is close to Louisiana Chemical Corridor (LCC) and has plenty of point sources for CO₂ supply. The costs associated with carbon capture, transport and storage and were considered. Pipeline is the only transport scenario considered for large volumes that must be transported on land and then into shallow marine settings. CO₂ pipeline regulations include both federal and state level jurisdiction. Pipeline costs estimation using FECM/NETL CO₂ Transport Cost Model and Terrain-based approach concluded that a 20 inches pipeline from the carbon gathering hub to the injection site would have a construction cost from $140 million to $1.16 billion in 2023’s dollars.
Constraining the data and investment needs for obtaining a carbon dioxide injection permit in the United States
(2021-08-09) Barnhart, Taylor H.; Hovorka, Susan D. (Susan Davis)
To keep global temperature increases below 2 ̊C, utilization of carbon capture and storage (CCS) must proliferate, but the U.S. has only issued two Underground Injection Control (UIC) Class VI permits for carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage in saline formations. An impediment to CCS development is uncertainty regarding investment requirements for selecting and characterizing a storage site to obtain an injection permit. A Class VI permit application requires adequate site characterization to ensure that no underground sources of drinking water (USDWs) will be negatively impacted by CO₂ storage. Collection of characterization data involves financial expenditures at different project development investment gates. Here these gates are designated as Feasibility, Site(s) Selection, Detailed Characterization, and Permit Preparation. To estimate the potential investments at each gate, a novel approach was developed and applied to 31 case study storage sites in the Southeast Regional CO₂ Utilization and Storage Acceleration Partnership (SECARB-USA) region. This approach included development of a data needs framework, which consists of data required under Class VI regulations, data for multiphase fluid flow modeling, and data for development of a site monitoring program. Two site evaluation rubrics were derived from this data needs framework to assess the urgency and availability of data at a site. The cost of site characterization is a function of the data density (data availability) and data urgency of a site. These rubrics were used to assign scores to the 42 data needs in the data needs framework, and the subsequent data need scores were referenced to a characterization activity cost index to estimate the costs at each investment gate for each site. Results indicate that the total characterization cost across the case study sites are nearly identical unless high cost characterization activities, such as conducting a 3-D seismic survey or drilling, coring, and testing a characterization well, are unnecessary because the data already exist. Existence of these data lowers project risk as early investment gates can be passed with lower investments. Other trends in the dataset reinforce the value of stacked storage sites for reducing costs and existing well penetrations for providing subsurface data
Estimating CO₂ storage capacity, injectivity, and storage costs for large-scale CCS deployment & carbon dioxide removal goals
(2023-04-21) Rodriguez Calzado, Edna; Hovorka, Susan D. (Susan Davis); Bump, Alexander P.
Large-scale deployment (i.e.,, nationwide) of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology will play a key role in carbon storage removal (CDR) and overall climate mitigation efforts. The economic feasibility of large-scale CCS deployments partly depends on the CO₂ storage costs per project. However, the suitability of regional storage and injectivity per project, particularly for large-scale purposes, is not well understood. This study focuses on two concepts that augments existing studies of storage capacity and cost to assess the opportunities and barriers to CDR. The first concept focuses on identifying all potential areas for CO₂ storage within the sedimentary rocks throughout the U.S. based on a novel concept we call the CO₂ Storage Window. The second concept focuses on improving CO₂ storage costs estimates by considering 1) the number of wells needed to inject at a certain rate, dependent on injectivity of the area and 2) the areal extent of pressure build-up caused by CO₂ injection. This area extent is a novel concept we call pressure space. Understanding the pressure space of a project helps delineate the area of review for a project and the extent of the pore space required for the project. The results of this study include a spatial geodatabase and a series of U.S. cohesive, spatial distribution maps showcasing 1) CO₂ storage potential in areas not explored before, 2) Storage costs per CCS project and storage costs per ton of CO₂, assuming a constant maximum storage capacity of 20 Mt per project over a 20-year timeframe, and 3) Estimated storage costs per ton of CO₂ in areas where storage potential is found but where there is not enough data to calculate capacity nor injectivity
Evaluating the financial implications of injectivity risk in compartmentalized reservoirs for CCS
(2024-05) Deranian, Chris ; Bakhshian, Sahar; Dyer, James S.; Sheila Olmstead
Injectivity is a major driver of risk in CCS projects. Risk mitigation efforts are focused on leakage and well remediation, while operational issues from past CCS projects have shown injectivity is frequently caused by the mischaracterization of compartmentalized reservoirs Sub-seismic faults, misinterpreted facies changes and a host of other factors can induce unexpected compartmentalization. The financial penalty due to the disruption of CCS operations is a large, depending on the agreement between the site operator and capture source. This paper explores the effect of compartment size and boundary condition on injectivity, and the subsequent financial implications. Risk profiles of injectivity are generated through reservoir simulations in CMG-GEM, constrained by preliminary statistics from a CCS prospect on the Gulf Coast. A financial tool is built to understand the impact on project value when an injectivity issue occurs and an offset well needs to be drilled. CO₂ offtake price and insurance mechanisms are considered in the tool. We observe that even in relatively closed boundary conditions, pressure can dissipate in the reservoir to allow injection over the project life. The economic feasibility of a CCS project that does face an injectivity issue depends on the year of the injection issue, with projects able to overcome financial liability and mitigation costs if an injection issue occurs in the latter half of the project life. To date, there is no CCS literature on financial risk specifically regarding injectivity. Making CCS projects bankable requires robust assurance, and thus understanding injectivity risk, project contingency, and the feasibility of mitigation options can help to expand CCS deployment.
Geologic characterization and modeling for quantifying CO₂ storage capacity of the High Island 10-L field in Texas state waters, offshore Gulf of Mexico
(2019-09-12) Ramirez Garcia, Omar; Chuchla, Richard J. (Richard Julian); Meckel, Timothy Ashworth
Carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) is a promising technology for mitigating climate change by reducing CO₂ emissions to the atmosphere and injecting captured industrial emissions into deep geologic formations. Deep subsurface storage in geologic formations is similar to trapping natural hydrocarbons and is one of the key components of CCS technology. The quantification of the available subsurface storage resource is the subject of this research project. This study focuses on site-specific geologic characterization, reservoir modeling, and CO₂ storage resource assessment (capacity) of a depleted oil and gas field located on the inner continental shelf of the Gulf of Mexico, the High Island 10L field. lower Miocene sands in the Fleming Group beneath the regional transgressive Amphistegina B shale have extremely favorable geologic properties (porosity, thickness, extent) and are characterized in this study utilizing 3-D seismic and well logs. Key stratigraphic surfaces between maximum flooding surfaces (MFS-9 to MFS-10) demonstrate how marine regression and transgression impact the stacking pattern of the thick sands and overlying seals, influencing the overall potential for CO₂ storage. One of the main uncertainties when assessing CO₂ storage resources at different scales is to determine the fraction of the pore space within a formation that is practically accessible for storage. The goal of the modeling section of this project is to address the uncertainty related to the static parameters affecting calculations of available pore space by creating facies and porosity geostatistical models based on the spatial variation of the available data. P50 values for CO₂ storage capacity range from 37.56 to 40.39 megatonnes (Mt), showing a narrow distribution of values for different realizations of the geostatistical models. An analysis of the pressure build-up effect on storage capacity was also performed, showing a reduction in capacity. This research further validates the impact of the current carbon tax credit program (45Q), applied directly to the storage resources results for the High Island field 10L using a simple NPV approach based on discounted cash flows. Several scenarios are assessed, where the main variables are the duration of the applicability of the tax credit, number of injection wells, and total storage capacity. Results are measured in terms of the cost of capture required for a project to be economic, given previous assumptions.
Grain-scale controls on seal integrity in mudrocks : capillary entry pressure and permeability prediction
(2020-06-26) Bihani, Abhishek Dilip; Daigle, Hugh; Lake, Larry W; Prodanovic, Masa; Espinoza, David N; Hayman, Nicholas W
Mudrocks serve as geological traps and seals for carbon sequestration or for hydrocarbon formation, where mudrock capillary seals having high capillary entry pressure prevent the leakage of underlying fluids. However, they can fail if the buoyant pressure of the trapped fluid overcomes the threshold pressure of the seal. Mudrocks are composed primarily of silt-size and clay-size grains in various fractions. Microstructural observations of mudrocks have shown a silt bridging effect, whereby sufficiently abundant silt-size grains will create a stress chain across the rock matrix to preserve large pores and throats. At shallower depths, this effect can create a dual porosity system, consisting of larger pores and throats near the coarser grains, and smaller pores and throats existing only between the finer clay grains. If the preserved larger pores and throats are connected across a mudrock, it may increase the absolute permeability, and reduce the capillary threshold pressure and tortuosity, thereby decreasing its sealing capacity. Using pore-network modeling, artificial bidisperse grain packs (packings of two sizes) were generated, with and without the effect of gravity, to understand the effects of deposition and compaction on the petrophysical properties. It was observed that when the fraction of larger grains reaches about 40 - 60 % of the total volume of the grain pack, the capillary threshold transitions to a lower value and permits fluid percolation across the grain pack. The discrete element modeling (DEM) compaction simulations showed that on increasing large grain concentrations, strong force chains are formed across large-large and small-large grain contacts which decreases coordination numbers and shields larger pores. An image analysis workflow consisting of multiple filtering and user-guided segmentation steps was used to identify pores, silt grains, and clay from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of sediments from the Kumano Basin offshore Japan. Statistical analysis showed that larger pores are better preserved when surrounded by detrital, silt size grains, and the presence of a higher fraction of silt-size grains led to a higher concentration of larger pores. The distributions of pore characteristics at different depths showed that larger pores are observed in samples with higher silt fractions despite being deeper. Since the images only offer a 2D view of the 3D rock structure, a digital rocks workflow was applied to reconstruct the mudrock pore space. Lattice Boltzmann simulations were run on the reconstructed grain packs to simulate capillary drainage using high-performance computing. The results showed that at all depths, the capillary threshold pressure for the grain packs with a higher silt fraction was lower than those with a lower silt fraction and that capillary threshold pressure also increased with depth. Thus, using a combination of pore-network modeling, DEM simulations, image analysis, and lattice Boltzmann simulations, I found that there is a significant dependence of the grain concentration and texture on the petrophysical properties. Improving our understanding about the influence of grain concentrations, spatial positions, and sizes on the fluid flow behavior is an important step towards a better characterization of mudrock seals and can help improve risk management efforts in anthropogenic waste storage and estimates of the reserve capacity of petroleum reservoirs
Investigating thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrate phase change phenomena using experimental and machine learning tools
(2021-12-07) Acharya, Palash Vadiraj; Bahadur, Vaibhav; Ezekoye, Ofodike; Shi, Li; Bonnecaze, Roger
Hydrates are ice-like crystalline solids which form under high pressure and low-temperature conditions from water (forming a cage of host molecules) and another liquid or gas (guest molecule). Hydrates can enable numerous industrial applications in the fields of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), flow assurance, natural gas transportation/storage and desalination. A significant technological barrier to many hydrates-related applications is the slow rate of formation of hydrates, which is a result of thermodynamic and kinetics-related limitations. This dissertation investigates the role of electric field and surface chemistry in accelerating the nucleation kinetics of clathrate hydrates (CO₂, tetrahydrofuran). It also investigates the role of amino acids in inhibiting the nucleation kinetics and thermodynamics of CO₂ hydrate formation. It also evaluates the utility of machine learning models in predicting the thermodynamic formation conditions for gas hydrates. In addition to the focus on fundamental investigations, this dissertation also evaluates the utility of hydrates as a carbon capture tool when coupled with a steam reforming system to generate blue hydrogen from landfill gas. The content of the dissertation work is motivated by three objectives, as described ahead. Objective 1 investigates the influence of electric fields and surface chemistry on nucleation kinetics of hydrate formation for two kinds of hydrate forming systems (considered as two separate subtasks): miscible liquid-liquid systems (Tetrahydrofuran-water) and gas-liquid (CO₂-water) systems. As background, it is noted that the role of electric field has been widely studied for accelerating freezing of water. Subtask 1-1 investigates the role of electric field when used in conjunction with open-cell aluminum metal foam-based electrodes in accelerating the formation of THF hydrates. It is demonstrated that aluminum foam electrodes trigger near-instantaneous nucleation (in only tens of seconds) of THF hydrates at very low voltages (~20V). The promotion effect can be ascribed to two distinct interfacial mechanisms at play: namely, electrolytic bubble generation and the formation of metal ion complex-based coordination compounds. While THF hydrates form under atmospheric pressure, CO₂ gas hydrates form at much higher pressures and are therefore studied using a custom-built high-pressure cell. Subtask 1-2 highlights the role of aluminum in accelerating nucleation kinetics of CO₂ gas hydrates. Statistically meaningful measurements of induction times for CO₂ hydrate nucleation are undertaken using water droplets as individual microsystems for hydrate formation. The influence of various metal surfaces, droplet size, CO₂ dissolution time, and the presence of salts in water on nucleation kinetics have been characterized. It is observed that Al metal significantly accelerates the nucleation kinetics of CO₂ hydrates (the effect of which cannot be replicated by salts of Al) with nucleation initiating from the Al-water interface. Prediction of thermodynamic conditions of hydrate formation is critical to their synthesis and Objective 2 is centered around developing modeling and experimental tools for effective prediction of thermodynamic phase equilibria for hydrates. Subtask 2-1 demonstrates the utility of machine learning models to predict hydrate dissociation temperature (HDT) as a function of constituent hydrate precursors and salt inhibitors. Importantly, and in contrast to most previous studies, thermodynamic variables such as the activity-based contribution due to electrolytes, partial pressure of individual gases, and specific gravity of the overall mixture have been used as input features in the prediction algorithms. Using such features results in more physics-aware ML algorithms, which can capture the individual contributions of gases and electrolytes in a more fundamental manner. Three ML algorithms: Random Forest (RF), Extra Trees (ET), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) are trained and their performance is evaluated on an extensive experimental dataset comprising of more than 1800 experimental data points. The overall coefficient of determination (R²) is greater than 97% for all the three ML models with XGBoost exhibiting the best prediction performance with an R² metric of 99.56%. Subtask 2-2 investigates the role of amino acids on the kinetics and thermodynamics of CO₂ hydrate formation using droplet-based microsystems. Amino acids are environmentally friendly and inexpensive hydrate formation inhibitors. Nucleation kinetics as well as the depression in thermodynamic hydrate formation temperature for CO₂ hydrates in the presence of five amino acids containing non-polar side chains have been evaluated. All the amino acids inhibit nucleation with tryptophan exhibiting the slowest nucleation rate. Isoleucine exhibits the highest thermodynamic inhibition effect with the highest depression in freezing point temperature corresponding to 0.2 K for the concentrations studied in the present analysis. Landfills produce significant amounts of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas. Steam reforming of the landfill gas generates CO₂ + H₂ as byproducts. The generated hydrogen can be used in refineries, to produce fertilizers or to produce electricity in a fuel cell. Objective 3 investigates the techno-economic factors associated with a facility coupling a sorption-enhanced steam methane reforming system with a hydrates-based capture system for landfills across Texas. The electrical energy requirements, water use, operating and capital costs required to set up and keep such a facility running have been evaluated in detail. The cost of producing hydrogen for all counties is about $0.5/kg of H₂ (excluding the cost for natural gas). The total carbon capture cost lies in the range of $96-$145/metric ton of CO2 with the lowest/highest cost corresponding to Harris/Brazoria county producing the highest/lowest amount of CO₂. A minimum cost of $0.9(2.4)/kg of H₂ would be required for Harris (Brazoria) county for a positive 30-year net present value; a 5-year payback period would require a minimum cost of $1.35(4.95)/kg of H₂. In summary, this dissertation significantly advances the current understanding of hydrate formation by introducing novel techniques (consuming ultra-low energy as well as passive tools) for enhancing hydrate formation kinetics. It also develops novel ML and experimental tools for predicting thermodynamic formation conditions of hydrates in the presence of various inhibitors. Finally, this work assesses the technical and economic viability of a hydrates-centered future for the natural gas industry.