HR: 09:15h
AN: GC31A-06    [PDF]
TI: Surface Monitoring of Leakage From Geologic CO$_{2}$ Sequestration
AU: * Strazisar, B R
EM: brian.strazisar@netl.doe.gov
AF: U.S. Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, P.O. Box 10940, Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0940 United States
AU: Klusman, R W
EM: rklusman@mines.edu
AF: Colorado School of Mines, Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, Golden, CO 80401-1887 United States
AU: Wells, A W
EM: wells@netl.doe.gov
AF: U.S. Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, P.O. Box 10940, Pittsburgh, PA 15236-0940 United States
AB: The capture of carbon dioxide (CO$_{2}$) from large point sources and long term storage in geological formations has received much recent attention as a potential green house gas mitigation option. Among the proposed storage locations are active and depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams, and deep saline aquifers. The success of any candidate storage location greatly depends on its ability to keep CO$_{2}$ underground for a long period of time. In order to evaluate the success or failure of a CO$_{2}$ storage operation, it is important to monitor injection sites to detect CO$_{2}$ released at the surface. The U.S. Department of Energy has placed a high priority on the development of inexpensive, effective methods to measure, monitor, and verify long term sequestration of CO$_{2}$ in geological sinks. Monitoring the leakage of CO$_{2}$ is a challenging task, due to the small expected concentrations above a leaking reservoir as well as the relatively large background of CO$_{2}$ present in the atmosphere. Another complication is the fact that CO$_{2}$ continually diffuses from the soil into the atmosphere due to plant and microbial respiration. Any leak of CO$_{2}$ from a reservoir would have to be differentiated from these other processes. In cooperation with the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, the National Energy Technology Laboratory is conducting a comprehensive surface monitoring effort at the site of a pilot scale injection project. In this project, approximately 4000 tons of CO$_{2}$ will be injected into the Frio formation, a deep, non-petroleum bearing saline aquifer. Surface monitoring includes the detection of injected tracer molecules, direct measurement of CO$_{2}$ soil flux, soil gas analysis, and carbon isotope analysis from soil gas CO$_{2}$. These measurements, in conjunction with a parallel modeling effort and deep seismic surveys, will provide an accurate measure of the leak rate of CO$_{2}$ to the surface (or an upper limit of leakage). Such an understanding of the leakage rate is critical to assessing the realized benefit of sequestration in geologic formations.
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1645 Solid Earth
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting