HR: 17:00h
AN: GC54A-05    [Abstracts]
TI: Monitoring of CO$_{2}$ Surface Leakage at the Frio Pilot Injection Site
AU: * Strazisar, B R
EM: brian.strazisar@netl.doe.gov
AF: National Energy Technology Laboratory, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15236 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: Arthur.Wells@netl.doe.gov
AF: National Energy Technology Laboratory, 626 Cochrans Mill Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15236 United States
AB: Geologic carbon sequestration is a method of greenhouse gas mitigation in which CO$_{2}$ is captured directly from major emission sources and stored beneath the ground. Among the proposed storage locations are active and depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs, unmineable coal seams, and deep saline aquifers. The success of such activities depends greatly on the ability to contain the CO$_{2}$ for long periods of time (up to thousands of years). For this reason, it is important to be able to measure the leakage rate of CO$_{2}$ to the surface following injection of CO$_{2}$. 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. A suite of near-surface monitoring techniques has been developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory to estimate leakage rates and evaluate storage integrity. The techniques include 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 techniques are currently being employed in Eastern Texas in cooperation with the Frio pilot injection project, headed by the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. Baseline measurements have been made in the area surrounding the injection well, and will be repeated following CO$_{2}$ injection. This presentation will include description of the monitoring techniques as well as a summary of the results to date.
DE: 1694 Instruments and techniques
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting