HR: 10:20h
AN: H12D-01 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Adequacy of Monitoring Methods and Strategies for Detecting Carbon Dioxide Leakage from Geological Storage Reservoirs
AU: * Benson, S M
EM: smbenson@lbl.gov
AF: Stanford University, 074 Green Earth Sciences 376 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305-2220, United States
AB: Significant progress has been made over the past decade resulting in the development of many approaches for monitoring carbon dioxide leakage from geological storage reservoirs. Some of these methods, such as 3-D seismic, cross-well seismic and vertical seismic profiling have been demonstrated to be successful. Others such as above-zone pressure monitoring show theoretical potential. Surface monitoring methods such as eddy- covariance flux towers and flux accumulation chambers have been used to monitor surface releases from natural seeps and controlled releases with good success. New open-path systems have also been successfully used to detect elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air above controlled release experiments. Sophisticated algorithms for distinguishing leakage from natural variations in ecosystem carbon fluxes have also been proposed. As a result of these studies, it is becoming apparent that, if we know that leakage is occurring, existing methods are quite adequate for locating and quantifying them. More challenging is the design cost-effective approaches leakage detection—and providing confidence that leakage is below a prescribed detection threshold. The comparatively small footprint of the monitoring methods that are useful for the location and quantification of leakage may require an uneconomical number of monitoring stations if they are used for leakage detection. This paper examines this issue and proposes a number of options for designing effective monitoring networks for leak detection.
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting