Final Report for the ZERT Project: Basic Science of Retention Issues, Risk Assessment & Measurement, Monitoring and Verification for Geologic Sequestration

ZERT has made major contributions to five main areas of sequestration science: improvement of computational tools; measurement and monitoring techniques to verify storage and track migration of CO{sub 2}; development of a comprehensive performance and risk assessment framework; fundamental geophysical, geochemical and hydrological investigations of CO{sub 2} storage; and investigate innovative, bio-based mitigation strategies

Looking for leakage or monitoring for public assurance?

Monitoring is a regulatory requirement for all carbon dioxide capture and geological storage (CCS) projects to verify containment of injected carbon dioxide (CO2) within a licensed geological storage complex. Carbon markets require CO2 storage to be verified. The public wants assurances CCS projects will not cause any harm to themselves, the environment or other natural resources. In the unlikely event that CO2 leaks from a storage complex, and into groundwater, to the surface, atmosphere or ocean, then monitoring methods will be required to locate, assess and quantify the leak, and to inform the community about the risks and impacts on health, safety and the environment. This paper considers strategies to improve the efficiency of monitoring the large surface area overlying onshore storage complexes. We provide a synthesis of findings from monitoring for CO2 leakage at geological storage sites both natural and engineered, and from monitoring controlled releases of CO2 at four shallow release facilities – ZERT (USA), Ginninderra (Australia), Ressacada (Brazil) and CO2 field lab (Norway)

Modeling Gas Transport in the Shallow Subsurface During the ZERT CO2 Release Test

We used the multiphase and multicomponent TOUGH2/EOS7CA model to carry out predictive simulations of CO{sub 2} injection into the shallow subsurface of an agricultural field in Bozeman, Montana. The purpose of the simulations was to inform the choice of CO{sub 2} injection rate and design of monitoring and detection activities for a CO{sub 2} release experiment. The release experiment configuration consists of a long horizontal well (70 m) installed at a depth of approximately 2.5 m into which CO{sub 2} is injected to mimic leakage from a geologic carbon sequestration site through a linear feature such as a fault. We estimated the permeability of the soil and cobble layers present at the site by manual inversion of measurements of soil CO{sub 2} flux from a vertical-well CO{sub 2} release. Based on these estimated permeability values, predictive simulations for the horizontal well showed that CO{sub 2} injection just below the water table creates an effective gas-flow pathway through the saturated zone up to the unsaturated zone. Once in the unsaturated zone, CO{sub 2} spreads out laterally within the cobble layer, where liquid saturation is relatively low. CO{sub 2} also migrates upward into the soil layer through the capillary barrier and seeps out at the ground surface. The simulations predicted a breakthrough time of approximately two days for the 100kg d{sup -1} injection rate, which also produced a flux within the range desired for testing detection and monitoring approaches. The seepage area produced by the model was approximately five meters wide above the horizontal well, compatible with the detection and monitoring methods tested. For a given flow rate, gas-phase diffusion of CO{sub 2} tends to dominate over advection near the ground surface, where the CO{sub 2} concentration gradient is large, while advection dominates deeper in the system

Multi-spectral imaging of vegetation for detecting CO2 leaking from underground

Practical geologic CO2 sequestration will require long-term monitoring for detection of possible leakage back into the atmosphere. One potential monitoring method is multi-spectral imaging of vegetation reflectance to detect leakage through CO2-induced plant stress. A multi-spectral imaging system was used to simultaneously record green, red, and near-infrared (NIR) images with a real-time reflectance calibration from a 3-m tall platform, viewing vegetation near shallow subsurface CO2 releases during summers 2007 and 2008 at the Zero Emissions Research and Technology field site in Bozeman, Montana. Regression analysis of the band reflectances and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index with time shows significant correlation with distance from the CO2 well, indicating the viability of this method to monitor for CO2 leakage. The 2007 data show rapid plant vigor degradation at high CO2 levels next to the well and slight nourishment at lower, but above-background CO2 concentrations. Results from the second year also show that the stress response of vegetation is strongly linked to the CO2 sink–source relationship and vegetation density. The data also show short-term effects of rain and hail. The real-time calibrated imaging system successfully obtained data in an autonomous mode during all sky and daytime illumination conditions

Final Report for the ZERT Project: Basic Science of Retention Issues, Risk Assessment & Measurement, Monitoring and Verification for Geologic Sequestration

ZERT has made major contributions to five main areas of sequestration science: improvement of computational tools; measurement and monitoring techniques to verify storage and track migration of CO{sub 2}; development of a comprehensive performance and risk assessment framework; fundamental geophysical, geochemical and hydrological investigations of CO{sub 2} storage; and investigate innovative, bio-based mitigation strategies