METSTOR: A GIS to look for potential CO2 storage zones in France

International audienceThe METSTOR project offers a methodology to look for potentially interesting CO2 storage areas in France at the initial stage, before the "site selection" step. Our tool, embodied in a Geographic Information System, is based on an interactive map of CO2 storage capacities. Other relevant information layers are included. The geographic layers are complemented with a series of online technical notices. It seems to be the first open online GIS that offers policy makers, businesses and the public at large an integrated access to that necessary information. Our prototype, limited mainly to the Paris Basin, is released online at www.metstor.fr

METSTOR: A GIS to look for potential CO2 storage zones in France

The METSTOR project offers a methodology to look for potentially interesting CO2 storage areas in France at the initial stage, before the "site selection" step. Our tool, embodied in a Geographic Information System, is based on an interactive map of CO2 storage capacities. Other relevant information layers are included. The geographic layers are complemented with a series of online technical notices. It seems to be the first open online GIS that offers policy makers, businesses and the public at large an integrated access to that necessary information. Our prototype, limited mainly to the Paris Basin, is released online at www.metstor.fr.CO2 storage; Carbone capture and storage; Methodology; France; Site selection; Geographic information system; Storage capacities; Aquifers; Coal deposits; Depleted fields; Risk assessment

Effect of Geological Heterogeneities on Reservoir Storage Capacity and migration of CO 2 Plume in a Deep Saline Fractured Carbonate Aquifer

In a reservoir characterization study of the Hontomín deep saline aquifer, the impact of geological heterogeneities on reservoir storage capacity and the migration of the CO2 plume is explored. This work presents, for the first time, very long-term (up to 200 years) simulations of CO2 injection into the naturally fractured Sopeña Formation, of the lower Jurassic age, at Hontomín. CO2 injection was simulated as a dual permeability case with Eclipse compositional software. The matrix permeability of the carbonate reservoir is quite low (0.5 mD) and thus fluid flow through the fractures dominates. The reservoir is dissected by eight normal faults which limited its southeast extension and divided it into several segments. The effect of geological heterogeneities was tested through scenario-based modeling and variation of parameters characterizing heterogeneity within realistic limits based on other similar formations. This modeling approach worked well in Hontomín where the database is completely scarce. The plume migration, the reservoir storage capacity, and pressure, were each influenced in diverse ways by incorporating particular types of heterogeneities. The effect of matrix heterogeneities on reservoir storage capacity was substantial (by factors up to ~2.8×), compared to the plume migration. As the reservoir matrix permeability heterogeneity increased, the reservoir storage capacity markedly decreased, whilst an increase in porosity heterogeneity significantly increased it. The vertical gas migration in the homogeneous base case was relatively larger compared to the heterogeneous cases, and gas accumulated underneath the caprock via hydrodynamic trapping. It was also observed that, in heterogeneous cases, gas saturation in rock layers from top to bottom was relatively high compared to the base case, for which most of the gas was stored in the topmost layer. In contrast, the impact on storage capacity and plume movement of matrix vertical to horizontal permeability ratio in the fractured carbonate reservoir was small. The impact of the transmissibility of faults on reservoir pressure was only observed when the CO2 plume reached their vicinity

Geological Model of a Storage Complex for a CO2 Storage Operation in a Naturally-Fractured Carbonate Formation

Investigation into geological storage of CO2 is underway at Hontomín (Spain). The storage reservoir is a deep saline aquifer formed by naturally fractured carbonates with low matrix permeability. Understanding the processes that are involved in CO2 migration within these formations is key to ensure safe operation and reliable plume prediction. A geological model encompassing the whole storage complex was established based upon newly-drilled and legacy wells. The matrix characteristics were mainly obtained from the newly drilled wells with a complete suite of log acquisitions, laboratory works and hydraulic tests. The model major improvement is the integration of the natural fractures. Following a methodology that was developed for naturally fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs, the advanced characterization workflow identified the main sets of fractures and their main characteristics, such as apertures, orientations, and dips. Two main sets of fracture are identified based upon their mean orientation: North-South and East-West with different fracture density for each the facies. The flow capacity of the fracture sets are calibrated on interpreted injection tests by matching their permeability and aperture at the Discrete Fracture Network scale and are subsequently upscaled to the geological model scale. A key new feature of the model is estimated permeability anisotropy induced by the fracture sets

Modelling of CO2 Injection in Fluvial Sedimentary Heterogeneous Reservoirs to Assess the Impact of Geological Heterogeneities on CO2 Storage Capacity and Performance

International audienceThe integration of sedimentary heterogeneity in flow simulations is still a challenging issue in reservoir engineering modelling. Yet in the CCS context, the discussion on how the heterogeneities may impact the flow performances is at the beginning. Fluvial reservoirs consist of complex heterogeneous sedimentary bodies with varying connectivity, controlled by the sedimentary history of the system. The main difficulty is to handle two different scales when evaluating the storage capacity performance of such reservoirs: (i) large scale of the pressure footprint (∼10km) and (ii) small scale of the sedimentary heterogeneity (∼m). This induces the generation of reservoir grids containing several 100 000 of gridblocks making the dynamic flow simulation difficult to handle. In addition to that, the high level of uncertainty requires the generation of several models to cover a large spectrum of equi-probable solution. The present work focuses on fluvial reservoir performances using a stochastic algorithm to reproduce deterministically realistic architectural models with high resolution heterogeneities. Each geological model is split into two identical architectural models that differ in their sedimentary fill. One considers the reservoir bodies (fluvial belts) as homogeneous stacked point bar sand bodies (1st order heterogeneity, Model B), while the second type contains also flow barriers (shale oxbow lakes; 2nd order heterogeneity, Model A). To perform the CO2 injection two codes were used: TOUGH2-MP (integrated finite volume approach with massive parallel implementation) and 3DSL (streamline black oil simulator on a single processor). Two sets of 50 realizations were assessed (Models A and B). The streamline simulations enable quick ranking of dynamic capacity estimate at the scale of the geological model while only eight models could be conducted in a reasonable CPU time framework with TOUGH2-MP. This is explained by the high detailed characterisation of the fluid properties coupled with the flow which lowers substantially the speed of calculations.The study reveals that heterogeneities affect the storage capacity as well as the injectivity of the well. For a reservoir formation with a typical size of 23km x 25 km x 60m, the capacities vary between 2.5 and 11Mt. The presence of oxbow lakes induces a loss of capacity that varies between 1.2Mt (23%) and 1Mt (12%) after 10 years, and 30 years, respectively

Main results of the CO2 -DISSOLVED project: first step toward a future industrial pilot combining geological storage of dissolved CO 2 and geothermal heat recovery

International audienceThe CO2-DISSOLVED project, funded by the ANR (French National Research Agency) is a techno-economic study assessing the feasibility of a new concept combining geothermal energy and CCS (Kervévan et al., 2013). This design combines capture, injection, and storage of dissolved CO2 (rather than supercritical) in a deep saline aquifer with geothermal heat recovery

Hydrogen and air storage in salt caverns: a thermodynamic model for phase equilibrium calculations

When storing gas in a salt cavern, it occupies most of the excavated volume, but the lower part of the cavern inevitably contains residual brine, in contact with the gas. The design of hydrogen and compressed air storage in salt caverns requires to have a thermodynamic model able to accurately predict both phase properties such as densities, and phase equilibrium (gas solubility and water content of the vapour phase). This work proposes a parameterization of the e-PPC-SAFT equation of state in this context. Experimental data of pure components and mixtures of light gas + pure water and light gas + salted water are reviewed and used to fit pure component parameters for hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and the brine, and binary interaction parameters between H2, O2, N2 + water and H2, O2, N2 + ions (Na+ and Cl−), for temperature ranging from 273 to 473 K and salinities up to NaCl saturation (6 mol/kg). The model developed delivers good accuracy in reproducing data: the average deviation between experiments and calculated data is between 3% and 9% for gas solubility in saturated brine. More interestingly, the model has been validated on its capability to predict data not included in the parameterization database, including the composition of the vapor phase, and its extension to a mixture, such as air. Finally, it has been used in a case study of Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) to evaluate the water content of the gas produced during injection-withdrawing cycles

Low power commissioning of an innovative laser beam circulator for inverse Compton scattering γ\gamma-ray source

International audienceWe report on the optical commissioning of the high power laser beam circulator for the high brightness Compton γ-ray source Extreme Light Infrastructure for Nuclear Physics. Tests aiming at demonstrating the optical performances of the laser beam circulator have been realized with a low-power pulsed laser-beam system and without electron beam. We show that, with the developed alignment and synchronization methods coming from the laser beam circulator design study presented in the Dupraz et al. paper [Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 17, 033501 (2014)], the laser beam circulator enhances the laser-beam power available at the interaction point by a factor in excess of 25. This corresponds to a potential of bringing the average laser-beam power in excess of 1 kW when the laser beam circulator is injected with the interaction point laser-beam pulse energy of 400 mJ at 100 Hz

Technology Developments for ELI-NP Gamma Beam System

International audienceELI-NP gamma beam system (GBS) is a linac based gamma-source in construction in Magurele (RO) by the European consortium EuroGammaS led by INFN. Photons with tunable energy, from 0.2 to 19.5 MeV, and with intensity and brilliance beyond the state of the art, will be produced by Compton back-scattering between a high quality electron beam (up to 740 MeV) and an intense laser pulse at 100 Hz repetition rate. Production of very intense photon flux with narrow bandwidth requires multi-bunch operation and laser recirculation at the interaction point. In this paper, the main technological developments carried out by the EuroGammaS consortium for the generation of the ELI-NP gamma beam will be described with a special emphasis on the electron linac technology, such as: RF-gun and C-band accelerating structures design fabrication and tests; low level RF (LLRF) and synchronization systems specifications and development. Finally, the laser recirculation apparatus design is briefly described and first results reported