9 research outputs found
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SecurEarth: A Crosscutting Initiative for the Geo- and Environmental Sciences
"..addressing critical energy and environmental problems will probably have a larger societal impact than curing cancer. Now we just have to convince Congress of that." - Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate and Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in a 2005 presentation at the LBNL "..a new national energy program is essential and must be initiated with the intensity and commitment of the Manhattan Project, and sustained until this problem is solved" "Considering the urgency of the energy problem, the magnitude of the needed scientific breakthroughs, and the historic rate of scientific discovery, current efforts will likely be too little, too late." - 2003, Basic Energy Science Advisory Committee recommendation Over the next several decades, the U.S. will be facing critical decisions regarding extraction and utilization of the Earth’s resources and stewardship of the Earth. Demands for energy (e.g., fossil, geothermal) and useable water supplies, as well as for places and methods to deal with waste products (e.g., carbon dioxide, radioactive waste), are increasing rapidly. Moreover, the demands are usually interdependent and conflicting. Postponing decisions will become increasingly difficult and unpopular. Complex policy decisions (examples?) with long-range consequences that must be made in the near future will depend on several types of information: social, economic, political and scientific. To balance the urgency with which social, economic, and political information will be used, pertinent scientific information must also be readily available, practical, and possessed with high degree of certainty. Therefore, there is a vital need for timely and relevant scientific information related to energy, resource and environmental issues that will enable decision makers to make better decisions related to public policy. SECUREarth was launched several years ago as a proposition by scientists from DOE national laboratories, universities and industry who recognized two fundamental issues related to the role of the earth sciences, particularly subsurface science, in addressing resource and environmental issues. The first is that we are still struggling to make connections between pore-, molecular- and cellular-scale information and the complex, large-scale systems where we most need predictive capabilities. To take advantage of the growing wealth of scientific information about physical, chemical and biological processes we need to facilitate research leading to an understanding of how individual processes are coupled, how whole-systems behave and can be modeled, and how the response of large-scale systems to natural or engineered changes can be reasonably predicted. It will also be important to assess both the level of uncertainty associated with predictions and the potential consequences of that uncertainty, as well as to develop strategies for minimizing that uncertainty. The second issue for SECUREarth is that the rate at which the science related to the earth’s environment is progressing will not produce some of the most critically needed information by the time policy decisions must be made. Therefore, SECUREarth is concerned both with opening new frontiers for the earth sciences, and also with increasing the rate at which the science becomes useful and available to inform decision makers. The vision for SECUREarth is to facilitate the direction of funding from government and industry sources in order t
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Borehole seismic monitoring of seismic stimulation at Occidental Permian Ltd's -- South Wason Clear Fork Unit
Seismic stimulation is a proposed enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique which uses seismic energy to increase oil production. As part of an integrated research effort (theory, lab and field studies), LBNL has been measuring the seismic amplitude of various stimulation sources in various oil fields (Majer, et al., 2006, Roberts, et al., 2001, Daley et al., 1999). The amplitude of the seismic waves generated by a stimulation source is an important parameter for increased oil mobility in both theoretical models and laboratory core studies. The seismic amplitude, typically in units of seismic strain, can be measured in-situ by use of a borehole seismometer (geophone). Measuring the distribution of amplitudes within a reservoir could allow improved design of stimulation source deployment. In March, 2007, we provided in-field monitoring of two stimulation sources operating in Occidental (Oxy) Permian Ltd's South Wasson Clear Fork (SWCU) unit, located near Denver City, Tx. The stimulation source is a downhole fluid pulsation device developed by Applied Seismic Research Corp. (ASR). Our monitoring used a borehole wall-locking 3-component geophone operating in two nearby wells
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Integrated modeling and field study of potential mechanisms for induced seismicity at The Geysers Goethermal Field, California
In this paper, we present progress made in a study aimed at increasing the understanding of the relative contributions of different mechanisms that may be causing the seismicity occurring at The Geysers geothermal field, California. The approach we take is to integrate: (1) coupled reservoir geomechanical numerical modeling, (2) data from recently upgraded and expanded NCPA/Calpine/LBNL seismic arrays, and (3) tens of years of archival InSAR data from monthly satellite passes. We have conducted a coupled reservoir geomechanical analysis to study potential mechanisms induced by steam production. Our simulation results corroborate co-locations of hypocenter field observations of induced seismicity and their correlation with steam production as reported in the literature. Seismic and InSAR data are being collected and processed for use in constraining the coupled reservoir geomechanical model
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Methods for the prediction, monitoring and verification of co2 movement: results from the iea weyburn co2 storage and monitoring project
Coupled non-isothermal, multiphase fluid flow, and geomechanical modeling of ground surface deformations and potential for induced micro-seismicity at the In Salah CO2 storage operation
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Subsurface monitoring and verification at the frio pilot test
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Bacterial transport: Integrating aqueous and solid phase qPCR measurement of bacterial numbers with physicochemical parameters by multivariate analysis
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GEO-SEQ Best Practices Manual. Geologic Carbon Dioxide Sequestration: Site Evaluation to Implementation
The first phase of the GEO-SEQ project was a multidisciplinary effort focused on investigating ways to lower the cost and risk of geologic carbon sequestration. Through our research in the GEO-SEQ project, we have produced results that may be of interest to the wider geologic carbon sequestration community. However, much of the knowledge developed in GEO-SEQ is not easily accessible because it is dispersed in the peer-reviewed literature and conference proceedings in individual papers on specific topics. The purpose of this report is to present key GEO-SEQ findings relevant to the practical implementation of geologic carbon sequestration in the form of a Best Practices Manual. Because our work in GEO-SEQ focused on the characterization and project development aspects, the scope of this report covers practices prior to injection, referred to as the design phase. The design phase encompasses activities such as selecting sites for which enhanced recovery may be possible, evaluating CO{sub 2} capacity and sequestration feasibility, and designing and evaluating monitoring approaches. Through this Best Practices Manual, we have endeavored to place our GEO-SEQ findings in a practical context and format that will be useful to readers interested in project implementation. The overall objective of this Manual is to facilitate putting the findings of the GEO-SEQ project into practice