Documentation of INL?s In Situ Oil Shale Retorting Water Usage System Dynamics Model

A system dynamic model was construction to evaluate the water balance for in-situ oil shale conversion. The model is based on a systems dynamics approach and uses the Powersim Studio 9™ software package. Three phases of an in situ retort were consider; a construction phase primarily accounts for water needed for drilling and water produced during dewatering, an operation phase includes the production of water from the retorting process, and a remediation phase water to remove heat and solutes from the subsurface as well as return the ground surface to its natural state. Throughout these three phases, the water is consumed and produced. Consumption is account for through the drill process, dust control, returning the ground water to its initial level and make up water losses during the remedial flushing of the retort zone. Production of water is through the dewatering of the retort zone, and during chemical pyrolysis reaction of the kerogen conversion. The document discusses each of the three phases used in the model

GEOCENTRIFUGE STUDIES OF FLOW AND TRANSPORT IN POROUS MEDIA, FINAL REPORT FOR GRANT NUMBER DE-FG02-03ER63567 TO THE UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO (RW SMITH), ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SCIENCE PROGRAM PROJECT NUMBER 86598, COUPLED FLOW AND REACTIVITY IN VARIABLY SATURATED POROUS MEDIA

Improved models of contaminant migration in heterogeneous, variably saturated porous media are required to better define the long-term stewardship requirements for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) lands and to assist in the design of effective vadose-zone barriers to contaminant migrations. The development of these improved models requires field and laboratory results to evaluate their efficacy. However, controlled laboratory experiments simulating vadose conditions can require extensive period of time, and often are conducted at condition near saturation rather than the much drier conditions common in many contaminated arid vadose zone sites. Collaborative research undertaken by the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the University of Idaho as part of this Environmental Management Science Program project focused on the development and evaluation of geocentrifuge techniques and equipment that allows vadose zone experiments to be conducted for relevant conditions in time frames not possible in conventional bench top experiments. A key and novel aspect of the research was the use of the 2-meter radius geocentrifuge capabilities at the Idaho National Laboratory to conduct unsaturated transport experiments. Specifically, the following activities were conducted ** Reviewing of the theory of unsaturated flow in the geocentrifuge to establish the range of centrifuge accelerations/experimental conditions and the translation of centrifuge results to 1 gravity applications. ** Designing, constructing, and testing of in-flight experimental apparatus allowing the replication of traditional bench top unsaturated transport experiments on the geocentrifuge. ** Performing unsaturated 1-dimenstional column geocentrifuge experiments using conservative tracers to evaluate the effects of increased centrifugal acceleration on derived transport properties and assessing the scaling relationships for these properties. Because the application of geocentrifuge techniques to vadose transport is in its infancy experimental apparatus such as pumps, flow meters, columns, fraction collectors, etc. that would reliably function under the increased self weight experienced on the centrifuge had to be developed and tested as part of this project. Although, we initially planed to conduct experiments using reactive tracer and 2-dimensional heterogeneities, the cost and time associated with designing, building, and testing of experimental apparatus limited our experimental program to conservative tracer experiments using 1-dimensional columns. The results we obtained in this study indicate that the geocentrifuge technique is a viable experimental method for the study of subsurface processes where gravitational acceleration is important. The geocentrifuge allows experiments to be completed more quickly than tests conducted at 1-g, can be used to experimentally address important scaling issues, and permits experiments under a range of conditions that would be difficult or impossible using conventional approaches. The application of the geocentrifuge approaches and associated models developed in this project allows more meaningful investigation of DOE relevant vadose-zone issues under scalable conditions in time frames previously not obtainable

A Strategy and Case Study Example for Designing and Implementing Environmental Long-Term Monitoring at Legacy Management Sites

Environmental monitoring objectives of site owners, regulators, consultants, and scientists typically share the common elements of (1) cost management, (2) risk management, and (3) information management (Figure 1). Many site owners focus on minimizing monitoring costs while regulators typically focus on risk and regulatory compliance. Scientists and consultants typically provide information management in the form of spreadsheets with extracted information provided in reports to other users. This common piecemeal approach upon individual focus on elements of the monitoring objectives, rather than the common objective of minimizing cost and risk using site information, results in missed opportunities for cost savings, environmental protection, and improved understanding of site performance

Advancing Reactive Tracer Methods for Measurement of Thermal Evolution in Geothermal Reservoirs: Final Report

The injection of cold fluids into engineered geothermal system (EGS) and conventional geothermal reservoirs may be done to help extract heat from the subsurface or to maintain pressures within the reservoir (e.g., Rose et al., 2001). As these injected fluids move along fractures, they acquire heat from the rock matrix and remove it from the reservoir as they are extracted to the surface. A consequence of such injection is the migration of a cold-fluid front through the reservoir (Figure 1) that could eventually reach the production well and result in the lowering of the temperature of the produced fluids (thermal breakthrough). Efficient operation of an EGS as well as conventional geothermal systems involving cold-fluid injection requires accurate and timely information about thermal depletion of the reservoir in response to operation. In particular, accurate predictions of the time to thermal breakthrough and subsequent rate of thermal drawdown are necessary for reservoir management, design of fracture stimulation and well drilling programs, and forecasting of economic return. A potential method for estimating migration of a cold front between an injection well and a production well is through application of reactive tracer tests, using chemical whose rate of degradation is dependent on the reservoir temperature between the two wells (e.g., Robinson 1985). With repeated tests, the rate of migration of the thermal front can be determined, and the time to thermal breakthrough calculated. While the basic theory behind the concept of thermal tracers has been understood for some time, effective application of the method has yet to be demonstrated. This report describes results of a study that used several methods to investigate application of reactive tracers to monitoring the thermal evolution of a geothermal reservoir. These methods included (1) mathematical investigation of the sensitivity of known and hypothetical reactive tracers, (2) laboratory testing of novel tracers that would improve method sensitivity, (3) development of a software tool for design and interpretation of reactive tracer tests and (4) field testing of the reactive tracer temperature monitoring concept

Documentation of INL’s In Situ Oil Shale Retorting Water Usage System Dynamics Model

A system dynamic model was construction to evaluate the water balance for in-situ oil shale conversion. The model is based on a systems dynamics approach and uses the Powersim Studio 9™ software package. Three phases of an in situ retort were consider; a construction phase primarily accounts for water needed for drilling and water produced during dewatering, an operation phase includes the production of water from the retorting process, and a remediation phase water to remove heat and solutes from the subsurface as well as return the ground surface to its natural state. Throughout these three phases, the water is consumed and produced. Consumption is account for through the drill process, dust control, returning the ground water to its initial level and make up water losses during the remedial flushing of the retort zone. Production of water is through the dewatering of the retort zone, and during chemical pyrolysis reaction of the kerogen conversion. The document discusses each of the three phases used in the model

Documentation of INL’s In Situ Oil Shale Retorting Water Usage System Dynamics Model

A system dynamic model was construction to evaluate the water balance for in-situ oil shale conversion. The model is based on a systems dynamics approach and uses the Powersim Studio 9™ software package. Three phases of an in situ retort were consider; a construction phase primarily accounts for water needed for drilling and water produced during dewatering, an operation phase includes the production of water from the retorting process, and a remediation phase water to remove heat and solutes from the subsurface as well as return the ground surface to its natural state. Throughout these three phases, the water is consumed and produced. Consumption is account for through the drill process, dust control, returning the ground water to its initial level and make up water losses during the remedial flushing of the retort zone. Production of water is through the dewatering of the retort zone, and during chemical pyrolysis reaction of the kerogen conversion. The document discusses each of the three phases used in the model

Water Usage for In-Situ Oil Shale Retorting ? A Systems Dynamics Model

A system dynamic model was construction to evaluate the water balance for in-situ oil shale conversion. The model is based on a systems dynamics approach and uses the Powersim Studio 9™ software package. Three phases of an insitu retort were consider; a construction phase primarily accounts for water needed for drilling and water produced during dewatering, an operation phase includes the production of water from the retorting process, and a remediation phase water to remove heat and solutes from the subsurface as well as return the ground surface to its natural state. Throughout these three phases, the water is consumed and produced. Consumption is account for through the drill process, dust control, returning the ground water to its initial level and make up water losses during the remedial flushing of the retort zone. Production of water is through the dewatering of the retort zone, and during chemical pyrolysis reaction of the kerogen conversion. The major water consumption was during the remediation of the insitu retorting zone

Water Usage for In-Situ Oil Shale Retorting – A Systems Dynamics Model

A system dynamic model was construction to evaluate the water balance for in-situ oil shale conversion. The model is based on a systems dynamics approach and uses the Powersim Studio 9™ software package. Three phases of an insitu retort were consider; a construction phase primarily accounts for water needed for drilling and water produced during dewatering, an operation phase includes the production of water from the retorting process, and a remediation phase water to remove heat and solutes from the subsurface as well as return the ground surface to its natural state. Throughout these three phases, the water is consumed and produced. Consumption is account for through the drill process, dust control, returning the ground water to its initial level and make up water losses during the remedial flushing of the retort zone. Production of water is through the dewatering of the retort zone, and during chemical pyrolysis reaction of the kerogen conversion. The major water consumption was during the remediation of the insitu retorting zone

Annual Report for Environmental Management Science Program Project Number 86598 Coupled Flow and Reactivity in Variably Saturated Porous Media

Improved models of contaminant migration in heterogeneous, variably saturated porous media are required to better define the long-term stewardship requirements for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) lands and to assist in the design of effective vadose zone barriers to contaminant migrations. The objective of our three-year project is to meet the DOE need by developing new experimental approaches to describe adsorption and transport of contaminants in heterogeneous, variably saturated media (i.e., the vadose zone). The research specifically addresses the behavior of strontium, a high priority DOE contaminant. However, the key benefit of this research is improved conceptual models of how all contaminants migrate through heterogeneous, variably-saturated, porous media. Research activities are driven by the hypothesis that the reactivity of variably saturated porous media is dependent on the moisture content of the medium and can be represented by a relatively simple function applicable over a range of scales, contaminants, and media. A key and novel aspect of our research is the use of the 2-meter radius geocentrifuge capabilities at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) to conduct unsaturated reactive transport experiments (Figure 1). The experimental approach using the geocentrifuge provides data in a much shorter time period than conventional methods allowing us to complete more experiments and explore a wider range of moisture contents. The vadose zone research being done in this project will demonstrate the utility of environmental geocentrifuge experimental approaches and their applicability to DOE's vadose research needs