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A study of safe CO 2 storage capacity in saline aquifers: a numerical study
Author(s) -
Ranjith P.G.,
Perera M.S.A.,
Khan E.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.2954
Subject(s) - aquifer , salinity , carbon dioxide , environmental science , greenhouse gas , carbon sequestration , soil science , atmosphere (unit) , petroleum engineering , environmental engineering , hydrology (agriculture) , groundwater , geotechnical engineering , geology , chemistry , meteorology , physics , organic chemistry , oceanography
SUMMARY An effective way of reducing greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere is carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) geo‐sequestration in saline aquifers. The main objective of this study is to develop a 3‐D numerical model to identify the optimum CO 2 storage capacity in saline aquifers by studying the factors affecting it and the possibility of the injected CO 2 back‐migrating into the atmosphere. A 1000m×1000m×184 m saline aquifer, lying 800 m below the ground surface, was therefore considered to develop a model using the COMET 3 reservoir simulator. The effects of injecting CO 2 properties (injection pressure) and the aquifer's properties (depth, temperatures and salinity) on the CO 2 storage capacity were examined first. According to the results of the model, CO 2 storage capacity increases with increasing injection pressure and salinity and decreasing depth and temperature, and 100% variations in injection pressure, depth, temperature and salinity levels cause the CO 2 storage capacity to be changed by 54%, 36%, 18% and 1.8%, respectively. The next stage of the study involved the determination of cap rock failure due to CO 2 injection pressure and the identification of the factors influencing it. A detailed parametric study was conducted, with changes to the depth, temperature and salinity with respect to injection pressure, to detect the effects of these factors on the optimum CO 2 injection pressure. According to the results, optimum CO 2 injection pressure clearly depends on the aquifer depth and the effects of salinity and temperature are negligible. An increment of 0.8 to 1.4 km in aquifer depth causes the optimum injection pressure to be increased from 19.55 to 42 MPa, which is about 10 5 and 10 7 higher than the effects of temperature (20 to 110 °C increment) and salinity level (100,000 to 160,000 ppm increment), respectively. The model can be used effectively in field studies to safely enhance CO 2 storage capacity in saline aquifers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.