NOVEL CONCEPTS RESEARCH IN GEOLOGIC STORAGE OF CO{sub 2}

As part of the Department of Energy's (DOE) initiative on developing new technologies for storage of carbon dioxide in geologic reservoirs, Battelle has been awarded a project to investigate the feasibility of CO{sub 2} sequestration in the deep saline reservoirs in the Ohio River Valley region. This project is the Phase III of Battelle's work under the Novel Concepts in Greenhouse Gas Management grant. In addition to the DOE, the project is being sponsored by American Electric Power (AEP), BP, The Ohio Coal Development Office (OCDO) of the Ohio Department of Development, and Schlumberger. The main objective of the project is to evaluate the geology of deep formations in the Ohio River Valley region in general and in the vicinity of AEP's Mountaineer Power Plant in particular, in order to determine their potential use for conducting a long-term test of CO{sub 2} disposal in deep saline formations and potentially in nearby deep coal seams. This work supports the overall project objective of demonstrating that CO{sub 2} sequestration in deep formations is feasible from engineering and economic perspectives, as well as being an inherently safe practice and one that will be acceptable to the public. The current technical progress report summarizes activities completed for the October through December 2004 period of the project. As discussed in the report, the technical activities focused on initial injection well design, completion of the site characterization report, assessment of monitoring technologies, shipment of coal samples for testing the capture system to Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, and presentation of project progress at several venues. In addition, proposals to DOE for continued funding of the project activities under the current contract and potentially a new contract for development of regional framework were being evaluated and processed