Carbon Emissions Reduction Research
The Colorado School of Mines Portfolio
Colorado Energy Summit
Denver, CO
October 14, 2011
Dag Nummedal, Director
Colorado Energy Research Institute
Colorado School of Mines
Golden, Colorado
CERI
Changing Landscape for CO2
• “Official” DOE terminology: CCUS
• Fuel shift to gas – capture and storage from gas plants
• Australian parliament lower house passed carbon tax
legislation on Oct. 12th
• UN’s COP meeting in Durban in December, 2011, may
approve carbon credits for CO2 use for EOR in “Annex 2
countries”
More about CO2 Utilization
Current CO2 uses
Megatons/yr
Enhanced Oil Recovery
50
Urea (captive use)
120
Food Industry (liquid)
8.5
Beverage Carbonation
8
Inorganic Carbonate/bicarbonate
8
Oil and Gas Industry non-EOR
3
Other Liquid Uses
<1
Miscellaneous
<1
DOE/NETL work in progress
Colorado Carbon Management Center
www.carbonmangementcenter.org
Research Portfolio is Aligned with NAS Report June 2008:
“The Need to Know”
What happens to CO2 in the subsurface and how do we know?
Can we monitor CO2 once it is injected?
What techniques are available to monitor whether CO2 is leaking?
Is it possible to predict the long-term storage of CO2 in reservoirs?
• Geological storage (CSM): MMV techs – seismic imaging, risk analysis,
gas seepage detection, geomechanics, reservoir simulation, P&P
changes with injection, geomicrobiology.
• CO2 capture (CU-Boulder and CSM)
• Terrestrial (capture/storage) (CSU): soil sequestration, decision support
tools (at CSU). Regulatory, legal (e.g.who owns pore space?),
greenhouse gas accounting systems (at CU-B).
• Life-cycle analysis of emissions (NREL)
Energy Research Portfolio at CSM
A total of 35 University centers
1. Use less
•
Energy Efficiency (smarter grids, better controls, advanced fuel cells) better
transmisson and conversion – regardless of generating source
2. Reduce emissions from fossil energy
• Fuel shift to lighter HC molecules (unconventional natural gas instead of coal.
Unconventional gas includes: tight gas, hydrates and shale gas research.
• Carbon capture and storage
3. Fundamental research to increase penetration of renewable energy
resources
• Solar energy, mostly PV – three decades of experience
• Biofuels – algae and cellulosic biomass
• Geothermal – using CSM’s great geoscience experience
• Wind energy
4. Reactivated our nuclear energy degree program (fuel cycle focus)
5. Energy water nexus – environmental issues
“State” Energy Centers
Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2)
Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion (CRSP)
Collaborative Research and Education in Wind (CREW)
Solar Technology Acceleration Consortium (STAC)
Center for Carbon Management (CMC)
Center for Energy Efficiency and Management (CEEM)
Alliance for Sustainable Energy
A National Partnership
Aug. 1, 08 - DOE Selects ASE (Alliance for Sustainable Energy) to Manage and Operate
its National Renewable Energy Laboratory
ASE is a limited liability company consisting of Battelle Memorial Institute and Midwest
Research Institute as NREL contract holder, and five partner universities on the board
International CCS Collaboration
CSM CCS faculty have strong links with
Norway (UiB, UiO, NTNU, Gassnova, Statoil
Canada (CMC, Regina)
Japan (U Kyoto)
China (Beijing U, CU Petroleum, CU Geosciences)
Britain (Imperial)
Sweden (Uppsala)
India (DGH - New Delhi; Gujarat Energy Research and Management
Institute, Oil India Ltd.)
Carbon sequestration proposal in review (NETL), between CSM and
SUCCESS (Nøttvedt, Ågård), CO2CRC (Peter Cook), Curtin University
(Mark Woffenden) and Kyoto U.
Extra Slides
• Technical project highlights
Migration of CO2 from Horizontal Injectors at
Weyburn Field, Canada (time-lapse 2002-2000)
RMS Amplitude %
Difference, 2000-2002
Edge of salt
dissolution
Fingering
Tom Davis, 2002
Reservoir Characterization Project
Phase XII
Time-Lapse AI Difference : Decrease in AI
11-2
11-4
7.5
10-3
5.0
2.5
1.7
Monitor – baseline
Dec 2008 – March 2008
-1.7
-2.5
WAG injectors
water injectors
producers
% difference in Acoustic Impedance
10-2
-5.0
Potential drilling
location
Alana Robinson
2.5 mile
-7.5
Tom Davis, 2010
12
Fracture Geomechanics
PROJECT OBJECTIVE - To
characterize and quantify the hydrothermo- mechanical (HTM) response
of rock fractures in CO2 storage
reservoirs through experimental and
numerical studies.
PROJECT TASKSTasks - Laboratory
and numerical modeling studies of nonisothermal and multiphase fluid flow and
transport in fractured porous rocks.
Schematic of CO2 storage in reservoirs showing
the effects of conductive and healed fractures on
the migration of CO2.
Marte Gutierrez
Bacterial lipids reflect isotopic signature of
carbon source
Subsurface
CO2(injected)
Bacterial lipids reflect
biotransformation
of subsurface carbon
Dissolved organic
carbon
Fossil organic
carbon
Bacteria
13C
O
O
Kevin Mandernack
CH3
Convective Mixing
• Convective mixing is an instability
1. CO2 plume will migrate to above
the brine due to buoyancy
2. Dissolved CO2 increases the
density of brine below
3. The heavier brine sinks into the
lighter brine below, generating
a convection
4. Convection enhances
mixing and solubility
trapping
(Adapted from data
provided by CMG)
Yu-Shu Wu + LBL Colleagues
Kneafsey & Pruess, 2010 (Simulation &
Experiment)
Porosity and Permeability of Shales after Carbon
Sequestration: A nanoscale approach
Aim is to quantify changes in pore
networks in mudstones at submicron
scales after reaction with brine and
supercritical CO2 using high resolution
imaging, small angle neutron
scattering, and laboratory small-scale
experiments
Illite-smectite clay (bar is 10 micrometers long)
USGS Fact Sheet FS-020-97
High-resolution imaging -TEM
Scattering observed
in small angle
neutron scattering
Katherine Mouzakis, Alexis Sitchler,
John McCray
Simulating CO2 Leakage and Metal Mobilization Through Cap Rocks
- Numerical simulations of CO2 injection
into dolomitic Weyburn reservoir with
multiphase reactive transport model
PFLOTRAN
- Assess gas & brine leakage and metal
mobilization through the caprock and
intermediate zone (IZ).
-Plans5.7to add mixed gases (Sox, CO2)
5.65
t=0
t=1
5.6
t=2
t=3
5.55
t=4
5.5
0
200
400
-Cantucci, B., Montegrossi, G., Vaselli, O., Tassi, F., Quattrocchi, F., Perkins,
E.H.,: Geochemical Modeling of CO2 storage in deep reserviors: The
Weyburn Project (Canada) case study. Chem. Geology. 265, 181-197 (2009)
- http://www.co2crc.com.au/imagelibrary3/storage.php
Hanna Menke, Alexis Sitchler,
Reed Maxwell, Peter Lichtner,
John McCray
Carbon Sequestration and
Risk to Drinking Water
Aquifers
John McCray, Alexis Sitchler, John
Kaszuba, Reed Maxwell
Questions from Jim Spiers
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The President’s Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage states: “The lack of
comprehensive climate change legislation is the key barrier to CCS deployment.
Introductions:
Dr. Dag Nummedal, overview role, with introduction of the Colorado Energy Research Institute at
Colorado School of Mines, what is the state of carbon regulation or lack thereof in the United
States and what are the prospects;
See notes at opening of Boulder meeting. Use some slides of CSM and CMC.
1.
Assuming the legislative log jam is solved or carbon mitigation becomes a front burner topic,
what are the prospects of the current approach to CCS being a significant part of the solution?
Dag
2.
If we do have viable terrestrial sequestration sites, what are the prospects of federal or state
solutions to the liability and long-term storage issues? Dag, federal/Chris, state
3.
Wow, even if the carbon regulation is hazy, there doesn’t appear to be any great solution out
there. What are the current solutions and what are their prospects, such as EOR? Dag and Chris
4.
If we get breakthroughs in research, what will it take to grow it to utility scale? Dag and
Bruce
5.
The paper in press for Willey journal