Interplay between microorganisms and geochemistry in geological carbon storage

Kirk, Matthew F.; Altman, Susan J.; Santillan, Eugenio Felipe Unson; Bennett, Philip C.

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.01.041

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 80 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Nonetheless, studies have also demonstrated that microbial populations can remain active in environments with elevated CO 2 levels, even in the presence of supercritical CO 2 (Yakimov et al, 2002 ; Inagaki et al, 2006 ; Videmsek et al, 2009 ; Oppermann et al, 2010 ; Peet et al, 2015 ; Emerson et al, 2016 ; Jin and Kirk, 2016 ; Probst et al, 2017 ). Changes in microbial communities following exposure reflect the ability of different species to exist within the perturbed conditions as well as changes in energy available for different microbial reactions (Kirk et al, 2016 ). Thus, CO 2 leakage has the potential to affect community composition not only by imposing new stresses on cells but also by altering the redox state of the system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, we know little about how the microbial response to high CO 2 varies under different geochemical conditions, including redox state, salinity, temperature, and the ability of the system to buffer pH. Filling these knowledge gaps is important because feedbacks of the microbial response to CO 2 exposure have the potential to affect both water quality and CO 2 trapping (Kirk et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Microorganisms influence the chemical and physical properties of subsurface environments and thus represent an important control on the fate and environmental impact of CO2 that leaks into aquifers from deep storage reservoirs. How leakage will influence microbial populations over long time scales is largely unknown. This study uses natural analog sites to investigate the long-term impact of CO2 leakage from underground storage sites on subsurface biogeochemistry. We considered two sites with elevated CO2 levels (sample groups I and II) and one control site with low CO2 content (group III). Samples from sites with elevated CO2 had pH ranging from 6.2 to 4.5 and samples from the low-CO2 control group had pH ranging from 7.3 to 6.2. Solute concentrations were relatively low for samples from the control group and group I but high for samples from group II, reflecting varying degrees of water-rock interaction. Microbial communities were analyzed through clone library and MiSeq sequencing. Each 16S rRNA analysis identified various bacteria, methane-producing archaea, and ammonia-oxidizing archaea. Both bacterial and archaeal diversities were low in groundwater with high CO2 content and community compositions between the groups were also clearly different. In group II samples, sequences classified in groups capable of methanogenesis, metal reduction, and nitrate reduction had higher relative abundance in samples with relative high methane, iron, and manganese concentrations and low nitrate levels. Sequences close to Comamonadaceae were abundant in group I, while the taxa related to methanogens, Nitrospirae, and Anaerolineaceae were predominant in group II. Our findings provide insight into subsurface biogeochemical reactions that influence the carbon budget of the system including carbon fixation, carbon trapping, and CO2 conversion to methane. The results also suggest that monitoring groundwater microbial community can be a potential tool for tracking CO2 leakage from geologic storage sites.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites

et al. 2017

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At pressures of 5–35 MPa, CO 2 can interfere with cell metabolism through a variety of mechanisms, including cytoplasm acidification, membrane lysis, enzyme deactivation, and mobilization of toxic trace elements from mineral surfaces (Watanabe et al, 2003; Bertoloni et al, 2006; Oulé et al, 2006; Wimmer and Zarevúcka, 2010; Santillan et al, 2013). But microbes likely persist in aquifers exposed to high CO 2 (Kirk et al, 2016a). Many microbes tolerate high CO 2 , especially those that possess Gram-positive cell walls, grow within biofilms, and form spores (Zhang et al, 2006; Mitchell et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamic and Kinetic Response of Microbial Reactions to High CO2

Jin

Kirk

2016

Front. Microbiol.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Geological carbon sequestration captures CO2 from industrial sources and stores the CO2 in subsurface reservoirs, a viable strategy for mitigating global climate change. In assessing the environmental impact of the strategy, a key question is how microbial reactions respond to the elevated CO2 concentration. This study uses biogeochemical modeling to explore the influence of CO2 on the thermodynamics and kinetics of common microbial reactions in subsurface environments, including syntrophic oxidation, iron reduction, sulfate reduction, and methanogenesis. The results show that increasing CO2 levels decreases groundwater pH and modulates chemical speciation of weak acids in groundwater, which in turn affect microbial reactions in different ways and to different extents. Specifically, a thermodynamic analysis shows that increasing CO2 partial pressure lowers the energy available from syntrophic oxidation and acetoclastic methanogenesis, but raises the available energy of microbial iron reduction, hydrogenotrophic sulfate reduction and methanogenesis. Kinetic modeling suggests that high CO2 has the potential of inhibiting microbial sulfate reduction while promoting iron reduction. These results are consistent with the observations of previous laboratory and field studies, and highlight the complexity in microbiological responses to elevated CO2 abundance, and the potential power of biogeochemical modeling in evaluating and quantifying these responses.

show abstract

“… 2015 ; Kirk et al. 2016 ), and cells may die as a result of CO 2 dissolving into cell membranes (e.g. White, Burns and Christensen 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 2011 ; Kirk et al. 2016 ); few studies target the actual microbial communities living in geologic CO 2 sequestration or CO 2 -EOR reservoirs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbial community composition of a hydrocarbon reservoir 40 years after a CO2 enhanced oil recovery flood

Shelton

Andrews

Akob

et al. 2018

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Injecting CO2 into depleted oil reservoirs to extract additional crude oil is a common enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) technique. However, little is known about how in situ microbial communities may be impacted by CO2 flooding, or if any permanent microbiological changes occur after flooding has ceased. Formation water was collected from an oil field that was flooded for CO2-EOR in the 1980s, including samples from areas affected by or outside of the flood region, to determine the impacts of CO2-EOR on reservoir microbial communities. Archaea, specifically methanogens, were more abundant than bacteria in all samples, while identified bacteria exhibited much greater diversity than the archaea. Microbial communities in CO2-impacted and non-impacted samples did not significantly differ (ANOSIM: Statistic R = -0.2597, significance = 0.769). However, several low abundance bacteria were found to be significantly associated with the CO2-affected group; very few of these species are known to metabolize CO2 or are associated with CO2-rich habitats. Although this study had limitations, on a broad scale, either the CO2 flood did not impact the microbial community composition of the target formation, or microbial communities in affected wells may have reverted back to pre-injection conditions over the ca. 40 years since the CO2-EOR.

show abstract

Interplay between microorganisms and geochemistry in geological carbon storage

Cited by 8 publications

References 80 publications

Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites

Geochemical Influence on Microbial Communities at CO2-Leakage Analog Sites

Thermodynamic and Kinetic Response of Microbial Reactions to High CO2

Microbial community composition of a hydrocarbon reservoir 40 years after a CO2 enhanced oil recovery flood

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About