Investigation of Carbon Sequestration via Induced Calcite Formation in Natural Gas Well Brine

Abstract

The permanent storage of carbon in mineral form using natural brines found in geologic formations is at the forefront of carbon sequestration research. A complex chemistry describes the ultimate fixation of carbon in stable minerals, such as calcite. However, the parameters that govern carbonate formation are not well understood. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to induce and characterize calcite formation by reacting natural gas brine with CO2. Brine pH has a significant effect on this conversion and can thus be adjusted to induce calcite precipitation using a laboratory scale reactor operated at temperatures of 75 and 150 °C and pressures of 600 and 1500 psi. Initial pH conditions of at least 9.0 are optimal for carbonate precipitation in reactions of 18 h. Although the reaction duration is not long enough to successfully correlate brine compositional changes with precipitation and pH evolution, X-ray diffraction analysis clearly confirms the presence of calcite. Scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis provides an introductory look at the microscale production of these minerals.

Kinetics of urease mediated calcite precipitation and permeability reduction of porous media evidenced by magnetic resonance imaging

“…Calcite precipitation technologies (CPT) have a wide range of current and potential applications, including solid-phase capture and remediation of problematic trace metals and radionuclides (Curti 1999;Warren et al 2001;Fujita et al 2004;, remediation of cracked concrete (Whiffin et al 2007;De Muynck et al 2008;Ghosh et al 2009), durability of concrete structures (Ramachandran et al 2001;De Muynck et al 2010;, treatment of urea from wastewaters (Hammes et al 2003), carbon sequestration (White et al 2003;Druckenmiller et al 2006;Cunningham et al 2009;Mitchell et al 2010), soil improvement (Whiffin 2004) and sealing porosity or rock fractures (Ferris et al 1996;Cunningham et al 2009;Cuthbert et al 2012;Tobler et al 2012).…”

Geophysical monitoring and reactive transport modeling of ureolytically-driven calcium carbonate precipitation

“…The arid western U.S. is an example of such an environment [9]. In addition to metal sequestration, enhanced calcium carbonate precipitation has many other potential applications, such as providing cementation for soil strengthening [10], and a long term sink for atmospheric carbon associated with CO 2 storage/sequestration within geological media [11]. …”

Potencial uso de serpentinito no armazenamento mineral do CO2

“…Na literatura, a importância do pH das reações é ressaltada, uma vez que as reações de carbonatação necessitam de pH mais altos (entre 9 e 11) para que ocorra carbonatação com eficiência. [17][18][19]32 Antes do uso de soluções alcalinas para a eliminação de interferentes, retirou-se o solvente da reação (água + HCl) em evaporador rotatório por 45 min, até completa secagem. 18 Após a secagem, adicionaram-se 100 mL de água deionizada, o que conduziu a um aumento do pH de 1 para 3.…”