Sequestration and Enhanced Coal Bed Methane: Tanquary Farms Test Site, Wabash County, Illinois

Abstract

David G. Morse (ISGS) led the effort to find a suitable injection site and all of the well drilling work to the casing point including the coring and open hole logging operations. Morse coordinated the Coal Characterization program and was the primary author for the coal characterization section of this report. Contributors to the coal characterization are as follows: ISGS contributors were Keith Hackley, gas chromatographic and isotopic characterization; and Christopher Korose, Geographic Information Systems and volumetrics. Laboratory experiments on coal adsorption, shrinkage, and swelling were conducted by Satya Harpalani, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Maria Mastalerz, Agnieszka Drobniak, and John Rupp (Indiana Geological Survey) were involved with planning, performed some desorption and gas chemistry and all maceral characterization analyses, and studied the roles of various coal macerals and coal pore size distribution in sequestration. Ivan G. Krapac (ISGS) coordinated the monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) program at the Tanquary site. He designed and developed the general MVA requirements of the site and worked with individual contributors towards the synergistic and collaborative effort of this program. Krapac coordinated, compiled, and edited the MVA strategy and MVA observations and discussions sections. ISGS contributors to both field efforts and data analysis and interpretation included Peter Berger (geochemical modeling), Gayathri Gopalakrishnan (GFLOW modeling), Keith Hackley (gas characterization), Donald Luman (color infrared imagery), Ed Mehnert (groundwater modeling, water well installation and development), and William Roy (geochemical modeling). Abbas Iranmanesh and Bracken Wimmer assisted with monitoring well installation and development, conducted the monthly water and gas sampling of the domestic and injection site ground water and the injection coal seam monitoring wells, and contributed to documentation of sampling methodology. ISGS well drilling crew led by Jack Aud installed groundwater monitoring wells. Bob Butsch (Schlumberger Carbon Services) completed the cased hole log analyses. Scott Frailey led the pilot planning, scheduling, and logistics of implementing the plan through post-carbon dioxide (CO 2) injection testing and ultimate abandonment of wells and reclamation of the site. Frailey designed the pressure transient tests and performed real time analyses of the data. He coordinated the numerical modeling and pressure transient analyses for analyzing the pressure and injection rate from the CO 2 and water injection periods. Frailey was the primary author for the introduction and sections on site selection; pilot site design modification and well arrangement; drilling operations, open hole tests, and casing; completion; coal seam (in situ) characterization (pre-CO 2); field observations during active CO 2 injection; interpretation, analyses, and modeling of pilot results; and conclusions. Text for these sections was also contributed by

Recent Advances and Perspectives of CO2-Enhanced Coalbed Methane: Experimental, Modeling, and Technological Development

“…At 1 month after injection, CO 2 breakthrough was detected in all three wells, with a sudden increase of 80% in the CO 2 concentration at October 29, 2008, and a complete breakthrough in M-1 and M-2 in January 2009. Detailed information can be found in ref .…”

An Assessment of Geological Carbon Storage Options in the Illinois Basin: Validation Phase

“…A pilot project was carried out to test storage of CO 2 in the Springfield Coal Member of the Carbondale Formation (Pennsylvanian System) in order to gauge the potential for large-scale CO 2 storage and/or ECBM recovery in the Illinois Basin, which is the largest bituminous coal reserve in the United States (Frailey, 2012b).…”

CO₂ Storage and Enhanced Oil Recovery: Bald Unit Test Site, Mumford Hills Oil Field, Posey County, Indiana

“…The software used for the model was GFLOW v2.1.0 (Haitjema, 2005). The model for this site was developed by expanding the GFLOW model developed for the MGSC's Tanquary coal bed methane pilot site, located in Wabash County, Illinois, across the Wabash River from the Mumford Hills Field (Frailey et al 2012a). The revised model included a thicker aquifer and lower hydraulic conductivity.…”

“…For Phase II (2005II ( -2011, four small-scale field tests were conducted. They included testing the ability to adsorb gaseous CO 2 (Frailey et al 2012a) in a deep, unminable coal seam and the ability to store CO 2 and enhance oil production in mature oil fields (Frailey et al 2012b). Each of these field tests had an extensive monitoring program for sampling air, shallow groundwater, and fluids from the injection zone, as well as geophysical and cased-hole logging and monitoring of pressure changes to understand the fate of injected CO 2 at the test sites.…”