The Australian South West Hub Project: Developing a Storage Project in Unconventional Geology

Sharma, Sandeep; Gent, Dominique Van; Burke, Martin; Stelfox, Louise

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1569

Cited by 17 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Supercritical CO 2 accounts for greater than 80% of the injected mass in all simulation cases. Only about 6% of this supercritical CO 2 is trapped in the pore space as a residual phase, in line with expectations [14,[27][28][29]. The simulation results indicate that mobile supercritical CO 2 has the potential to migrate away from the injection wells through buoyancy-driven flow, due to the high permeability and porosity of the entire Glen Canyon Group.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Thus, areas to the west of the San Rafael Swell, including the Buzzards Bench site, would rely on solubility trapping, residual gas trapping, and long-term mineralization to permanently store the CO 2 . A feasibility study in western Australia explored the idea of relying on capillary trapping, residual trapping, and mineral trapping to secure the 220 Mt of CO 2 [14,15]. The characterization and simulation study indicated that it was possible to store that volume of CO 2 for greater than 1000 years without an intact stratigraphic trap [14,15].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A feasibility study in western Australia explored the idea of relying on capillary trapping, residual trapping, and mineral trapping to secure the 220 Mt of CO 2 [14,15]. The characterization and simulation study indicated that it was possible to store that volume of CO 2 for greater than 1000 years without an intact stratigraphic trap [14,15]. On the northern and eastern flanks of the San Rafael Swell, several natural CO 2 sources, such as Farnham Dome, have produced nearly 267,000 metric tons of CO 2 during its lifetime [13].…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Geologic Carbon Storage of Anthropogenic CO2 under the Colorado Plateau in Emery County, Utah

et al. 2022

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Geologic Carbon Storage (GCS) is a promising technology for storing large volumes of anthropogenic CO2 effectively and permanently. Numerical simulations are an integral part of site selection and characterization for any potential GCS site. As part of the DOE-funded CarbonSAFE Rocky Mountains Phase I project, a regional GCS analysis was undertaken to understand the efficacy of storing CO2 emissions from the power generation and heavy industry in central Utah’s favorable geology. In this study, the injection of CO2 for geologic storage was simulated in the Navajo Sandstone Formation in Emery County, Utah. Carbon dioxide was sourced from regional power generation stations and heavy industries throughout Utah, with an emphasis on emissions reduction at the Hunter Power Plant near Castle Dale, Utah. A simulation grid was extracted from the project’s geological model encompassing an area around Price, Huntington, and Castle Dale in central Utah. The Navajo Sandstone Member of the Glen Canyon Group was the target of CO2 injection with the overlying Carmel formation providing the primary seal. A suite of simulations was performed assessing the viability of this area for permanent CO2 storage. Results indicate that the area can not only store 46 million metric tons of anthropogenic CO2, meeting the project goals, but this area has the capacity to securely store at least 1.3 billion tons of CO2, suggesting the injection site and surrounding geology are suitable locations for commercial-scale GCS.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

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Geologic Carbon Storage of Anthropogenic CO2 under the Colorado Plateau in Emery County, Utah

et al. 2022

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“…Krishnamurthy et al, 2017;Trevisan et al, 2017). Reservoir heterogeneity, in the form of layered reservoir sequences with sharp permeability contrasts, can also contribute to confinement of CO2 and displaced brines (Lindeberg, 1997;Oldenburg, 2008;Nordbotten et al, 2009;Sharma et al, 2017). Identifying prospective CO2 storage reservoirs requires an understanding of reservoir deposition, which, in salt basins can be strongly controlled by salt tectonics (e.g.…”

Section: Salt Tectonic Influence On Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

Duffy¹,

Hudec²,

Peel³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The fundamental properties of salt have long been exploited in the search for hydrocarbons, as they influence many of the hydrocarbon play elements. This industrial application has driven the pursuit of salt tectonic knowledge over the last century and led to major conceptual advances in the field. However, the current need, and social-political demand, to decarbonize suggests that the applicability of salt tectonic knowledge will expand to other aspects of the subsurface that are relevant to the energy transition. The pace of this change leaves the field of salt tectonics grappling with a fundamental question – what role does salt tectonics have as part of the energy transition? Here, we discuss the role salt tectonics can play in a number of key energy transition technologies, namely, energy storage as gas in salt caverns (e.g. hydrogen and compressed air), CO2 storage, and geothermal energy. For each of these technologies we explore: i) fundamental concepts and driving forces; ii) how and why the properties of salt are of importance; and iii) the key salt-related technical challenges, potential future research directions, and technical approaches needed for large-scale development. We highlight how salt basins offer vast potential for development throughout the energy transition including, but not limited to: i) the likely demand for thousands of new hydrogen storage caverns inside salt bodies by 2050; ii) a likely early focus for porous media CO2 storage sites in basins strongly influenced by salt tectonics; and iii) enhanced geothermal energy potential in and around salt bodies. Effective exploitation of these resources will require a deeper understanding of the internal composition, geometry, and evolution of salt structures and their surrounding sediments, and potentially the development of more predictive models of salt tectonic behaviour. Critically, we see the need to integrate learnings of salt tectonics gained in the academic, mining, solution mining, and oil and gas communities, and apply a fresh perspective to answer research questions of relevance to the energy transition. Developing this new understanding will help optimise design, reduce geotechnical risk, and improve efficiency for energy transition technologies, thus indicating a strong future demand for salt tectonic research.

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“…Formations suitable for CO 2 storage must be porous and permeable to allow injection of large volumes of CO 2 (>1 Mt of CO 2 ), and must have effective trapping mechanisms in place preventing leakage to the atmosphere (Hepple and Benson, 2005) or adjacent groundwater (Ardelan and Steinnes, 2010;Lu et al, 2012;Trautz et al, 2013). Several trapping mechanisms may retain CO 2 (Figure 2): (a) stratigraphic and structural traps (by buoyancy effect); (b) residual (trapped in rock pores by water capillary pressure); (c) solubility (residual gas trapping by dissolution), and (d) mineralization (changing the pore-space topology and connectivity) (e.g., Burnside and Naylor, 2014;Sharma et al, 2017). These trapping processes take place at different rates, and provide increasing storage security.…”

Section: Carbon Capture and Storagementioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Physiochemical Processes in Decarbonisation Technology Applications Utilizing the Subsurface: A Review

Kaminskaite¹,

Piazolo²,

Emery³

et al. 2022

Earth Sci. Syst. Soc.

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The Earth’s subsurface not only provides a wide range of natural resources but also contains large pore volume that can be used for storing both anthropogenic waste and energy. For example, geothermal energy may be extracted from hot water contained or injected into deep reservoirs and disused coal mines; CO2 may be stored within depleted petroleum reservoirs and deep saline aquifers; nuclear waste may be disposed of within mechanically stable impermeable strata; surplus heat may be stored within shallow aquifers or disused coal mines. Using the subsurface in a safe manner requires a fundamental understanding of the physiochemical processes which occur when decarbonising technologies are implemented and operated. Here, thermal, hydrological, mechanical and chemical perturbations and their dynamics need to be considered. Consequently, geoscience will play a central role in Society’s quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This contribution provides a review of the physiochemical processes related to key technologies that utilize the subsurface for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the resultant challenges associated with these technologies. Dynamic links between the geomechanical, geochemical and hydrological processes differ between technologies and the geology of the locations in which such technologies are deployed. We particularly focus on processes occurring within the lithologies most commonly considered for decarbonisation technologies. Therefore, we provide a brief comparison between the lithologies, highlighting the main advantages and disadvantages of each, and provide a list of key parameters and properties which have first order effects on the performance of specific rock types, and consequently should be considered during reservoir evaluation for decarbonising technology installation. The review identifies several key knowledge gaps that need to be filled to improve reservoir evaluation and performance prediction to be able to utilize the subsurface efficiently and sustainably. Most importantly, the biggest uncertainties emerge in prediction of fracture pattern development and understanding the extent and timescales of chemical reactions that occur within the decarbonising applications where external fluid or gas is cyclically injected and invariably causes disequilibrium within the system. Furthermore, it is clear that whilst geoscience can show us the opportunities to decarbonise our cities and industries, an interdisciplinary approach is needed to realize these opportunities, also involving social science, end-users and stakeholders.

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The Australian South West Hub Project: Developing a Storage Project in Unconventional Geology

Cited by 17 publications

References 2 publications

Geologic Carbon Storage of Anthropogenic CO2 under the Colorado Plateau in Emery County, Utah

Geologic Carbon Storage of Anthropogenic CO2 under the Colorado Plateau in Emery County, Utah

The Role of Salt Tectonics in the Energy Transition: An Overview and Future Challenges

The Importance of Physiochemical Processes in Decarbonisation Technology Applications Utilizing the Subsurface: A Review

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