The Core Carbon Storage and Monitoring Research Program (CCSMR) aims to advance emergent monitoring and field operations optimization technologies that can be used in commercial carbon storage projects. Our project will address identified gaps in the current state-of-the-art knowledge, and through CCSMR we will identify solutions and accelerate their advancement through pre-commercial field trials. The project is divided up into management and three scientific tasks: (1) field testing of emerging technologies, (2) advancing monitoring technology and (3) optimization framework for improved CO2 injectivity, storage permanence, monitoring, and utilization.
Task Leads:
Task 1: Project Management and Planning includes all work elements required to maintain and revise the Project Management Plan, and to manage and report on activities in accordance with the plan. It also includes the necessary activities to ensure coordination and planning of the project with DOE/NETL and other project participants.
Task 2: Otway Project. The Australian CO2CRC Otway Project has several phases that will provide opportunities for testing emergent technology. In FY15 LBNL designed and fabricated two rotary seismic sources that have been incorporated into the Otway Stage 2c test program. They were installed in September 2015 and were operated for seismic acquisition throughout the Stage 2c test in FY16. There is also a network of 35 km of installed optical fiber for DAS sensing. This array is installed in parallel to a conventional surface geophone array. Working with geophysicists from Curtin University we will be able to compare the potential of the DAS technology to conventional geophones, consider the current state of the art:
Subtask 2.1: Installation of two permanent rotary seismic surface sources
Subtask 2.2: Recording seismic data using an areal fiber-optic network
Subtask 2.3: Data processing and reporting
Task 3: Aquistore Collaboration. The Boundary Dam project is one of the world’s most significant full chain demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage. While a large percentage of the CO2 will be used for EOR, the Aquistore Site will serve as a demonstration for permanent geosequestration. LBNL has been collaborating with the PTRC since 2013 to implement a multicomponent geophysical monitoring program incorporating fiber-optic technology. Following participation in baseline monitoring which demonstrated the applicability of fiber optic monitoring at the Aquistore site, LBNL will participate in ongoing repeat monitoring using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) to monitor the injected CO2 plume. Multiple geometries can be tested including vertical seismic profiling (VSP), surface seismic, ambient noise and microseismic monitoring.
Subtask 3.1: Installation and operation of a surface fiber
Subtask 3.2: Repeat 3D VSP using DAS technology
Subtask 3.3: Microseismic Monitoring
Task 4: Carbon Management Canada Field Research Station Collaboration. The CMC Containment and Monitoring Institute (CaMI) is building a field research facility called the Field Research Station (FRS). The FRS program will be designed around small injections (up to 1000 tonnes per year) of CO2 (possibly with small amounts of impurities such as CH4 or other tracers) at depths of approximately 300 m and 500 m. The injection targets are water filled sandstones reservoir formations, with overlying shales or mixed sand/shale sequences forming the cap rocks. LBNL will provide emergent technologies in the areas of well-based fluid sampling, fiber-optic DTS and DAS, and EM monitoring to help understand the movement of CO2 in the shallow subsurface.
Subtask 4.1: CMC FRS Seismic Crosswell Design Plan
Subtask 4.2: Borehole to Surface and Crosswell EM at the CAMI Site for Monitoring CO2 Sequestration
Subtask 4.3: Monitoring well design and installation support for U-tube fluid sampling and fiber-optic sensing
Subtask 4.4: Carbon Management Canada Monitoring
Task 5: Optimization framework for improved CO2 injectivity, storage permanence, monitoring, and utilization seeks to develop and field software tools, for the real-time adaptive control, and management of CO2 injections. This work, using FY15 carryover funds, is addressing issues of injectivity and permanence while seeking to identify candidate sites for application.
Subtask 5.1: Framework Injectivity
Subtask 5.2: Permanence
Subtask 5.3: Monitoring and Inverse Modeling
Subtask 5.4: Framework Utilization
Through the five scientific tasks, we seek to give operators a ready selection of tools to address operational and regulatory requirements for commercial CO2 storage operations. The CCSMR will identify leveraged opportunities for testing our work products and participate in real-world projects whenever possible.
CCSMR related research began at the beginning of FY15. Some of the research being conducted under CCSMR is related to research that originated with tasks under the Consolidated Sequestration Research Project (CSRP) which wrapped up at the end of FY15.