ANU Energy Change Institute

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Mark Lionel Hawkins
5 years ago
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1 ANU Energy Change Institute Open Day Carbon Capture and Storage 2. Enhanced Oil and Gas Extraction Adrian Sheppard, Tim Senden, Mark Knackstedt, Rowan Romeyn, Glenn Myers, Trond Varslot, Andrew Kingston, Shane Latham, Michael Turner, Holger Averdunk and Jill Middleton Department of Applied Mathematics Research School of Physics and Engineering, ANU

Geologic CO 2 trapping mechanisms These time scales are conservative and rock-dependent: 1.Residual (capillary) trapping is essentially instantaneous 2.

2 Geologic CO 2 trapping mechanisms These time scales are conservative and rock-dependent: 1.Residual (capillary) trapping is essentially instantaneous 2.Solution trapping accelerated by high solubility of CO 2 in water and large interfacial area 3.Mineral trapping accelerated by calcium and magnesium minerals combined with enormous rock surface areas However: buoyancy a real issue 2

3 Australian CCS flagships Australia is playing a leadership role in CCS Australian Government (through DRET), $1.68bn CCS Flagships program: The Collie South West Hub located south of Perth, in close proximity to the industrial centres of Kwinana and Collie and based around an integrated multiuser capture, transport and storage infrastructure project. CarbonNet in Victoria s LaTrobe valley, another integrated multi-user capture, transport and storage infrastructure project, with sources of CO 2 from electricity generating plants in that area. Surat Basin CCS located north-west of Brisbane, an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) coal fired power project. Industrial scale; aims to be operational from 2015 and for commercial deployment by

4 ANLEC R&D program Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research & Development (ANLEC R&D) program: To make available to Australian society, through applied R&D, the knowledge and skills that reduce the investment risk associated with the development and deployment of Low Emission Coal Technology (LECT) in Australia - thereby accelerating the technology development cycle. ANU and DigitalCore Pty Ltd have 6 projects funded under the ANLEC R&D program Providing pore-scale characterisation and modelling, particularly in support of the Surat Basin CCS flagship New research in upscaling techniques and flow modelling 4

volumes at highest resolution Reconstruction: ~250 CPU hours / ~600 GB

5 ANU helical-scanning micro-ct facility High geometric and signal fidelity ~10 times faster than conventional systems Larger sample volumes at highest resolution Reconstruction: ~250 CPU hours / ~600 GB RAM 40 GB scan of carbonate core (5mm diameter, 20mm long, 3.5 micron resolution) 5

6 Case Study: Micro-CT imaging of dissolution before after Barrow Island rock sample before and after treatment with carbonic acid for 329 hours under 1 MPa pco 2 at C. Field of view 0.8 x 0.7mm 6

7 Part 2: Enhanced oil and gas extraction The petroleum industry is being transformed by unconventional sources: shale oil and gas, coal seam gas, tight gas sands Typically require stimulation, usually hydraulic fracturing (fraccing) by the injection of high pressure fluids and proppants Large scale: 7 times as much unconventional hydrocarbon the US than conventional reserves in the entire Middle East, much of it economic at $100/barrel. CSG already 90% of domestic gas in Queensland and a major influence on US market. Peak Oil? Not this century! With so much money to be made, it s been a case of frac first, ask questions later. 7

8 Challenges for core analysis The rocks in which these resources are found pose tremendous challenges: unmodified, it takes months or years for gas to diffuse through even a few mm of the tighter materials. Every field is different Laboratory experiments to characterise these materials are expensive and generally unsuccessful Pore-scale questions: Where does the hydrocarbon reside? Where do the fractures go? What are the flow pathways taking the gas/oil to the wellbore? 8

9 Case study: porosity mapping Heterogeneous tight sand 36x8mm Imaged at 7200x μm voxels Difference between saturated and dry image yields porosity map dry saturated difference

Unconventional Gas and Water Resources in Australia. Dr Stuart Minchin Chief, Environmental Geoscience Division Geoscience Australia

Unconventional Gas and Water Resources in Australia Dr Stuart Minchin Chief, Environmental Geoscience Division Geoscience Australia What is unconventional gas? Dominantly methane (CH 4 ); same as conventional