Fundamentals of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

Transcription

1 Fundamentals of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) GCCC Digital Publication Series #08-07 Rebecca C. Becky Smyth Scott W. Tinker Ian Duncan Keywords: Monitoring-design, Overview Cited as: Smyth, R.C., Tinker, Scott, Duncan, Ian, Fundamentals of carbon capture and storage (CCS): presented at the Women s Energy Network, Houston, Texas, October 28, GCCC Digital Publication #08-07.

2 Fundamentals of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Rebecca C. Becky Smyth Gulf Coast Carbon Center, Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin Scott Tinker, Director; Ian Duncan, Assoc. Director for Environmental Research Presentation to: Women s Energy Network Houston, 10/28/08

3 The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, College of Engineering, School of Law, College of Natural Sciences, etc. Administrative, Outreach, State Geological Survey Bureau of Economic Geology Applied Environmental Research Jackson School of Geosciences Department of Geological Sciences (academic) Applied Energy Research Institute for Geophysics (research) GCCC

4 Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) Mission: Global leadership in research and economic implementation of large scale greenhouse gas sequestration. GCCC Team: Ian Duncan, Sue Hovorka, Tip Meckel, Becky Smyth, J. P. Nicot, Katherine Romanak, Jeff Paine, Changbing Yang + 3 new postdocs, 2 research fellows, and 3 student research assistants Steve Bryant (UT Petro. Eng.) & Gary Rochelle (UT Chem. Eng.) Sponsors

5 What is CCS/Geologic Sequestration? To reduce CO 2 emissions to air from point sources.. is currently burned and emitted to the atmosphere CO 2 is captured as concentrated high pressure fluid by one of several methods, CO 2 is transported as supercritical fluid via pipeline to a selected, permitted injection site, Carbon extracted from coal or other fossil fuels CO 2 injected at pressure into pore space at depths below and isolated (sequestered) from potable water, CO 2 stored in pore space over geologically significant time. Slide courtesy of S. Hovorka

6 Assessing Adequacy of Subsurface What is Known about Storage Storage Capacity: Microscope View Capacity? CO 2 storage volume in abundant microscopic spaces (pores) between grains in sedimentary rocks that are now filled with brine (or locally with oil and gas) 2mm Sandstone thin section photomicrograph, Frio Fm. Blue areas were filled with brine, but now are 10-30% filled with CO 2. Slide courtesy of S. Hovorka

7 Global Experience in CO 2 Injection: technology is mature enough to proceed Slide from Peter Cook, CO2CRC

8 Funding for CCS Research in U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships GCCC/BEG working on SECARB and SRCSP/SWCARB/SWP projects

9 SECARB Geologic Storage Potential Significant offshore potential

10 Slide courtesy of T. Meckel Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Opportunities on Texas Gulf Coast

11 CCS Summary Coal and natural gas will be used to generate electricity in Texas and globally for several decades Carbon sequestration is needed to make electricity clean Texas can be a global leader in clean fossil fuel utilization, and generate significant revenues in the process (i.e. EOR) Reducing CO 2 emissions will not be cheap and it will take time The premier CCS opportunities exist where coal- fired electricity, oil production, large scale CO 2 generation, and large volume CO 2 storage potential come together like along the TX Gulf Coast. CCS will not move forward on a commercial scale until: (1) there are economic incentives (cap-and-trade/carbon credits; as CO 2 EOR is expanded and recognized as sequestration), (2) economic risks are reduced (EPA finalizes draft rules), (3) pore-space ownership is legally defined, and (4) environmental risks are more fully quantified. Bullet points 1 through 5 adapted from S. Tinker

12 SWP Groundwater Study over SACROC

13 SACROC Area Water Quality 61 wells; filtered cations; unfiltered anions Batch Experiments: CO2 + Dockum Sediments