CARBON SEQUESTRATION: A Geologist s Perspective on the Economic, Scientific and Engineering Challenges.

CARBON SEQUESTRATION: A Geologist s Perspective on the Economic, Scientific and Engineering Challenges. Geoffrey Thyne Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute University of Wyoming

Acknowledgements Jimm Myers Geology and Geophysics UW NSF Speaker Program My Colleagues in the Department of Physics and Geology Glen Murrell EORI John Kaszuba, Alexis Sitchler Geology and Geophysics UW John Lavelle GE Gasification Nick Woodward DOE Brad Woodard ENR UW Iain Wright (CO 2 Project Manager, BP Group Technology)

Outline Energy Fundamentals Link between Climate Change and CO2 Options for Carbon Management Geological carbon Sequestration Conclusions

From John Lavelle GE Gasification

By 2030 the demand will double (100% increase) in North America (3,000 BkWhr to 6,000 BkWhr, but Asia s demand will increase from about 4,000 to 14,000 BkWhr World Energy Demand

Energy Sources Fossil fuels Solar Wind Nuclear Efficiency

Outline Energy Fundamentals Link between Climate Change and CO2 Options for Carbon Management Geological carbon Sequestration Conclusions

Climate Change All climate change is local Feb. 15, 2009 April 18, 2009 It is still cold in Laramie Thyne - 2009

Carbon (Dioxide) Emissions and Climate Change Current increase comes from burning Fossil Fuels Increase in atmosphere has been linked to climate changes

Carbon (Dioxide) Emissions and Climate Change Increase in atmosphere is linked to climate changes There will be a Tax on carbon emissions

Carbon (Dioxide) Emissions (unsettled science) Change is within normal long term variation Link is derived from models that cannot reproduce recent climate

Carbon (Dioxide) Emissions (unsettled science) Past CO 2 increases always lags temperature increase by about 800 years "Changes in the CO2 and CH4 content have played a significant part in the glacial-interglacial climate changes by amplifying, together with the growth and decay of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, the relatively weak orbital forcing" Lorius and Janse - 1990

Outline Energy Fundamentals Link between Climate Change and CO2 Options for Carbon Management Geological Carbon Sequestration Conclusions

Use carbon free fuels Nuclear Solar Wind Efficiency How do we reduce carbon? Renewables may be able to meet 25+% of total demand eventually Capture and Sequester carbon dioxide

Addressing Climate Change through CO 2 If there is no concern about carbon, global carbon emissions will increase to ~16 GtC/y by 2060 over the last 30 years, carbon emissions have grown 1.5 % annually projected increases in this case are referred to as the business as usual (BAU) curve Many models suggest we need to limit CO 2 levels to <500 ppm less than doubling of preindustrial CO 2 (280 ppm) Current CO 2 level is 375 ppm

Projected Carbon Reduction To achieve stabilized 500 ppm level, carbon emission growth must follow bottom WRE500 curve target emissions in 2060 would be around 6 GtC/y Green region between BAU and WRE500 is avoided emissions it requires a 30 50% reduction in emissions How do we achieve this reduction?

Pacala & Scolow (2004) approximated avoided emissions with stabilization triangle Triangle divided into seven wedges: each wedge starts at zero in 50 years, a wedge grows to 1 GtC/y avoided emissions Assuming 1.5 %/y CO 2 growth rate, all seven wedges are needed to reduce emissions to over 50 years After 2060, emissions must fall below 6 GtC/y Lowering CO 2 Emissions Wedges

Potential Wedges Pacala & Scolow (2004)

Effort to meet stabilization targets Can the oil and gas industry save the planet (Bryant 2007) One wedge is 1.0Gt/y C or 3.7Gt/y CO 2 One wedge is 190 BCF/d or 105 million reservoir barrels/day Need to remove water to make room (Surdam, 2009) Current emissions are 1.4 TCF/day Need to cut projected CO 2 emissions by ~1 TCF by 2050 Need to sequester 100 s BCF/day now and increase capacity Global oil production (2006) = 82 MMSTBO/day Global gas production (2006) = 280 BCF/day The infrastructure for transporting CO2 from natural sources such as the McElmo dome to enhanced oil recovery projects in the Permian Basin currently can handle several Bcf/D. That infrastructure, the largest of its kind in the world, would have to be replicated fifty times to handle 1 wedge of anthropogenic CO2.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is means of reducing carbon emissions Three stages: capture of CO 2 stream transport of CO 2 from capture to storage site (pipeline, ship) storage of CO 2 (or mixed gases) in repository that isolates it from the atmosphere for thousands of years

Carbon Capture and Storage Large Stationary CO 2 Sources carbon dioxide sources >0.1 MtCO 2 /yr most (75 %) CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion/processing (coal fired power plants are almost 3 wedges)

North American CO 2 Sources

Outline Energy Fundamentals Link between Climate Change and CO2 Options for Carbon Mangement Geological Carbon Sequestration Conclusions

Biological Oceanic Geological Carbon Capture and Sequestration

Terrestrial Release into the atmosphere for incorporation into biomass (short term 10 100 s years) Oceanic Release into ocean for dissolution and dispersion (medium term 100 1000 s years) Geologic Injection into subsurface (long term 10,000 1,000,000 s years) Sequestration Targets

Geological Sequestration Targets Disposal into subsurface locations Deep enough to remain supercritical (greater than 2500 feet depth) Large potential storage capacity (2,000 12,000GtCO 2 ) Storage time 10,000 s 1,000,000 s years Potential ecological damage (point source leaks) 40+ years experience in petroleum EOR operations and sour gas disposal

What are the Challenges Scientific Understand and model what will happen in subsurface Monitor CO2 over time Technical Produce commercial scale project for proof of concept Economic Basis for accurate prediction of costs Mechanism to assign costs Legal Framework for ownership and liability Regulatory framework to permit storage

want to inject to greater than 800 m depth CO 2 in supercritical state behaves like a fluid with properties that are mixture of liquid and gas also stores more in given volume price to pay in compressing gas Carbon Storage Geological Sequestration

Carbon Dioxide Phase Behavior Supercritical Fluid is a liquidlike gas Gas like viscosity, fluid like compressibility and solvent behavior CO 2 above critical T and P (31 C and 73.8 bar or 1085 psi) Density about 50% of water

CO 2 Phase Behavior and Sequestration Terrestrial (green), Oceanic (blue) and Geologic (brown) P and T conditions Ocean conditions allow disposal of liquid CO 2 Geologic conditions allow disposal of supercritical CO 2

CO 2 trapping mechanisms

need geologic site that will hold CO 2 safely for 1000s of years natural analogs four possible geologic targets enhanced oil and gas recovery depleted oil and gas fields saline aquifers enhanced CBM recovery Geologic Reservoirs

Oil/Gas Fields & Saline Aquifers targets must have similar requirements as petroleum trap cap or seal rock Reservoir rock we know the locations of some of these types of targets

Geological Carbon Sequestration Leakage Paths

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects Sleipner, Norway (North Sea) Weyburn Project, Saskatchewan (Canada)

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Sleipner Sleipner is a North Sea gas field operated by Statoil, Norway s largest oil company produces natural gas for European market in North Sea, hydrocarbons are produced from platforms

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Sleipner special platform, Sleipner T, built to separate CO 2 from natural gas supports 20 m (65 ft) tall, 8,000 ton treatment plant plant produces 1 million tons of CO 2 also handles gas piped from Sleipner West Norway has a carbon tax of about $50/ton for any CO 2 emitted to the atmosphere to avoid the tax, Statoil has re injected CO 2 underground since production began in 1996

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Sleipner production is from Heimdal Formation 2,500 m (8,200 ft) below sea level produces natural gas mixture of hydrocarbons (methane (CH 4 ), ethane (C 2 H 6 ), butane (C 4 H 10 )), gases (N 2, O 2, CO 2, sulfur compounds, water) the natural gas at Sleipner has 9 % CO 2

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Sleipner CO 2 injected into Utsira Formation high porosity & permeability sandstone layer 250 m thick and 800 m (2,600 ft) below sea bed filled with saline water, not oil or gas CO 2 storage capacity estimated at 600 billion tons (20 years of world CO 2 emissions) millions tons CO 2 stored since 1996 first commercial storage of CO 2 in deep, saline aquifer

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Sleipner seismic surveys conducted to determine location of CO 2 results shown in diagram to left Optimum conditions for geophysical imaging

Geological Carbon Sequestration/EOR Pilot Projects: Weyburn Weyburn Oilfield is located in the Williston Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada discovered in 1954 1.4 billion barrels original oil in place (OOIP) medium gravity crude production began in 1955

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Weyburn primary production peaked in 1963 at 31,500 bbl/d water flooding began in 1963 additional vertical (yellow) & horizontal (purple) wells brought production up with primary and secondary recovery, total production was 330 million barrels (23 % of OOIP) under this scheme, production was projected to only reach 25 % of OOIP (350 million barrels)

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Weyburn Great Plains Synfuels Plant built near Beulah, North Dakota to convert coal to gaseous fuel started operation in 1984 16,000 tons of crushed lignite mixed with steam and oxygen partially burned at 1200 o C (2200 o F) breaks down coal to gas mixture passed through methanol at 70 o C ( 94 o F) to separate synthetic natural gas (SNG) from waste gases SNG: 3,040 t/d waste gas: 13,000 t/d, 96 % CO 2

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Weyburn In 1997, Dakota Gasification Company started selling its waste gas to EnCana for an enhanced oil recovery project at Weyburn waste gas shipped to Weyburn in 330 km (205 mi) pipeline high pressure (152 b) supercritical fluid (vapor phase with density of liquid) high density, but gas like flow makes it good to transport by pipeline

Geological Carbon Sequestration Weyburn uses 9 spot injection pattern of vertical wells injection well in center of square eight producer wells at corners and mid points of square wells space 150 m (500 ft) apart field has 720 wells with only a few involved in enhanced recovery 37 injection wells 145 producer wells CO 2 forces oil to flow toward producing wells Pilot Projects: Weyburn

Geological Carbon Sequestration Pilot Projects: Weyburn projected that enhanced recovery will produce an additional 130 million barrels extend field lifetime 25 years 20 million tons of CO 2 will be injected permanently stored 1,400 m (4,600 ft) underground

What are the Challenges Scientific Understand and model what will happen in subsurface Monitor CO2 over time Technical Capture, transport and inject CO 2 (14 22 Gt CO 2 /y) Produce commercial scale project for proof of concept Economic Basis for accurate prediction of costs Mechanism to assign costs Legal Framework for ownership and liability Regulatory framework to permit storage

Carbon Capture and Sequestration

CCS relative cost in $$ s Capture + Pressurization Cost data from IPCC 2005 Includes cost of compression to pipeline pressure (1500 psi) 45% difference Separation stage CO2

CCS relative cost in $$ s Capture + Pressurization + Transport Price highly dependent on volume per year Includes construction, O&M, design, insurance, right of ways 37% difference Separation stage CO2

CCS relative cost in $$ s Capture + Pressurization + Transport + Storage (Oceanic and Geologic) Oceanic For transport (ship) distance of 100 500km and injection depths of 3000m Geologic For storage in onshore, shallow, highly permeable reservoir with preexisting infrastructure 23% difference 31% difference Separation stage CO2

CCS relative cost in $$ s Capture + Pressurization + Transport + Storage (Oceanic and Geologic) EOR Offset Assuming oil price of $50 bbl. Without Sequestration Credit (Carbon Tax) Separation stage CO2

CO 2 Sequestration Permitting Class VI Well Permitting Guidelines rule to be in place by 2011 for EPA and 2010 for WDEQ if this timing holds, many proposed sequestration demonstration projects will have to be permitted as Class VI wells

CO 2 Sequestration Permitting UIC Well Classes in Wyoming: the UIC program is managed by WDEQ except Class II wells, which are handled by the WOGCC currently, there is no specific well class for geological carbon sequestration handled as Class V experimental technology wells EPA is proposing a new class of wells: Class VI 26 Mar 09

CO 2 Sequestration Permitting Class VI Well Permit: Required Info 1. map 2. Area of Review (AoR) 3. geology & hydrogeology 4. well compilation 5. USDW info (water wells) 6. baseline geochemistry 7. operating plan 8. CO 2 stream compatibility 9. impact to fluid resources subsurface & surface 10. formation testing 11. stimulation program 12. correction action plan 13. testing & monitoring plan 14. injection well plugging plan 15. post injection site closure plan

Conclusions Ultimately CCS is viable only if legislation (international and national) produces a carbon constrained world Legal/Regulatory framework under construction CCS industry will be on scale of oil and gas industry (largest in human history) Expense is uncertain until large scale project completed, but on order of $1 trillion/year to build CCS industry Possible with current science and technologies Future technological advances will reduce cost, improve efficiency and enhance safety More scientific work needs to be done There is technical knowledge and experience within petroleum industry Wyoming is vigorously pushing GCCS through legislation and research

Questions & Comments? o email:magma@uwyo.edu o gthyne@uwyo.edu o class Web sites: o Carbon Sequestration: http://www.gg.uwyo.edu/geol4200 4 o Climate Change: What is the Science? http://www.gg.uwyo.edu/geol4200 5 o Peak Oil: Resource Exhaustion? http://www.gg.uwyo.edu/geol4200 6