Enhanced Containment Through Barrier Formation

Long-term CO2 containment is a key criteria for safe CO2 storage, which is currently assessed through a range of seal integrity studies.

ENHANCED CONTAINMENT THROUGH BARRIER FORMATION
Jay R. Black, Cesar Herrera, Angus Keillar, Ella M. Llanos,
John W. Moreau, Ralf R. Haese


Long-term CO2 containment is a key criteria for safe CO2 storage, which is currently assessed through a range of seal integrity studies. While these site-specific studies will always be necessary, developing and testing the process of creating a flow barrier will help to understand how to manage and remediate undesired migration in future storage sites where containment is at an insufficient risk level. The only robust CO2 leakage mitigation technology so far is pressure management as demonstrated in modelling studies so far. However, this approach requires permanent termination of the CO2 injection and continued pumping as a means to stir the CO2 plume away from the leakage point. Here, we propose the development of procedures leading to ‘engineered’ permanent mineral barriers a) as a remediation option in case of a CO2 leakage and b) as a (precautionary} CO2 leakage mitigation technology for areas where seal integrity is possibly at risk. In addition, this project will characterize reservoir microbial communities and will test whether high CO2 conditions may lead to biofilm formation and/or biomineralisation reducing CO2 mobility. The two activities on ‘engineered’ barrier formation are scoped to derive the required information for the design of a field experiment at the CO2CRC Otway Project site demonstrating effective barrier formation as a mitigation and/or remediation technology. The project will integrate desktop studies, laboratory experiments testing microbial metabolic behavior, mineral dissolution and precipitation experiments, and reactive-transport modelling