SPECIAL REPORT: DOE partnerships testing sequestration

May 14, 2007
A government-industry task force is working to develop technologies and infrastructure for carbon capture and sequestration with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that can contribute to global climate change.

A government-industry task force is working to develop technologies and infrastructure for carbon capture and sequestration with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that can contribute to global climate change. The goal is safe, cost-effective, and long-term carbon mitigation, management, and storage.

The US Department of Energy in 2003 organized seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships. The RCSPs currently are field-testing sequestration as part of the validation phase, which ends in 2009. The validation phase is the second in the three-phase program. More than 30 validation projects are planned by the RCSPs-a network of more than 300 state agencies, universities, and private companies spanning 40 states, three Indian nations, and four Canadian provinces.

A deployment phase, slated for 2008-17, involves several large-volume sequestration tests to demonstrate that sequestration sites have the potential to store hundreds of years of regional CO2 emissions.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory oversees the RCSPs. The DOE sequestration research program supports other US and United Nations GHG mitigation efforts. In addition, DOE belongs to the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, an international collaboration on climate change. Six forum member nations are participating in RCSP’s validation projects.

Partnership activities

The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership (BSCSP) plans field tests in basalt formations and sedimentary rock hosted saline formations to assess mineral, chemical, and hydrologic effects of injected CO2.

Researchers will test how well volcanic rocks abundant below the Columbia and Snake River plains store CO2. They plan to inject the gas into subterranean volcanic basalt rock and monitor whether the rock can hold it.

BSCSP also is conducting a reactive carbonate reservoir assessment examining long-term CO2 mineralization rates in carbonate rocks. This involves enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations at Lost Soldier and Wertz oil fields in south-central Wyoming. The consequences of long-term exposure of carbonate rocks to CO2-rich fluids are being studied through pre- and postinjection core comparisons.

Big Sky partnership’s area includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota as well as eastern Washington, and Oregon.

The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium is investigating options for CO2 storage in oil reservoirs, coal seams, and deep saline water-bearing formations in the Illinois basin, where all three potential geologic storage opportunities exist in proximity to substantial CO2 sources.

The Illinois State Geological Survey is the lead technical contractor for the consortium. The MGSC covers all of Illinois, southern Indiana, and western Kentucky.

The Midwestern Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (MRCSP), led by Battelle, Columbus, Ohio, is conducting three deep saline reservoir tests in Appalachian basin, Michigan basin, and Cincinnati Arch geologic regions. MRCSP completed drilling of an injection and a monitoring well at the Michigan basin site hosted by DTE Energy and Core Energy. An injection well permit has been submitted, and an injection phase is planned for late 2007.

MRCSP has also completed seismic surveys at the Duke Energy’s East Bend Station, a coal-fired plant in Boone County, Ky., near Cincinnati and at FirstEnergy’s R.E. Burger Plant near Shadyside, Ohio. Drilling of an 8,000-ft test well was completed at the Burger Plant, and a permit application will be submitted after evaluation of the well data with injection planned during 2008. The Burger power plant is also the planned site for a CO2 capture test, a potential source of CO2 for geologic testing. Test drilling at the East Bend Station is planned for late 2007.

The Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership (PCOR) is investigating sequestration technologies across the central US and into Alberta. The region includes the Weyburn geologic sequestration project. The partnership represents Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Validation projects

PCOR is developing three geologic field-validation projects. Acid gas (70% CO2 and 30% hydrogen sulfide) from gas processing plants in northern Alberta will be injected into an oil-producing zone in an underground pinnacle reef structure. Results will help expand understanding of the effects of H2S on tertiary oil recovery and CO2 sequestration.

CO2 will be injected into an oil-bearing zone at great depth in Beaver Lodge field in northwestern North Dakota to determine the efficacy of sequestration and EOR using CO2 there. Unmineable lignite seams in northwestern North Dakota will be injected with CO2, which researchers say will be trapped by naturally bonding to the surfaces of the fractured lignite. This validation test is expected to increase knowledge about lignites for both CO2 sequestration and enhanced coalbed methane production.

Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, led by the Southern States Energy Board, Norcross, Ga., plans a stacked storage project along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Researchers, led by the Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the University of Texas, will investigate a stacked sequence of hydrocarbon and brine reservoir intervals.

A separate test at Mississippi Power Co.’s Victor J. Daniel coal-fired power plant near Escatawpa, Miss., will focus on validating CO2 storage in a deep saline reservoir near large coal-fired power plants along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. A project team, led by Electric Power Research Institute and Southern Co., has identified the Lower Tuscaloosa formation as a high-capacity CO2 storage option.

Other field tests involve two coal seam projects in the Black Warrior basin and the Appalachian basin. States represented in the partnership are Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration, led by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, plans field tests in the San Juan basin in New Mexico, Paradox basin in Utah, and the Permian basin in Texas. This includes the SACROC Unit in Texas and Aneth oil field in Utah.

The tests involve various carbon-sink targets, including deep saline sequestration, EOR and sequestration, and enhanced coalbed methane production. In some cases, geologic sequestration tests are being combined with terrestrial tests.

West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (WESTCARB) is a coalition of more than 70 agencies and companies from Arizona to British Columbia. The California Energy Commission is leading the partnership’s pilot test.

WESTCARB plans to inject CO2 3,000 ft underground near Thornton, Calif., into deposits of porous sandstone and salt water capped by a layer of shale. Commercial-grade CO2 will be trucked in and injected. Ultimately in commercial applications, emissions from industrial sources could be sequestered in this manner.