| Authors |
Joel Sminchak, Shawn Majors, Srikanta Mishra, and Yagna Oruganti, Battelle,
Columbus, Ohio, USA
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| Source |
Carbon Management Technology Conference,
7-9 February 2012,
Orlando, Florida, USA
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| Preview |
Abstract
A pipeline and injection infrastructure analysis was completed for CO2 storage
applications for the arches geologic region in the Midwest United States. The
Arches Province is an informal region in northeastern Indiana, northern
Kentucky, western Ohio, and southern Michigan where sedimentary rock formations
form broad arch and platform structures. In the province, the Mt. Simon
sandstone is an appealing deep saline formation for CO2 storage because of the
intersection of reservoir thickness and permeability along the province. Many
CO2 sources are located in proximity to the Arches Province, and the area is
adjacent to the coal fired power plants along the Ohio River Valley corridor.
Infrastructure analysis included a pipeline routing study based on surface
features, economic factors, location of large CO2 sources, and location of most
promising geologic areas for CO2 injection. The evaluation of injection system
arrangement was based on a combination of basin-scale reservoir simulations for
the Arches Province area and more detailed injection well simulations.
Together, these methods were used to estimate infrastructure requirements such
as number of injection wells, pipeline routes, and maximum injection rates for
large scale CO2 storage applications on the order of 60-130 million metric tons
CO2 per year. Results of this analysis suggest that large scale CO2 storage
applications are feasible in the Arches Province. There are central areas where
regional storage fields may be connected by distributed pipeline networks. The
analysis also provides some practical
guidance on large scale CO2 storage applications for the Arches Province. This
work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology
Laboratory award DE-FE0001034 and Ohio Coal Development Office of the Ohio Air
Quality Development Authority grant D-10-03.
Introduction
CO2 storage in deep geologic rock formations is one of many technologies being
considered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To be effective, the approach
would require operation of many injection wells at fairly high injection rates.
The Arches Province in the Midwestern U.S. has been identified as a major area
for CO2 sequestration because of the intersection of reservoir thickness and
permeability along the province (Kelley 2010; Barnes 2009; Gupta and Bair
1997). The province includes areas of Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio
along several arch structures between the Appalachian, Illinois, and Michigan
sedimentary basins (Figure 1). The main injection target is the Mt. Simon
sandstone due to its depth, thickness, hydraulic properties, and brine
salinity. There are many existing CO2 sources in proximity to the Arches
Province, and the area is adjacent to the Ohio River Valley corridor of
coal-fired power.
To better define the potential for CO2 storage in the Arches Province of the
Midwestern United States, a simulation framework is being developed for the
study area. The overall goal of the project is to build a geologic model for
the Arches Province and complete advanced reservoir simulations necessary for
effective implementation of large-scale CO2 storage in the region. This paper
presents infrastructure analysis for CO2 storage applications in the Arches
Province. The effort includes portions of the research completed to analyze
pipeline and injection system requirements for application of large scale CO2
transport and injection in the study area. Research builds on several other
aspects of the project, including review of Mt. Simon injection operations
(Sminchak 2010) and characterization of the geologic setting (Sminchak
2011).
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