Quantification of CO2 Mineralization at the Wallula Basalt Pilot Project

In 2013, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory led a geologic carbon sequestration field demonstration where ∼1000 tonnes of CO2 was injected into several deep Columbia River Basalt zones near Wallula, Washington. Rock core samples extracted from the injection zone two years after CO2 injection...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2020-11, Vol.54 (22), p.14609-14616
Main Authors: White, Signe K, Spane, Frank A, Schaef, H. Todd, Miller, Quin R. S, White, Mark D, Horner, Jake A, McGrail, B. Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anatomy
Basalt
basalts
Carbon dioxide
Carbon sequestration
Carbonates
Energy and Climate
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Field tests
fluids
Hydrology
Injection
inorganic carbon compounds
Laboratories
leakage monitoring
Mineralization
Modelling
Monitoring
Pilot projects
reservoir modeling
Reservoirs
STOMP
STOMP-CO2
Storage reservoirs
supercritical carbon dioxide
testing and assessment
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Summary:In 2013, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory led a geologic carbon sequestration field demonstration where ∼1000 tonnes of CO2 was injected into several deep Columbia River Basalt zones near Wallula, Washington. Rock core samples extracted from the injection zone two years after CO2 injection revealed nascent carbonate mineralization that was qualitatively consistent with expectations from laboratory experiments and reactive transport modeling. Here, we report on a new detailed analysis of the 2012 pre-injection and 2015 post-injection hydrologic tests that capitalizes on the difference in fluid properties between scCO2 and water to assess changes in near-field, wellbore, and reservoir conditions that are apparent approximately two years following the end of injection. This comparative hydrologic test analysis method provides a new way to quantify the amount of injected CO2 that was mineralized in the field test. Modeling results indicate that approximately 60% of the injected CO2 was sequestered via mineralization within two years, with the resulting carbonates occupying ∼4% of the available reservoir pore space. The method presented here provides a new monitoring tool to assess the fate of CO2 injected into chemically reactive basalt formations but could also be adapted for long-term monitoring and verification within more traditional subsurface carbon storage reservoirs.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/acs.est.0c05142