We investigate the physics, chemistry, and techno-economics of CO2 storage underground

Our research includes exploring fundamental pore scale fluid dynamics, developing digital rocks analysis techniques, increasing the accuracy of field scale reservoir simulation, and evaluating the feasibility of scaling up CO2 storage to climate relevant scales.

Our Research Projects

Citation

BibTex format

@inproceedings{Pongtepupathum:2017:10.3997/2214-4609.201701585,
author = {Pongtepupathum, W and Williams, J and Krevor, S and Agada, S and Williams, G},
doi = {10.3997/2214-4609.201701585},
pages = {883--902},
title = {Optimising brine production for pressure management during CO<inf>2</inf> sequestration in the bunter sandstone of the UK southern north sea},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.201701585},
year = {2017}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CPAPER
AB - This paper focuses on pressure management via brine production optimisation to reduce reservoir pressure buildup during carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration using a geocellular model representing a sector of the Bunter Sandstone Formation. The Bunter Sandstone is a deep saline aquifer with high reservoir quality and is a leading candidate for potential CO2 capture and storage (CCS) in the UK. Brine production optimization during CO2 sequestration is necessary because it helps minimize brine waste and well construction and operational costs. In this paper, various sensitivity analyses were performed investigating well geometry, injection and production well spacing, pressure management and boundary condition effects. Two scenarios were investigated and development plans were proposed for annual injection of 7 MT/yr CO2 (Scenario 1), which is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of a 1.2 GW coal-fired power plant, and for scenario 2, where we aim to utilize the maximum storage capacity of the reservoir model. Three pressure management schemes were compared for each scenario: no pressure management or no brine production, passive pressure management where pressure relief holes are drilled and brine passively flows to seafloor without external energy, and active pressure management where brine is actively pumped out. Brine production rate and relief well patterns were evaluated and optimised. The results show that well perforation length and the use of deviated wells have a significant impact on injectivity improvement whereas well radius has little impact on injectivity. Symmetrical well placements between injection and production wells yields higher storage capacity than asymmetrical ones, and increasing the number of relief wells improves CO2 storage capacity. In the case of open boundary conditions, no pressure management is required because the reservoir quality enables pressure dissipation, resulting in a pressure buildup of less than 5 bars. In the case of closed bounda
AU - Pongtepupathum,W
AU - Williams,J
AU - Krevor,S
AU - Agada,S
AU - Williams,G
DO - 10.3997/2214-4609.201701585
EP - 902
PY - 2017///
SP - 883
TI - Optimising brine production for pressure management during CO<inf>2</inf> sequestration in the bunter sandstone of the UK southern north sea
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3997/2214-4609.201701585
ER -