Group Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
Svenn Tveit NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS Bergen, Norway
Donald Vasco Energy Geosciences Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, California, USA
Florian Wagner Department of Geophysics Steinmann Institute University of Bonn Bonn, Germany
Yi Wang Geophysics Group Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA and Laboratory of Seismology and Physics of Earth’s Interior School of Earth and Space Sciences University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, China
Don White Geological Survey of Canada Natural Resources Canada Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Robert Will WRG Subsurface Consulting LLC Littleton, Colorado, USA
Xianjin Yang Atmospheric, Earth, and Energy Division Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, California, USA
Fengjiao Zhang Department of Earth Sciences Uppsala University Uppsala, Sweden
Zhifu Zhang Geophysics Group Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA and School of Geophysics and Information Technology China University of Geoscience Beijing, China
Zhigang Zhang Geophysics Group Los Alamos National Laboratory Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
PREFACE
Geologic carbon storage is the storage of carbon dioxide, generally in supercritical form, in underground geological formations. This kind of underground storage is emerging as a promising technology for dealing with increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. Ensuring safe and long‐term CO2 storage in different subsurface settings requires site characterization and monitoring during and post‐CO2 injection. A range of geophysical monitoring techniques can be deployed in this regard, to remotely track subsurface CO2 plumes and to monitor fracture/fault zones (one of the primary leakage paths), caprock integrity, and mineralogical changes. This book provides a comprehensive reference to different geophysical techniques currently used and being developed for monitoring geologic carbon storage and for assessing their advantages and limitations.
The book is divided into four parts, three describing different monitoring methods and techniques and one presenting case studies from around the world. Part I contains two chapters on geodetic and surface monitoring techniques, specifically Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and frequency modulated spectroscopy. Part II looks at subsurface monitoring using seismic techniques, including optimal design for cost‐effective monitoring using microseismic networks and time‐lapse active seismic surveys; offset, walkaway, and 3D vertical seismic profiling (VSP) monitoring/imaging; quantifying time‐lapse changes of subsurface geophysical properties; site characterization using multicomponent seismic data; and workflows for determining fluid and pressure effects resulting from a supercritical CO2 injection in a sandstone reservoir using 4D reflection seismic data and well logs. Part III looks at subsurface monitoring using nonseismic techniques with chapters on time‐lapse gravity surveys; electrical and electromagnetic techniques; electrical resistivity tomography; integrated controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM), gravimetric, seismic amplitude‐versus‐offset (AVO) monitoring; and self‐potential monitoring. Finally, Part IV presents five case studies of geophysical monitoring at different geologic carbon storage sites. The first three are in the United States: the Illinois Basin‐Decatur Project in Decatur, Illinois; Phase III of the Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration in Farnsworth, Texas; and the Southeast Regional Sequestration Partnership project in Cranfield, Mississippi. Two further examples are presented from Europe: the Sleipner project in Norway, and the CO2 injection project at Ketzin in Germany.
I thank all the authors for their contributions and numerous reviewers for their careful review of the chapter manuscripts. Appreciation also goes to AGU and Wiley for their support during the preparation and production of this book. Particularly, I thank Dr. Estella Atekwana from the AGU Books Editorial Board and the AGU Publications Director, Dr. Jenny Lunn, for helpful feedback on the manuscript. I also express gratitude to staff at Wiley, including Dr. Rituparna Bose, Emily Bae, Kathryn Corcoran, Poornima Devi, Layla Harden, Karthiga Mani, Nithya Sechin, Bobby Kilshaw, Carol Kromminga, Angela Cohen, Shiji Sreejish, and Bhavani Ganesh Kumar for their support.
Lianjie Huang Los Alamos National Laboratory , USA
1 Evaluating Different Geophysical Monitoring Techniques for Geological Carbon Storage
Lianjie Huang1 and Xianjin Yang2
1 Geophysics Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
2 Atmospheric, Earth, and Energy Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA
ABSTRACT
Various geophysical techniques can be used to monitor geologic carbon storage and ensure that it is safe in the long term. Seismic methods are often used to monitor CO2 migration in the deep regions of a geologic carbon storage site while nonseismic methods provide complementary monitoring from shallow subsurface to the surface. This chapter gives an overview of the geophysical monitoring methods presented in this book including Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), frequency modulated spectroscopy, induced microseismic monitoring, time‐lapse active seismic monitoring, gravity, electrical and electromagnetic techniques, controlled‐source electromagnetic method, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), and self‐potential measurements.
1.1. INTRODUCTION
Geologic carbon storage, or geologic carbon sequestration, is an emerging technology to permanently store or sequester separated and captured anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources into deep geologic formations. Some large‐scale anthropogenic CO2 sources include coal‐fired or gas‐fired power plants, oil and gas refineries, steel mills, and cement plants. The purpose of geologic carbon storage is to mitigate the rising CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere and to substantially reduce its impact on the global warming.
Geophysical monitoring is crucial for ensuring safe, long‐term geologic carbon storage. A geologic carbon storage project requires site characterization before CO2 injection to evaluate if the site is suitable for geologic carbon storage, and monitoring of CO2 migration during and after CO2 injection. Various geophysical monitoring techniques can remotely track subsurface CO2 plumes and provide crucial information to mitigate potential leakage risks. A geologic carbon storage project should integrate complementary geophysical monitoring techniques to form a comprehensive monitoring plan because various geophysical monitoring techniques have their own advantages and limitations. Joint analyses of information from different geophysical monitoring techniques can increase the monitoring confidence. Monitoring plans must be adaptable during different phases of a geologic carbon storage project from site characterization to injection to postinjection site care. The type of monitoring technique that should be deployed also depends on the monitoring targets, such as the atmosphere, drinking water aquifers, cap rock, and storage formation.
This book provides a comprehensive reference to different geophysical techniques currently used and being
