Test Injection Sites Session at September 2014 Cardiff Biannual – Part 1

This blog was provided by Nassya Mohid Said whose attendance at the UKCCSRC Cardiff Biannual was supported by the Early Career Researchers Meeting Fund. More information about this can be found here.

Test Injection Sites is one of the three topics discussed in the Parallel Sessions taking place at the Biannual Meeting in Cardiff University. Mike Bickle from the University of Cambridge discussed the findings from injection experiments conducted at the Salt Creek EOR field in Wyoming which focussed on the impact of reservoir heterogeneity on storage efficiency.

The CO₂ injections were done at 5 spots a few hundreds of meters from each other. Fluids produced at the surface were collected after 6 months and analysed to estimate the CO₂ level. The resulting concentration profiles were then compared with a 2D flow and a dissolution model developed was developed. This showed the potential of geochemical measurement to illustrate the CO₂ dissolution and fluid-mineral reactions.

Following this, Russell Cooper from the National Grid talked about The White Rose Storage Project at a nearby geological formation beneath the North Sea. The power plant is located at the existing Drax power stations in the North Yorkshire. It will use the transportation network and storage infrastructure National Grid developed for the power stations and energy intensive industries in the Humber cluster. North Sea was chosen strategically because it is closest route, making it economically attractive and less environmentally damaging. Since the CCS license & CO₂ specific appraisal drilling consent was obtained in mid-2013, data & sample collection through drilling, injection and well analysis has been running with the aim to characterize the storage site. It is crucial to understand the site’s containment, injectivity, capacity, hydrodynamics and monitorability aspects to validate the safety and permanent storage of the CO₂. Currently, post-well analysis is being conducted and with encouraging findings obtained so far, it is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Engaging discussions with the speakers and them sharing their experiences allowed the current progress in the CO₂ injection work to be outlined and the gaps and challenges for future advancement highlighted which gave me a valuable insight.