Screening Criteria for Geo-sequestration of Carbon

Farooq Khan
MTB International Geo-Resources, Jersey City, NJ, [email protected]

Carbon capture and storage in geological formations termed Geo-Sequestration is an emerging Geo-engineering technique for long-term carbon storage. Two separate processes involved are “capturing” process whereby carbon emissions are prevented from being released into air and “sequestration” or “storage” of captured carbon. Once relatively pure carbon stream is identified for “capture” there is a need to find suitable formation to store carbon “permanently.”

Carbon can be captured as pure by-product in processes related to petroleum refining or from ‘flue gases’ from power generation plants and latter injecting in supercritical form directly into geological formations that could perform as good storage sites.

At geo-sequestration sites carbon is injected back into those fossil fuel formations from which fuel was earlier drilled, pumped and later to increase fossil fuel yields by “enhanced oil recovery” techniques, extensively utilized in United States since 1972.

Selection of reservoirs for geo-sequestration can be developed based on set of subsurface structures characterized into highest, moderate and lowest carbon storage potential, ideal formation should offer large storage capacity per unit of reservoir volume with a cap-rock that prevents vertical migration of carbon dioxide.

Opportunities exist in subsurface structures in oil reservoirs and coal seams where current production is ineffect for ‘enhanced oil recovery’ techniques, in tight gas sandstones and in ‘coal-bed methane’ formations, formation selection screening criteria can be divided into two general categories:

1. cap-rock integrity and seismicity

2. Those geologic formations area/zones where pressure and temperature for miscible/immiscible carbon dioxide can be applied for enhanced oil recovery and in subsurface mining for coal.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90095©2009 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Evansville, Indiana, September 20-22, 2009