Improving the knowledge of carbon storage and coal bed methane production

1. Reception S2 Gallery R1 66 cm R2 S1 Gallery T1 R3 T2 50m T3 Transmission Carbolab Improving the knowledge of carbon storage and coal bed methane production by in situ underground tests In the prospect of climate change mitigation, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by the geological storage of CO2. One of the promising variants of this technique is the injection of CO2 in deep unmineable coal seams. There, anthropogenic CO2 can be stored mostly by adsorption, this releasing CH4 that can be used for energy production. This method is been tested worldwide, but European coal deposits have received few interest (excepted the RECOPOL project). The processes generated during and after CO2 injection are still not well understood, nor are the opportunities in Europe. The project started 1st July 2009 for 4 years The Carbolab is located in the Montsacro mine, Asturias, Spain The Carbolabprojectissupported by the European Fund for Coal and Steel, and involves 6 partners from three European countries, research centers as well as private companies. Its aim is to inject a significant (though not pilot-related) quantity of CO2 into a coal seam that will be pre-equipped for continuous monitoring. Putting devices in the near vicinity of the CO2 plume, only a few metres away, will allow data of much higher quality and density to be collected than in the case of injection from the surface, and to adapt the injected flow and the monitoring protocol to the evolution of the CO2 plume. July 2009 1/ Site characterization • Characterization of the initial state of the site: • Synthesis of existinggeological, sorption-desorptionprocesses, and geomechanical data • Acquisition of complementary data fromgeology, geophysics, geochemistry, coal and gascharacterization, hydrodynamics Characterization boreholes: 1) permeability 2) Characterization of coal and rock 3) Test in-situ stress P1 P2 2/ Test area preparation • Preparation of mine gallery to receive the future Carbolab underground laboratory test site. • Design & preparation of the test area • Injection tests • Installation of the scientificequipment • Safetymatters Jan. 2010 Nov. 2010 3/ Laboratory tests • Measurement of intrinsicparameters on coalcoresamples: • In-situ coal and gassampling • Characterization of coal and gas • Characterisation of relation between phases • Hydro-thermomechanic-chemistryexperiment April 2011 4/ Injection & monitoring • Implementation of underground injection tests & monitoring: • Physicalgasmeasurements • Seismic tests • Microseismicity • Cross-holeelectricalimaging • Chemical and isotopicmeasurements • Atmosphericmeasurements & outgoinggasassessments ↖ Electric monitoring 5/ Modelling • Modelling of the phenomenainduced by the injection of the CO2: • Hydro-thermo-mechanics, corescale • Transport-chemistry, corescale • Hydro-thermo-mechanicalcouplingat the site scale July 2011 ↙ Proposition for injection&monitoring wells ×2 Injection well (≃ 30 m) gallery 20 m ×3 Fan of closer wells (≃ 50 m) coal seam 2 m 6/ Long term safety ×2 • Analysis of the long-termsafety of the CO2storage in coalseams: • Simulation of behaviour, sizing of parameters for monitoring norms, riskassessment • Criteria and standards for ECBM site certification; recommendations for monitoring. Couple of fartherwells (≃ 50 m) 5 m ×3 Geochemical wells (≃ 40 m) north ×1 east ↓ in-situ permeability test Sampling for laboratory analyses ↓ ↑ borehole drilling July 2013 HUNOSA: N. Canto (noelcanto@hunosa.es), A. González, G. González, L. M. Lara, E. G. Ongallo AITEMIN: J. L. Fuentes-Cantillana(jl.fuentes@aitemin.es), H. L. Abós, J. L. García-Siñeriz BRGM: A. Leynet (a.leynet@brgm.fr), B. Bourgeois, P. Défossez, É. C. Gaucher, V. Naudet, É. Proust, J. Rohmer INERIS: S. Lafortune (stephane.lafortune@ineris.fr), C. Didier, F. Lahaie, Z. Pokryszka GIG: J. Skiba(jskiba@gig.katowice.pl), B. Jura, P. Krzystolik TOTAL: S. Vidal-Gilbert (sandrine.vidal-gilbert@total.com) www.carbolab.eu