An engineering solution for CO2 injection in saline aquifers

In this proposed CO2 injection system, brine is extracted from the target storage aquifer by means of a lateral horizontal completion located near the top of the formation. It should be noted that the brine is not lifted to the surface. An Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) is used to extract the brine and boost its pressure, before it is mixed with CO2 that is injected down the vertical section of the well. The mixing takes place in the vertical section of the well below the upper lateral. The CO2–brine mix is then injected into the same formation through a lower lateral. A down-hole tool would be used to maximise agitation and contact area between CO2 and brine in the vertical mixing section of the well, which may be tens to hundreds of metres long, depending on the thickness of the formation.The advantages of this method are that there is little overall pressure increase, because CO2 is mixed with brine extracted from the formation, and also the extracted brine is already at high pressure when it is mixed with the CO2, greatly increasing the solubility of CO2 and reducing the volume of brine required. Energy is not expended lifting the brine to surface nor is there any concern about handling large volumes of acidic brine in the surface equipment. In this study, in addition to the concept of the down-hole mixing (DHM) method which is presented, the application of the DHM method in a hypothetical storage site (Lincolnshire—Smith et al., 2012) is also examined. The calculations are performed to identify the optimum rates of water extraction and injection of dissolved CO2 in brine.
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control ,VOL 53, (2016] DOI: 10.1016/j.ijggc.2016.06.006

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