Petrophysical recipe for in-situ CO2 mineralization in basalt rocks

Abstract

In-situ carbon dioxide mineralization in basalt rocks has been identified as a scalable, fast, safe, permanent, and cost-effective method to offset the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. In-situ carbon dioxide mineralization refers to underground carbon dioxide transformation to carbonate minerals in basalt reservoirs. Although current field applications achieved fast in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization, limited petrophysical criteria have been proposed to screen a potential site to implement in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization. To fill this knowledge gap, geochemical modellings were performed to find an optimal petrophysical recipe, including pressure, temperature, pH, and mineral composition, to conduct in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization. The geochemical modellings showed that increasing pressure was favourable to increase water uptake of carbon dioxide, host rock dissolution, and in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization. However, a higher temperature depressed the in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization. Furthermore, the in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization was unravelled to be heavily pH dependent. Most magnesite precipitated in pH range from 9 to 11. Moreover, the forsterite was identified as the major contributing minerals while anorthite, fayalite, and diopside played a minor role in the in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization. This investigation provided a general protocol to screen the optimal petrophysical conditions for in-situ carbon dioxide mineralization.

Document Type: Original article

Cited as: Chen, Y., Seyyedi, M., Clennell, B. Petrophysical recipe for in-situ CO2 mineralization in basalt rocks. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2024, 11(2): 152-160. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2024.02.07

References

Agartan, E., Trevisan, L., Cihan, A., et al. Experimental study on effects of geologic heterogeneity in enhancing dissolution trapping of supercritical CO2. Water Resources Research, 2015, 51(3): 1635-1648.

Agency, I. E. Exploring Clean Energy Pathways: The Role of CO2 Storage. Paris, French Republic, International Energy Agency, 2019.

Anchliya, A., Ehlig-Economides, C., Jafarpour, B. Aquifer management to accelerate CO2 dissolution and trapping. SPE Journal, 2012, 17(3): 805-816.

Aradóttir, E. S. P., Sonnenthal, E. L., Björnsson, G., et al. Multidimensional reactive transport modeling of CO2 mineral sequestration in basalts at the hellisheidi geothermal field, iceland. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2012, 9: 24-40.

Bachu, S. Review of CO2 storage efficiency in deep saline aquifers. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2015, 40: 188-202.

Bentham, M., Kirby, M. CO2 storage in saline aquifers. Oil & Gas Science and Technology, 2005, 60(3): 559-567.

Bradshaw, J., Bachu, S., Bonijoly, D., et al. CO2 storage capacity estimation: Issues and development of standards. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2007, 1(1): 62-68.

Charlton, S. R., Parkhurst, D. L. Modules based on the geochemical model phreeqc for use in scripting and programming languages. Computers & Geosciences, 2011, 37(10): 1653-1663.

Chen, L., Wang, M., Kang, Q., et al. Pore scale study of multiphase multicomponent reactive transport during CO2 dissolution trapping. Advances in Water Resources, 2018, 116: 208-218.

Chen, Y., Saeedi, A., Quan, X. Interfacial interactions of CO2-brine-rock system in saline aquifers for CO2 geological storage: A critical review. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2023, 274: 104272.

Chen, Y., Sari, A., Mu, J., et al. Fluid-fluid interfacial effects in multiphase flow during carbonated waterflooding in sandstone: Application of X-ray microcomputed tomography and molecular dynamics. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2021, 13(4): 5731-5740.

Gasda, S. E., Nilsen, H. M., Dahle, H. K. Impact of structural heterogeneity on upscaled models for large-scale CO2 migration and trapping in saline aquifers. Advances in Water Resources, 2013, 62: 520-532.

Gunnarsson, I., Aradóttir, E. S., Oelkers, E. H., et al. The rapid and cost-effective capture and subsurface mineral storage of carbon and sulfur at the carbfix2 site. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2018, 79: 117-126.

Hannis, S., Lu, J., Chadwick, A., et al. CO2 storage in depleted or depleting oil and gas fields: What can we learn from existing projects? Energy Procedia, 2017, 114: 5680-5690.

Hartmann, J., West, A. J., Renforth, P., et al. Enhanced chemical weathering as a geoengineering strategy to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, supply nutrients, and mitigate ocean acidification. Reviews of Geophysics, 2013, 51(2): 113-149.

Ji, Y., Madhav, D., Vandeginste, V. Kinetics of enhanced magnesium carbonate formation for CO2 storage via mineralization at 200 °C. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2022, 121: 103777.

Kanakiya, S., Adam, L., Esteban, L., et al. Dissolution and secondary mineral precipitation in basalts due to reactions with carbonic acid. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2017, 122(6): 4312-4327.

Kelemen, P. B., Matter, J. In situ carbonation of peridotite for CO2 storage. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008, 105(45): 17295-17300.

Kinniburgh, D., Cooper, D. Phreeplot: Creating Graphical Output with Phreeqc. UK Status, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, 2011.

Klein, F., Bach, W., McCollom, T. M. Compositional controls on hydrogen generation during serpentinization of ultramafic rocks. Lithos, 2013, 178: 55-69.

McGrail, B. P., Spane, F. A., Amonette, J. E., et al. Injection and monitoring at the wallula basalt pilot project. Energy Procedia, 2014, 63: 2939-2948.

Michael, K., Arnot, M., Cook, P., et al. CO2 storage in saline aquifers i-current state of scientific knowledge. Energy Procedia, 2009, 1(1): 3197-3204.

Nilsen, H. M., Syversveen, A. R., Lie, K. A., et al. Impact of top-surface morphology on CO2 storage capacity. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2012, 11: 221-235.

Oelkers, E. H., Declercq, J., Saldi, G. D., et al. Olivine dissolution rates: A critical review. Chemical Geology, 2018, 500: 1-19.

Palandri, J. L., Kharaka, Y. K. A compilation of rate parameters of water-mineral interaction kinetics for application to geochemical modeling. National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report, 2004-1068, 2004.

Parkhurst, D. L., Appelo, C. A. J. Description of input and examples for phreeqc version 3-A computer program for speciation, batch-reaction, one-dimensional transport, and inverse geochemical calculations, in Modeling Techniques, edited by D. L. Parkhurst and C. A. J. Appelo, US Geological Survey, Denver, CO, pp. 497, 2013.

Pearce, J., Raza, S., Baublys, K., et al. Unconventional CO2 storage: CO2 mineral trapping predicted in characterized shales, sandstones, and coal seam interburden. SPE Journal, 2022a, 27(5): 3218-3239.

Pearce, J. K., Dawson, G. W., Golding, S. D., et al. Predicted CO2 water rock reactions in naturally altered CO2 storage reservoir sandstones, with interbedded cemented and coaly mudstone seals. International Journal of Coal Geology, 2022b, 253: 103966.

Pogge von Strandmann, P. A. E., Burton, K. W., Snæbjörnsdóttir, S. O., et al. Rapid CO2 mineralisation into calcite at the carbfix storage site quantified using calcium isotopes. Nature Communications, 2019, 10(1): 1983.

Raza, A., Glatz, G., Gholami, R., et al. Carbon mineralization and geological storage of CO2 in basalt: Mechanisms and technical challenges. Earth-Science Reviews, 2022, 229: 104036.

Rosenbauer, R. J., Thomas, B., Bischoff, J. L., et al. Carbon sequestration via reaction with basaltic rocks: Geochemical modeling and experimental results. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2012, 89: 116-133.

Saeedi, A., Rezaee, R., Evans, B. Experimental study of the effect of variation in in-situ stress on capillary residual trapping during CO2 geo-sequestration in sandstone reservoirs. Geofluids, 2012, 12(3): 228-235.

Saldi, G. D., Schott, J., Pokrovsky, O. S., et al. An experimental study of magnesite precipitation rates at neutral to alkaline conditions and 100-200 °C as a function of pH, aqueous solution composition and chemical affinity. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2012, 83: 93-109.

Schaef, H. T., McGrail, B. P., Owen, A. T. Basalt reactivity variability with reservoir depth in supercritical CO2 and aqueous phases. Energy Procedia, 2011, 4: 4977-4984.

Snæbjörnsdóttir, S. Ó., Sigfússon, B., Marieni, C., et al. Carbon dioxide storage through mineral carbonation. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 2020, 1(2): 90-102.

Soltanian, M. R., Amooie, M. A., Gershenzon, N., et al. Dissolution trapping of carbon dioxide in heterogeneous aquifers. Environmental Science & Technology, 2017, 51(13): 7732-7741.

Underschultz, J., Boreham, C., Dance, T., et al. CO2 storage in a depleted gas field: An overview of the CO2CRC Otway Project and initial results. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 2011, 5(4): 922-932.

Zhang, Y., Hu, B., Teng, Y., et al. A library of basic scripts of reaction rates for geochemical modeling using PHREEQC. Computers & Geosciences, 2019, 133: 104316.

Zhong, Z., Chen, Y., Fu, M., et al. Role of CO2 geological storage in China’s pledge to carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Energy, 2023, 272: 127165.