DH Bacon, MD White, Y Fang, SB Yabusaki

1. Predicting the Feasibility of Geologic Co-Sequestration of CO2, SOx and NOx Under a Broad Range of Conditions DH Bacon, MD White, Y Fang, SB Yabusaki

2. Rationale Developing countries have a greater reliance on coal-based electricity, yet understandably have been hesitant to install or use costly unit processes that sequentially remove key pollutants from the flue gas. Integrated processes for capture and co-sequestration, such as using the mineralogy of deep saline systems to co-sequester NOx, SOx, and CO2, or just SOx and CO2, could significantly lower retrofit costs.

3. Objectives Improve our ability to predict the impact of geologic co-sequestration of CO2, NOx and SOx on target formation and caprock hydraulic properties. Demonstrate the feasibility of geologic co-sequestration under a broad range of mineralogical and phase conditions.

4. Approach Development of a three-phase variable component nonisothermal simulator, STOMP-LNGE, capable of simulating the geological sequestration of a mixture of gases in deep saline and depleted oil and natural gas reservoirs. In order to determine the geologic scenarios where co-sequestration is practical, a modeling survey with a comprehensive matrix of model parameters will be conducted.

5. Modeling Survey Initially, a survey using batch geochemical modeling with EQ3/6 will be done to assess the effect on pH given different mixtures of CO2/SOx/NOx with a wide variety of primary minerals. Thermodynamically likely secondary minerals that may precipitate will be identified. After this initial survey, core-scale simulations will be conducted with the existing version of STOMP to estimate the impacts of co-sequestration on various rock types. Model input parameters will include a range of flue gas compositions, salinity, rock types, pressure and temperature, and injection rate. Rock types will include sandstone, dolomite, basalt and shale.

6. STOMP-LNGE STOMP-LNGE: Liquid aqueous phase, Nonaqueous liquid phase, Gas phase, and thermal Energy. New three-phase, nonisothermal, multicomponent operational mode for the STOMP simulator Differs from previous operational modes of STOMP in that all three phases will have variable compositions and the number of components will be variable. Phase and component flexibility given by Peng-Robinson cubic equation of state with a three-phase flash equilibrium model where phase composition is defined through fugacity equilibria.

7. STOMP-LNGE Development Objectives Develop a three-phase variable component nonisothermal simulator. Link the three-phase variable component simulator to STOMP’s geochemistry module ECKEChem, allowing for distinct geochemistry in each of the three phases. Implement fully coupled three-phase well models into the simulator to avoid solution instabilities improve computational efficiency Take advantage of the advances in parallelization of sequential code being developed under the Laboratory’s Extreme-Scale Computing Initiative

8. Expected Outcomes Development of STOMP-LNGE will be documented in a high-impact journal. Results of the modeling survey will help identify the range of reservoir conditions under which co-sequestration is feasible, and will guide future studies involving micromodel pore-scale experiments with mineral substrates and mixtures of CO2, SOx and NOx. Results of the modeling survey will be presented at an international CO2 conference, GHGT-10, and published in a well-respected journal. Hire a post-doc to participate in STOMP-LNGE code development and application