Pore Scale Characterisation and Assessment of Potential Subsurface Carbon Storage Reservoirs: A Digital Approach

Environmental Pollution

RHUL

RHUL

British Geological Survey (BGS)

Andrew Kingdon

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important technology which must be implemented at scale globally in order to support the effort towards tackling climate change. The storage component of CCS is achieved through injecting CO2 into subsurface geological reservoir units such as sandstone intervals which possess suitable characteristics to securely contain carbon for geologically significant periods of time. Whilst such potential storage reservoirs are ubiquitous globally, a strategy to determine which geological intervals would be most worthwhile dedicating substantial time and resources to is required. This thesis employs a fully digital approach based upon μCT imaging, digital image analysis (DIA) and digital rock physics (DRP) techniques to make this initial assessment at the microscale to help inform subsequent decisions on further investigation. This strategy is applied to a variety of potential sandstone reservoirs in and around the UK. Application of the proposed digital methodology allows for investigation of the relationship between porosity and permeability, the upper percolation threshold and a range of other pore body and throat characteristics. Furthermore, an effective approach was established to identify individual grains in 3D in well-compacted sandstones and characterise the grains individually. Finally, a numerical modelling approach was developed based on μCT images to simulate the process of reactive flow involved in geological carbon storage. Consequently, a set of criteria have been defined around porosity, grain sphericity and pore structure tortuosity against which potential carbon storage reservoirs can be initially evaluated. This demonstrates a rapid, relatively inexpensive and easily repeatable digital workflow capable of offering an initial assessment of potential reservoir intervals at the microscale prior to further investigation.

Alison Derbenwick Miller (Oracle) website: https://www.oracle.com/uk/index.html

• Yizhuo Sun, Ryan L Payton, Andrew Kingdon, Saswata Hier-Majumder (2020) Geological Carbon Sequestration by Reactive Infiltration Instability Frontiers in Earth Sciences DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2020.533588
• Ryan L. Payton, Mark Fellgett, Brett L. Clark, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon, Saswata Hier-Majumder (2021) Pore Scale Assessment of Subsurface Carbon Storage Potential: Implications for the UK Geoenergy Observatories Project Petroleum Geoscience DOI: https://doi.org/10.1144/petgeo2020-092
• Ryan L Payton, Yizhuo Sun, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon (2022) Pore Scale Numerical Modelling of Geological Carbon Storage Through Mineral Trapping Using True Pore Geometries Transport in Porous Media DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-021-01741-9
• Ryan L. Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon (2022) The influence of grain shape and size on the relationship between porosity and permeability in sandstone: a digital approach Scientific Reports DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11365-8
• Ryan L. Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon (2022) The upper percolation threshold and porosity–permeability relationship in sandstone reservoirs using digital image analysis Scientific Reports DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15651-3
• Ryan L. Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon (2022) Using legacy core material to assess subsurface carbon storage reservoir potentiality Geological Society of London Special Publications DOI: https://doi.org/10.1144/SP527-2022-18

UKGEOS PNM Supporting Data Digital image processing results. Contributors: Ryan L. Payton, Mark Fellgett, Brett L. Clark, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew Kingdon, Saswata Hier-MajumderPore Scale GCS Numerical Modelling Output, Analyses and Source Code Source code and output. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Yizhuo Sun, Andrew KingdonGrain Analysis Output and Code Source code and image analytics. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew KingdonPorcupine Basin uCT Images Images. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew KingdonEnglish Channel uCT Images Images. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew KingdonEnglish Channel PNM Output and Analyses Source code and analytics. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Domenico Chiarella, Andrew KingdonMicro CT Images of Borehole GGC01 Images. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Brett Clark, Mark FellgettMicro CT Images of Sellafield Borehole 13B Images. Contributors: Ryan Payton, Brett Clark, Mark Fellgett