Assessing the Geomechanical Response of CO 2 Disposal in Flood Basalt Reservoirs
In this work, we complete a multi-scale investigation of the physical processes governing geologic CO 2 sequestration in basalt reservoirs. This work integrates (i) laboratory measurements of relative permeability in a basalt fracture, (ii) theoretical modeling to understand how relative permeability uncertainty affects geomechanical performance attributes of basalt reservoirs, (iii) outcrop-scale simulation to identify the characteristics of vertical CO 2 flow in a basalt fracture network, and (iv) regional-scale assessment of permeability architecture in the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). These individual studies are combined into a site-scale stochastic model of geologic CO 2 sequestration in the Columbia River Plateau, which shows how bulk and relative permeability variability affects geomechanical reservoir integrity and storage capacity of flood basalt reservoirs. This project resulted in a novel laboratory technique that combines X-ray CT and micro-PET scanning to calculate the relative permeability curves for a horizontal fracture in basalt. We also discovered that permeability on the Columbia River Plateau exhibits directionally-dependent spatial correlation, which our analysis suggests is a result of loading-induced subsidence. This analysis further discovered that permeability in the CRBG may increase at depth due to bending moment stresses. In the context of CO 2 sequestration, this result implies that storage capacity and injectivity may actually increase at depths beyond ~1 km. Our outcrop-scale investigation found that buoyant, free-phase CO 2 tends to accumulate at fracture intersections, which inhibits vertical flow over 10+ year timescales and may facilitate both physical and chemical trapping as fluid mobility decreases. At the site-scale, we find that in flood basalt reservoirs the spatial configuration of reservoir permeability exhibits substantial control on CO 2 injectivity. We utilized known borehole geology from the Wallula Basalt Sequestration Pilot Project to develop 50 equally probable permeability configurations and found that a single injection well operating at 95% of the borehole breakout pressure can deliver 0.12 to 2.0 million metric tons of CO 2 per year (MMT CO 2 per year). This maximum injection rate can support a 1,000 MW gas-fired power plant with a single injection well.