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Elsevier, Energy Procedia, (4), p. 3187-3194, 2011

DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.234

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Managing the risk of CO2 leakage from deep saline aquifer reservoirs through the creation of a hydraulic barrier

Journal article published in 2010 by Arnaud Réveillère, Jérémy Rohmer ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

A prerequisite to the wide deployment of CO2 geological storage at an industrial scale is demonstrating that potential risks can be efficiently managed, which includes deploying an adequate monitoring during the injection phase and having intervention plans ready in case of major irregularity. This paper considers the injection of CO2 into a saline formation linked to a shallower aquifer through a leaky pathway. Brine, possibly followed by CO2, may start migrating up through the leak if sufficient pressure builds-up in the storage reservoir. For some man-made leakages (e.g. abandoned well), and more importantly for most of the natural ones (e.g. faults, fractured zone), acting on the transfer itself (i.e. on the leaky pathway) is hardly feasible. Consequently, the corrective measure hereby investigated aims at countering the main driving force of the CO2 upwards migration which is the pressure build-up under the leak by injecting brine into the shallower aquifer, thus creating a hydraulic barrier. Results show that this can be an efficient way to stop a leakage in less than a year instead of letting it continue for hundreds of years, even with a low and decreasing flow rate. It may also be implemented as a preventive measure, while continuing storing CO2.