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Carbon Dioxide for Enhanced Gas Recovery and as Cushion Gas

Curtis M. Oldenburg

Contact: Curtis M. Oldenburg, 510/486-7419, CMOldenburg@lbl.gov

Research Objectives

Natural gas reservoirs are obvious targets for carbon sequestration by direct carbon dioxide (CO2) injection, because of their proven record of gas production and integrity against gas escape.  Carbon sequestration in depleted natural gas reservoirs can be coupled with enhanced gas production by injecting CO2 into the reservoir as it is being produced, a process called Carbon Sequestration with Enhanced Gas Recovery (CSEGR).  In this process, supercritical CO2 is injected deep in the reservoir while methane (CH4) is produced at wells some distance away.  The active injection of CO2 causes repressurization and CH4 displacement to allow the acceleration and enhancement of gas recovery relative to water-drive or depletion-drive reservoir operations.  Carbon dioxide undergoes a large change in density as CO2 gas passes through the critical pressure at temperatures near the critical temperature.  This feature makes CO2 a potentially effective cushion gas for gas storage reservoirs.  Thus at the end of the CSEGR process when the reservoir is filled with CO2, additional benefit of the reservoir may be obtained through its operation as a natural gas storage reservoir.  The objective of this research is to demonstrate by numerical simulation the potential sequestration-related uses of CO2 in natural gas reservoirs.  

To continue reading more about this project, view the 1-page pdf here.

 

 

 

 

figureSchematic of natural gas storage and pressure vs. time for one cylce of CH4 injection with various cushion gases showing the lower pressure rise for CO2 cushion gas relative to a rative CH4 gas cushion.