Geologic Characterization for Potential CO2 Injection in Deep Geologic Reservoirs, Ohio River Valley

Jagucki, Philip¹, Neeraj Gupta¹, Joel Sminchak¹, and William M. Rike^2
1 Battelle, Columbus, OH
² Galloway, OH

Capture of CO₂ and its storage in the geologic reservoirs for greenhouse gas mitigation has become a subject of intense interest in recent years. Major geologic reservoirs include the oil and gas fields or coal seams for enhanced energy production and the deep saline reservoirs for direct storage. Sedimentary formations in the Ohio River valley and midwestern states underlie a large number of power plants and other industrial sources of CO₂ emissions. While the regional-scale estimates of storage capacity are very promising, the capacity and injectivity at specific locations can only be determined through testing and characterization at these locations. The primary objective of the Ohio River valley project is to characterize the geologic framework at a power plant site and determine the feasibility of conducting a long-term, large-scale pilot demonstration of CO₂ storage and monitoring under realistic constraints.

The key field activities completed to date include:

• A geologic assessment based on regional data for saline formations and deep coal seams
• A 2-dimensional seismic survey to determine the structural geologic features in the area
• Drilling a deep well to better characterize the stratigraphy and hydrogeology of the potential storage reservoirs and containment layers. This included state-of-the-art wireline logs, core collection and analysis, and reservoir testing. In addition the brine samples were collected and analyzed to evaluate brine-CO₂ interactions and brine migration history in the basin.

Project sponsors include U.S. DOE, Ohio Coal Development Office, American Electric Power, BP, Schlumberger, and Battelle.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90031©2004 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, October 3-5, 2004