Integrated Subsurface Carbon Sequestration and Enhanced Coalbed Natural Gas Recovery Using Cement-Kiln Emissions, Wilson County, Kansas

Stephen G. Schurger¹, K. David Newell¹, Timothy R. Carr¹, and James G. Blencoe^2
1 Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
² Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN

The Cherokee basin in southeastern Kansas is a productive region for coalbed natural gas (CBNG). Production is generally from multiple high-volatile A and B bituminous coals, 1 to 3 ft thick, in the Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) Cherokee and Marmaton Groups, at depths of 500 to 1,500 ft.

Enhanced coalbed natural gas (ECBNG) technologies provide possible methods to increase CBNG production, and at the same time sequester CO₂. At 5% of global CO₂ production the cement industry is a major anthropogenic source of CO₂. Kiln gas, which is principally N₂, CO₂, and water vapor from the calcination process, can potentially be utilized as the injected gas for an ECBNG recovery project.

The development of an ECBNG recovery project utilizing kiln gas requires a reservoir model to understand its effects on reservoir performance. Attendant to this task, well-log and core data of the Cherokee and Marmaton Groups within Wilson County, Kansas, were used to create a detailed structural and stratigraphic framework in the vicinity of a large cement plant. Production and completion data from nearby CBNG wells also were needed for determining coal-seam permeability. Desorption tests determined gas content of coals. These tests were followed by laboratory analyses of the coals to determine their gas saturation and swelling in the presence of kiln gas. A series of reservoir simulations were run to investigate methods to improve CBNG recovery, as well as assessing the geological and economic feasibility of sequestering cement-kiln emissions in subsurface coal seams.