Geological Carbon Storage Subsurface Seals and Caprock Integrity
Seals and caprocks are an essential component of subsurface hydrogeological systems, guiding the movement and entrapment of hydrocarbon and other fluids. Geological Carbon Storage: Subsurface Seals and Caprock Integrity offers a survey of the wealth of recent scientific work on caprock integrity with a focus on the geological controls of permanent and safe carbon dioxide storage, and the commercial deployment of geological carbon storage.
Volume highlights include:
Low-permeability rock characterization from the pore scale to the core scale
Flow and transport properties of low-permeability rocks
Fundamentals of fracture generation, self-healing, and permeability
Coupled geochemical, transport and geomechanical processes in caprock
Analysis of caprock behavior from natural analogues
Geochemical and geophysical monitoring techniques of caprock failure and integrity
Potential environmental impacts of carbon dioxide migration on groundwater resources
Carbon dioxide leakage mitigation and remediation techniques
Geological Carbon Storage: Subsurface Seals and Caprock Integrity is an invaluable resource for geoscientists from academic and research institutions with interests in energy and environment-related problems, as well as professionals in the field.
The compact and informative preface depicts the nature of cap rocks and the problems that may occur over time or with a change in the formation of the cap rock. I have excerpted a quote from the preface that describes the scope of the volume in a concise and thorough matter. “Caprocks can be defined as a rock that prevents the flow of a given fluid at certain temperature, pressure, and chemical conditions. … A fundamental understanding of these units and of their evolution over time in the context of subsurface carbon storage is still lacking.”
This volume describes the scope of current research being conducted on a global scale, with 31 of the 83 authors working outside of the United States. The studies vary but can be generalized as monitoring techniques for cap rock integrity and the consequence of the loss of that integrity. The preface ends by calling out important problems that remain to be answered. These include imaging cap rocks in situ, detecting subsurface leaks before they reach the surface, and remotely examining the state of the cap rock to avert any problems.
Chapter 3 describes how newer methods are used to classify shale. These advanced techniques reveal previously unknown microscopic properties that complicate classification. This is an example of the more we know, the more we don't know.
A sedimentologic study of the formation of shale (by far the major sedimentary rock and an important rock type) is described in Chapter 4. The authors use diagrammatic examples to illustrate how cap rocks may fail through imperfect seal between the drill and wall rock, capillary action, or a structural defect (fault). Also, the shale pore structures vary in size, and this affects the reservoir. There are descriptions of the pore structure in the Eagle Ford and Marcellus shales and several others. Pore structures are analyzed using state-of-the-art ultra-small-angle X-ray or neutron scattering. They determine that the overall porosity decreases nonlinearly with ti |