Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Geology and Geography

Committee Chair

Graham Andrews

Committee Co-Chair

Timothy Carr

Committee Member

Timothy Carr

Committee Member

Dustin Crandall

Abstract

With anthropogenic CO2 concentrations rising, geologic carbon sequestration and H2 storage are essential processes in mitigating climate change. Typical geologic carbon sequestration involves the capture of anthropogenic CO2 and injection into depleted oil/gas reservoirs or saline formations with an impermeable cap rock to prevent the buoyant migration of CO2. The risk of eventual CO2 migration through these low permeability cap rocks adds expensive monitoring costs to this traditional sequestration strategy. Another method for CO2 sequestration utilizes the reaction of CO2 with mafic and ultramafic rocks. CarbFix, a sequestration project in Iceland, has accelerated this process to produce carbonates in less than 2 years. Storage as carbonates in mafic rocks is stable over geologic time scales. Injection into or below smaller, mafic intrusions proximal to CO2 sources in the Mid-Atlantic Region could be an economic and technically feasible way to offset CO2 emissions and store H2.

Diabase cores from sills near Harrisburg, PA, were obtained from the Pennsylvania Geologic Survey. Core are characterized at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, WV. Medical CT images have been collected and will be utilized to characterize the cores at different depths, from which the permeability can be qualitatively estimated. The mineralogy of the diabase has been assessed using a Geotek Multi-Sensor Core Logger that includes a portable XRF. CO2 flooding-tests on discrete samples assessed the ability of the core to react with CO2 to produce carbonate minerals like dolomite. Precipitates were identified using XRD. CO2 storage capacity within the diabase will be limited by the connected porosity and permeability. Diabase sills are not suitable for CO2 injection due to a lack or permeability. However, we infer that the Yorkhaven sill complex and those like it in rifted sedimentary basins worldwide are excellent candidates for fluid storage seals because they can be manipulated to rapidly self-seal existing and induced fractures through the introduction of dissolved CO2 and they have redundancy built-in by multiple sills. Rifted sedimentary basins often contain medium- to coarse-grained siliciclastic sedimentary successions with excellent reservoir potential but poor trapping: self-sealing, low permeability sills correct this.

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Revision _ May 2

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