Date of Graduation

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

Committee Chair

Ebrahim Fathi

Committee Co-Chair

Shahab D Mohaghegh

Committee Member

Ali Takbiri

Abstract

The emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) has been one of the biggest problem concerning the climate change during these years. The concentration of these gases has increased by a disproportionate amount over the last decade due to human activities such as, deforestation, agricultural practices and burning fuel, oil and coal while natural sources are extracted and processed. Being the main cause of global warming, a variety of technology is being applied in order to diminish GHC emissions. There are two ways to achieve this goal: burning less carbon-containing fuel or by storing CO2 resulting from burning carbon-rich fuels. Potential storage methods include injection into underground geological formations, into deep oceans, or industrial fixation in organic carbonates.;Primary considerations in subsurface sequestration of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) are the knowledge on gas storability of geological formation, Saturation and Pressure plume size and Post Injection Site Care (PISC) embracing risks associated with CO2 leakage and fault reactivation. At a glance, a formation with a reasonable pore volume would appear to be a good candidate for the purpose. However, careful considerations should be taken, since not all high-porosity formations have the capability to store a huge amount of gas for a long period of time. That is the biggest concern when discussing geological CO2 sequestration, if underground storage is suitable for permanent storage of CO2. Based on results obtained from CO2 saturation and pressure, the Plume Size and the Post-Injection Site Care are going to be simulated using reservoir models from Citronelle dome in Alabama. A detailed scenario analysis will be performed to generally quantify the relationships between pressure buildup and injection volume, injection rate and reservoir characteristics. A range of geologic conditions such as thickness of storage, seal thickness, geologic closure, homogeneous vs heterogeneous (permeability, porosity, compressibility variations), salinity levels and fluid-rock interactions are going to be varied in this study to appraise the storage site and quantify the parameters on a scale of importance according to their impact on the response.;Finally, to assess the uncertainty associated with our studies Latin Hypercube Sampling together with experimental design technique, i.e., Plackett-Burman design, is used. Application of Pareto charts and respond surfaces enabled us to determine the most important parameters impacting saturation and pressure plume sizes and quantifying the auto and cross correlation between different parameters impacting saturation and pressure plume size in history matched and uspcaled models.

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