A controlled field pilot has been developed in Bozeman, Montana, USA, to study near surface CO 2 transport and detection technologies. A slotted horizontal well divided into six zones was installed in the shallow subsurface. The scale and CO 2 release rates were chosen to be relevant to developing monitoring strategies for geological carbon storage. The field site was characterized before injection, and CO 2 transport and concentrations in saturated soil and the vadose zone were modeled. Controlled releases of CO 2 from the horizontal well were performed in the summers of 2007 and 2008, and collaborators from six national labs, three universities, and the U.S. Geological Survey investigated movement of CO 2 through the soil, water, plants, and air with a wide range of near surface detection techniques. An overview of these results will be presented.

A study of carbon concentrates separated by a number of different commercial and laboratory methods from various coal-combustion fly ashes was undertaken to determine what common and unique chemical and physical properties can be expected in such concentrates. The properties were determined using a variety of physical and spectroscopic characterization methods and then were compared among the carbon concentrates and in two cases with the properties of the unprocessed fly ashes. The class F fly ashes originated from a total of seven different utilities burning bituminous coals and underwent one of six different processing methods to produce the carbon concentrates, which contained from 24% to 76% carbon. Three different configurations of triboelectrostatic separators were used to produce the carbon concentrates in addition to two different flotation methods plus a proprietary carbon recovery process. The results showed that unburned carbon concentrates from fly ash have properties similar to most carbon blacks and would be poor replacements for activated carbon in adsorption processes unless they are activated in a separate step. The untreated carbon may have applications as a substitute for carbon black provided it could be obtained in sufficient purity. The results have implications for those who wish to use carbon concentrates from coal-combustion fly ashes in secondary markets, especially as sorbents and fillers.

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The Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) is one of seven regional partnerships sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that collectively includes more than 350 organizations spanning 40 states, three Indian nations, and four Canadian provinces. The objectives are to determine the most suitable technologies, regulations and infrastructure requirements for carbon capture, storage and sequestration in different areas of the country. In Phase I of the partnership program, significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions were inventoried, potential geological sequestration sinks identified, and small-scale sequestration demonstration opportunities developed. Many of these small-scale pilot demonstrations are currently being implemented as part of the Phase II program. One of the three geo-sequestration pilots for the SWP involves CO2injection into a deep, unmineable coalbed at the Pump Canyon site located in the San Juan Basin of northern New Mexico. At the demonstration site, a new CO2injection well was drilled into the late-Cretaceous Fruitland coals within an existing pattern of coalbed methane production wells. CO2is currently being injected into the coal at pressures not to exceed the permitted injection pressure, and a variety of monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) methods are employed to track the movement of the CO2. Some of the MVA methods include continuous measurement of injection volumes, pressures and temperatures within the injection well, coalbed methane production rates, pressures and compositions at the offset producer wells, tracers in the injected CO2, time-lapse vertical seismic profiling, surface tiltmeter arrays, a series of shallow monitoring wells with a regular fluid sampling program, and surface measurements of soil compositions, CO2fluxes, tracers, etc. In addition, a detailed geologic characterization and reservoir modeling has been implemented in order to reproduce and understand the behavior of the reservoir. To date, the injection is still on-going and no CO2breakthrough has occurred. This paper provides a description of the Pump Canyon CO2-ECBM (enhanced coalbed methane) and sequestration demonstration field activities with particular emphasis on the lessons being learned.