CO2-ECBM/Storage Activities at the San Juan Basin's Pump Canyon Test Site

Abstract

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.

Anisotropy characteristics of coal shrinkage/swelling and its impact on coal permeability evolution with CO2 injection

“…Coal typically contains multicomponent gas mixtures, including methane, CO 2 , N 2 , and other heavy hydrocarbons. Strictly speaking, the primary development of CBM involves multicomponent gas desorption and it has been observed that CO 2 concentration in the produced gas increases with time over the life of wells in San Juan basin . However, most previous studies related to primary development only focus on single gas, methane, and desorption behavior and its impact on shrinkage and swelling.…”

“…Several ECBM pilots have been conducted around the world, including the Allison Unit in San Juan basin in the USA, MOVECBM project (previously RECOPOL in Poland, Yubari site in Japan, Fenn Big Valley site in Canada, and Qinshui basin in China . Most recently, another ECBM pilot test was carried out at the Pump Canyon site in San Juan basin with the specific goal of improving understanding of the efficacy of enhanced CBM recovery processes via CO 2 injection into a pressure depleted coal seam . These pilot tests have shown that there is a significant economic and environmental benefit associated with CO 2 ‐ECBM.…”

Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Coalbed Methane and Storage: Is There Promise?

“…While we await some post-injection monitoring results in some cases (timelapse seismic processing and analysis of two of these projects), other monitoring protocols have demonstrated containment of the CO 2 within the coal reservoirs. Using the longer-term SWP injection pilot as an example, with nearly a full year of injection, only the PFT's were detected at the offset production wells, however there was no bank of CH 4 or CO 2 detected at the production wells and the tilt meters have not indicated an increase in ground level elevation around the injection well 10 . Similarly, tracers were detected, without an increase in CO 2 or CH 4 , at the offset production wells in the Central Appalachian (SECARB) pilot test.…”

CO2 sequestration into the Wyodak coal seam of Powder River Basin—Preliminary reservoir characterization and simulation

“…Therefore, the variability in gas and water production was ascribed only to the reservoir heterogeneity. Hence, similar to Koperna et al (2009), it was assumed that wells producing at higher gas rate relate to the zones with higher cleat permeability in the vicinity and vice versa. Similarly, water production was directly related to the fracture porosity.…”

“…Therefore, a coal seam cannot only provide site for storage of this greenhouse gas but CO 2 injection can also release additional methane from coal not recoverable by the primary pressure depletion method of producing coalbed methane (CBM), the process known as the enhanced coal bed methane (ECBM) recovery. Laboratory experiments followed by field pilots have adequately demonstrated that CO 2 sequestration in coal seams with concomitant recovery of additional methane is feasible (Reeves, 2001;Mavor et al, 2004;Pagnier et al, 2005;Wong et al, 2007;Koperna et al, 2009). However, all coal seams may not be amenable to CO 2 sequestration and ECBM.…”