Thermal coupling may control mechanical stability of geothermal reservoirs during cold water injection

Simone, Silvia De; Vilarrasa, Víctor; Carrera, Jesús; Alcolea, Andrés; Meier, Peter

doi:10.1016/j.pce.2013.01.001

Cited by 93 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Cold injection will cause a cold region around the injection well, which will induce thermal stress reduction. This stress reduction may lead to fracture instabilities within the reservoir (92), where induced microseismicity may be beneficial as it enhances injectivity. However, cold CO 2 injection improves caprock stability in normal faulting stress regimes because the caprock tightens as a result of stress redistribution, even in the presence of stiff caprocks (93).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak

Vilarrasa

Carrera

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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180

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Zoback and Gorelick [(2012) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109(26): [10164][10165][10166][10167][10168] have claimed that geologic carbon storage in deep saline formations is very likely to trigger large induced seismicity, which may damage the caprock and ruin the objective of keeping CO 2 stored deep underground. We argue that felt induced earthquakes due to geologic CO 2 storage are unlikely because (i) sedimentary formations, which are softer than the crystalline basement, are rarely critically stressed; (ii) the least stable situation occurs at the beginning of injection, which makes it easy to control; (iii) CO 2 dissolution into brine may help in reducing overpressure; and (iv) CO 2 will not flow across the caprock because of capillarity, but brine will, which will reduce overpressure further. The latter two mechanisms ensure that overpressures caused by CO 2 injection will dissipate in a moderate time after injection stops, hindering the occurrence of postinjection induced seismicity. Furthermore, even if microseismicity were induced, CO 2 leakage through fault reactivation would be unlikely because the high clay content of caprocks ensures a reduced permeability and increased entry pressure along the localized deformation zone. For these reasons, we contend that properly sited and managed geologic carbon storage in deep saline formations remains a safe option to mitigate anthropogenic climate change.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak

Vilarrasa

Carrera

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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180

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“…Note that, initially, the deviatoric stress decreases slightly because the horizontal total stresses increase in response to overpressure, while the vertical total stress remains constant. 40,18 However, the cooling front arrives shortly after than the pressure perturbation front, which induces a thermal stress reduction in all directions. This reduction is higher in the horizontal total stresses than in the vertical total stress.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…17 These thermal effects mainly concentrate around the injection well because the cooling front advances much behind than the desaturation and the overpressure fronts. [18][19][20] Nevertheless, thermal effects can also have an effect on the stability of faults in the far field. 21 But the worries about thermal effects focus on the induced thermal stresses that occur around the injection well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential fracture propagation into the caprock induced by coldCO2injection in normal faulting stress regimes

Vilarrasa

Laloui

2015

Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment

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“…This rapid breakthrough probably occurred because of reservoir permeability enhancement caused by fracture opening as a result of overpressure and cooling induced by injection (Birkholzer et al, 2015). In a fractured reservoir, like that at In Salah, both overpressure, which expands fractures, and cooling, which contracts the matrix, open up fractures (de Simone et al, 2013) and thus, injectivity is expected to increase.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO2 storage

Vilarrasa

Rinaldi

Rutqvist

2017

International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

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Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is likely to reach the bottom of injection wells at a colder temperature than that of the storage formation, causing cooling of the rock. This cooling, together with overpressure, tends to open up fractures, which may enhance injectivity. We investigate cooling effects on injectivity enhancement by modeling the In Salah CO 2 storage site and a theoretical, long-term injection case. We use stress-dependent permeability functions that predict an increase in permeability as the effective stress acting normal to fractures decreases. Normal effective stress can decrease either due to overpressure or cooling. We calibrate our In Salah model, which includes a fracture zone perpendicular to the well, obtaining a good fitting with the injection pressure measured at KB-502 and the rapid CO 2 breakthrough that occurred at the observation well KB-5 located 2 km away from the injection well. CO 2 preferentially advances through the fracture zone, which becomes two orders of magnitude more permeable than the rest of the reservoir. Nevertheless, the effect of cooling on the long-term injectivity enhancement is limited in pressure dominated storage sites, like at In Salah, because most of the permeability enhancement is due to overpressure. However, thermal effects enhance injectivity in cooling dominated storage sites, which may decrease the injection pressure by 20 %, saving a significant amount of compression energy all over the duration of storage projects. Overall, our simulation results show that cooling has the potential to enhance injectivity in fractured reservoirs.

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Thermal coupling may control mechanical stability of geothermal reservoirs during cold water injection

Cited by 93 publications

References 41 publications

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak

Potential fracture propagation into the caprock induced by coldCO2injection in normal faulting stress regimes

Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO2 storage

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Thermal coupling may control mechanical stability of geothermal reservoirs during cold water injection

Cited by 93 publications

References 41 publications

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO2could leak

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO2could leak

Potential fracture propagation into the caprock induced by coldCO2injection in normal faulting stress regimes

Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO2 storage

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak

Geologic carbon storage is unlikely to trigger large earthquakes and reactivate faults through which CO₂could leak