Responsive Tracer Control for CO2 Geosequestration Injection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing CO2 geosequestration technologies face challenges in ensuring safe and efficient storage, monitoring, and verification of CO2 underground, as well as mineralogical issues related to geological formations, including mineral dissolution, reaction kinetics, sequestration efficiency, and formation brittleness.
Innovation Solution
A system and method using tracers to determine geological properties of formations, including mineralogy and porosity, by injecting tracers into injection wells, collecting them at the surface, and analyzing with a control system to optimize CO2 injection rates and storage efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If CO2 is injected into geological formations for sequestration, then storage capacity increases, but uncertainty about geological properties (mineralogy, porosity) increases the risk of leakage and reduces storage safety
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by conducting tracer injection tests before full-scale CO2 injection to characterize the geological formation's mineralogy and porosity. This preliminary characterization allows the system to predict CO2 behavior and optimize injection parameters, thereby ensuring storage safety while maximizing storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by using tracer detection data to continuously monitor and adjust CO2 injection parameters. The system compares actual tracer breakthrough data with predicted behavior and modifies injection rates and strategies accordingly, creating a closed-loop control system that enhances both safety and storage efficiency.
2Productivity
If tracer injection and analysis is performed to characterize geological formations, then CO2 injection optimization is achieved, but system complexity and operational steps increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses tracers as intermediary substances to indirectly characterize the geological formation. Instead of directly measuring complex geological properties, the system injects tracers that interact with the formation's mineralogy and porosity, and by analyzing tracer behavior (breakthrough curves, retention times), the system infers geological characteristics. This intermediary approach simplifies the measurement process while providing comprehensive formation characterization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex direct geological surveying and sampling methods with a fluid-dynamic approach using tracers. Instead of mechanically drilling multiple test wells or using complex seismic imaging, the system uses injected tracers that move through the formation's pore network, allowing remote sensing of geological properties through fluid flow analysis. This substitution reduces operational complexity while maintaining or improving characterization accuracy.
3Measurement precision
If multiple tracers are used to determine different geological properties, then characterization accuracy improves, but data analysis complexity and time requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by using different tracer types to independently characterize specific geological properties. For example, one tracer may be optimized for detecting mineralogy while another targets porosity measurements. Each tracer is designed with specific properties (molecular size, chemical affinity, detection method) that make it sensitive to particular formation characteristics. This segmentation allows parallel, independent measurements of different properties, reducing overall analysis time while maintaining high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes parameter changes by selecting tracers with different physical and chemical parameters (molecular weight, diffusion coefficient, interaction strength) to probe different aspects of the formation. By varying these tracer parameters, the system can distinguish between different geological properties through their unique breakthrough signatures. This parameter variation strategy enables simultaneous characterization of multiple properties without requiring sequential analysis, thereby reducing total measurement time.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances the safety and efficiency of CO2 storage by accurately characterizing geological formations, identifying suitable storage sites, and optimizing CO2 injection strategies, thereby reducing the risk of leakage and improving storage capacity.
Implementation Method 1
a tracer detection system located at the surface. The injection system may include an injection fluid containing a tracer. The production well may be spaced apart from the injection well.
Implementation Method 2
injecting a tracer into the injection well to the formation, collecting the tracer at a surface of the formation
Data Source
AI summary
A method for sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) in a formation includes providing an injection well extending into the formation, injecting a tracer into the injection well to the formation, collecting the tracer at a surface of the formation, obtaining tracer data from the collected tracer, determining, by a computer system, a geological property with the obtained tracer data and a history matching algorithm, and optimizing a CO2 injection rate for CO2 sequestration in the formation based on the determined geological property. A system for CO2 sequestration and determining geological properties of a formation includes an injection well extending from a surface into a formation, an injection system in fluid communication with the injection well, a production well, a tracer detection system located at the surface, and a control system coupled to the tracer detection system and configured to sequester CO2 in the formation.