• Energy Research

A controlled-release test at the In-Situ Laboratory Project in Western Australia injected 38 tonnes of gaseous CO2 between 336-342 m depth in a fault zone, and the gas was monitored by a wide range of downhole and surface monitoring technologies. Injection of CO2 at this depth fills the gap between shallow release (600 m) field trials. The main objectives of the controlled-release test were to assess the monitorability of shallow CO2 accumulations, and to investigate the impacts of a fault zone on CO2 migration. CO2 arrival was detected by distributed temperature sensing at the monitoring well (7 m away) after approximately 1.5 days and an injection volume of 5 tonnes. The CO2 plume was detected also by borehole seismic and electric resistivity imaging. The early detection of significantly less than 38 tonnes of CO2 in the shallow subsurface demonstrates rapid and sensitive monitorability of potential leaks in the overburden of a commercial-scale storage project, prior to reaching shallow groundwater, soil zones or the atmosphere. Observations suggest that the fault zone did not alter the CO2 migration along bedding at the scale and depth of the test. Contrary to model predictions, no vertical CO2 migration was detected beyond the perforated injection interval. CO2 and formation water escaped to the surface through the monitoring well at the end of the experiment due to unexpected damage to the well’s fibreglass casing. The well was successfully remediated without impact to the environment and the site is ready for future experiments.

Allocation is required when quantifying environmental impacts of individual products from multi-product manufacturing plants. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recommends in ISO 14041 that allocation should reflect underlying physical relationships between inputs and outputs, or in the absence of such knowledge, allocation should reflect other relationships (e.g. economic value). Economic allocation is generally recommended if process specific information on the manufacturing process is lacking. In this paper, a physico-chemical allocation matrix, based on industry-specific data from the dairy industry, is developed and discussed as an alternative allocation method. Operational data from 17 dairy manufacturing plants was used to develop an industry specific physico-chemical allocation matrix. Through an extensive process of substraction/substitution, it is possible to determine average resource use (e.g. electricity, thermal energy, water, etc) and wastewater emissions for individual dairy products within multi-product manufacturing plants. The average operational data for individual products were normalised to maintain industry confidentiality and then used as an industry specific allocation matrix. The quantity of raw milk required per product is based on the milk solids basis to account for dairy by-products that would otherwise be neglected. Applying fixed type allocation methods (e.g. economic) for all input and outputs based on the quantity of product introduces order of magnitude sized deviations from physico-chemical allocation in some cases. The error associated with the quality of the whole of factory plant data or truncation error associated with setting system boundaries is insignificant in comparison. The profound effects of the results on systems analysis are discussed. The results raise concerns about using economic allocation as a default when allocating intra-industry sectoral flows (i.e. mass and process energy) in the absence of detailed technical information. It is recommended that economic allocation is better suited as a default for reflecting inter-industry sectoral flows. The study highlights the importance of accurate causal allocation procedures that reflect industry-specific production methods. Generation of industry-specific allocation matrices is possible through a process of substitution/subtraction and optimisation. Allocation using such matrices overcomes the inherit bias of mass, process energy or price allocations for a multi-product manufacturing plant and gives a more realistic indication of resource use or emissions per product. The approach appears to be advantageous for resource use or emissions allocation if data is only available on a whole of factory basis for several plants with a similar level of technology. The industry specific allocation matrix approach will assist with allocation in multi-product LCAs where the level of technology in an industry is similar. The matrix will also benefit dairy manufacturing companies and help them more accurately allocate resources and impacts (i.e. costs) to different products within the one plant. It is recommended that similar physico-chemical allocation matrices be developed for other industry sectors with a view of ultimately coupling them with input-output analysis.

Abstract The CO2CRC is undertaking a feasibility study for a planned controlled release and monitoring experiment at a shallow fault at the CO2CRC Otway Project site in 2018. Interpretation of pre-2016 seismic data could trace the height of the fault to approximately 100 m below the ground surface, at which point the resolution of the existing seismic data was insufficient to delineate the fault any further. To better understand the shallow geology at the Otway Project site and to map the extent of the shallow fault, new geophysical surveys were acquired over the Otway site during 2016. This included a high resolution, shallow focused, 3D seismic survey to provide greater delineation of the newly identified fault in the Port Campbell Limestone on the Otway Project site, and a high resolution resistivity survey to map the vertical extent of the fault towards the ground surface. Aerial imagery and LIDAR data were also collected. The seismic survey data exhibit greatly improved vertical and lateral resolution compared to previous seismic surveys. Preliminary pre-stack time migration (PreSTM) processing of the data show that the target fault can be clearly imaged at 30 ms TWT and the fault tip can be mapped to within approximately 25 m of the surface. Approximately 5 m of throw is identified at approximately 140 m depth and the throw appears to decrease in magnitude as the fault extends towards the surface. This, plus an identified dip angle of ∼70° (east), suggests that it is most likely a normal fault. There is no evidence of topographical features associated with the surface expression of the shallow fault using LIDAR and aerial imagery. Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI) results indicate that there are 3 distinct layers in the shallow geology of the Otway site, including a higher resistivity, more clay influenced, 3-5 m thick layer at the surface. The resistivity is also surprisingly heterogeneous over the site, suggesting that the shallow geology is complex. Preliminary hydraulic conductivity measurements confirm that the Port Campbell Limestone is highly permeable in the vicinity of the Otway Project site. The target fault at the CO2CRC Otway Project site appears to be a suitable candidate for a shallow CO 2 injection experiment.

Abstract Australia's CO2CRC Otway Site hosts a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration facility that has, to date, injected over 80,000 tonnes of CO2 into two separate geological reservoirs. The reservoir geology is well understood and the site has been the subject of several seismic investigations, though relatively little is known about the near-surface geology and how potential leaks from the injection wells would migrate, particularly within the Port Campbell Limestone. No shallow core has been taken from relevant petroleum wells or water bores, and although there is extensive exposure in the prominent sea cliffs, these are mostly inaccessible. In order to further define the structure and geology of the Port Campbell Limestone at the Otway site, a high-resolution, shallow focused, 3D seismic survey has recently been conducted. The assessment of the near-surface geology described in this paper was used to assist with planning the survey. Using available data, the Port Campbell Limestone is assessed as a series of laterally continuous intercalated limestone, marl, and marly limestones. Interpretation of three previously acquired 3D seismic surveys using a minimum similarity attribute demonstrates evidence for a shallow, steeply east-dipping fault striking approximately NNW-SSE directly below the Otway site. This is observed from approximately 100 m to 380 m depth below surface, where it appears to die out. In the shallow section, the fault is undetectable primarily due to low seismic resolution, and so it is unknown how shallow it propagates. Extrapolation of the fault to the surface projects to between the wells Naylor-1 and CRC-1. A recently acquired high-resolution 3D seismic survey over the study area will allow for this fault to be further delineated.

AbstractAtmospheric CO2 perturbations from simulated leaks have been used to determine the minimum statistically significant emissions that can be detected above background concentrations using a single atmospheric station. The study uses high precision CO2 measurements from the Arcturus atmospheric monitoring station in the Bowen Basin, Australia. A statistical model of the observed CO2 signal was constructed, combining both a regression and a time series model. A non-parametric goodness of fit approach using the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff (KS) test was then used to test whether simulated perturbations can be detected against the modelled expected value of the background for certain hours of the day and for particular seasons.The KS test calculates the probability that the modelled leak perturbation could be caused by natural variation in the background. Using pre-whitened data and selecting optimum test conditions, minimum detectable leaks located 1km from the measurement station were estimated at 22 tpd for an area source of size 100 m x 100 m and 14 tpd for a point source at a KS cutoff defined by using the formal p-value of 0.05. These are very large leaks located only 1km from the station and have a high false alarm rate of 56%. An alternative p-value could be chosen to reduce the false alarm rate but then the minimum detectable leaks are larger. A long term, single measurement station monitoring program that is unconstrained by prior information on the possible direction or magnitude of a leak, and based solely on detection of perturbations of CO2 due to leakage above a (naturally noisy) background signal, is likely to take one or more years to detect leaks of the order of 10 kt p.a. The sensitivity of detection of a leak above a background signal could be greatly improved through the installation of additional atmospheric monitoring stations or through greater prior knowledge about the location and size of a suspected leak.

AbstractThe FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.