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AbstractWe present an experimental study of the retention/flow properties of the caprock of the Rousse depleted gas field, where up to 120000 tons of CO2 are to be injected over a 2-year period. One of the caprock samples examined comes from the carbonated breccias overlying the reservoir, a deep Jurassic horst, whereas the other samples come from the 2000 m-thick Upper Cretaceous marl (carbonated turbidites) located above these breccias and the reservoir.The single-phase (brine) intrinsic permeabilities of the marly samples turn out to be extremely low and stress-sensitive. They vary from 20-25 nanoDarcy for the most permeable sample at low stress, to below 1 nanoDarcy at effective stresses in the range of 10 MPa and above. These latter values are lower by at least one order of magnitude than the published values for the caprocks of the Weyburn field and Utsira aquifer. However, the permeability of the brecciated sample is considerably higher, and decreases from ca. 0.1 to 0.003 milliDarcy when the effective stress increases to 20 MPa, which possibly reflects some of the reservoir petrophysical behavior.Gas breakthrough (BT) experiments are undertaken on two of the marly samples fully saturated with brine, using either CO2 or nitrogen as the gas phase. One sample is able to resist CO2 excess pressures as large as 7.6 MPa, whereas in the other more permeable sample a relative pressure of 4.5-6 MPa is enough to induce the BT of nitrogen, a gas with interfacial properties more favourable than CO2 to capillary sealing. Nitrogen flow following BT is extremely limited, with an effective permeability below 1 nanoDarcy. Upon subsequent sample resaturation with brine and then BT with CO2, some alteration of the sealing behaviour is observed, manifested by a decreased BT pressure and an increased gas effective permeability.

AbstractThe CO2 Field Lab project consisted in an injection of 1.7 tons of CO2 at a 20 m depth within a shallow aquifer located in fluvio-glacial deposits. Baseline acquisitions, leakage monitoring and post-injection monitoring were performed in the water phase at different depths (5, 10 and 15 m).Strong deviations of pH, specific conductance or alkalinity were observed and monitored at the horizons affected by the CO2 intrusion. The complex distribution of waters in the ridge deposits not only induced water/rock interactions but also mixing of saline and fresh waters. This points out the complexity of natural environments and the challenge in identifying CO2 leakage from deeper-seated reservoirs.

AbstractThe use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) is becoming increasingly common in the analysis of hydrology and water resources problems. In this research, an ANN was developed and used to model the rainfall-runoff relationship, in a catchment located in a semiarid and Mediterranean climate in Algeria. The performance of the developed neural network-based model was compared against multiple linear regression-based models using the same observed data. It was found that the neural network model consistently gives superior predictions. Based on the results of this research, artificial neural network modeling appears to be a promising technique for the prediction of flow for catchments in semi-arid and Mediterranean regions. Accordingly, the neural network method can be applied to various hydrological systems where other models may be inappropriate.

AbstractGasifier based cogeneration power plants were installed in a large number of rice mills in West Bengal in India. The present study reports on performance of the rice mill cogeneration plants in the state. Viability of the programme has also been questioned in this paper.

AbstractFrance Nord project is a Joint Industry Project that has grouped 4 public research institutes (BRGM, IFPEN, INERIS and Eifer) and 7 industrial partners (Total, GDF SUEZ, Storengy, EDF, Air Liquide, Lafarge and Vallourec) from 2008 to 2012. The first step of the France Nord project was to identify in the deep saline aquifers of the Paris Basin a geological site providing a storage capacity of at least 200 Mt of CO2 during 40 years of injection. This level of capacity is considered as appropriate for a project of industrial size. In parallel, a review of the CO2 emitters in Northern France was performed and potential CO2 transportation solutions were reviewed. The second step was to implement a CCS pilot in a CO2 storage target identified previously. An R&D program has also been implemented, reviewing key elements of the CCS chain.Five potential CO2 storage targets were analyzed in detail, following a regional geological assessment, a geological modeling and dynamical flow simulations. However, on the basis of available data, it was not possible during the project to identify a CO2 storage site with the target capacity of 200 Mt of CO2. As a consequence, the demonstration pilot was not implemented.These results are discussed and compared to past CO2 storage assessments of the Paris Basin that provided much higher estimations of the saline aquifer CO2 storage capacity of the basin.

AbstractIn recent years, global concerns about greenhouse gas emissions have stimulated considerable interest in CO2 storage as a potential “bridging technology”, which could reduce significantly CO2 emissions, while allowing fossil fuels to be used until alternative energy sources are more widely deployed. Flow modeling is a relevant step in the characterization of a CO2 storage site, to provide quantitative predictions of reservoir behavior and assessing the uncertainty [1].The scope of this work is to analyze the impact of CO2 injection in Pliocene offshore water-bearing sands potentially suitable for CO2 storage, through the implementation of an integrated reservoir study. The approach undertaken was first to build several geological models (local and regional), stochastically populate them with petrophysical properties and, through the gathering and generation of representative dynamic data, develop a dynamic model to simulate a set of possible CO2 injection scenarios. Furthermore a base case scenario was identified to perform a comparison between two different simulators: COORESTM, a code designed by IFPEN, and ECLIPSE300 - CO2STORETM, the Schlumberger compositional tool designed specifically for CO2 storage in saline aquifers.

AbstractA possible risk of geomechanical nature related to deep injection of CO2 is the shear reactivation of faults, hence potentially leading to the creation of new leakage pathways and eventually inducing earthquakes felt at the surface. Current practices to evaluate fault stability in the domain of CO2 storage still remain limited regarding two issues: 1. Faults are complex and heterogeneous geological systems, which do not correspond to discrete surfaces as already postulated by many authors. Reservoir-scale faults in a priori low-deformed reservoirs targeted for CO2 storage can present high complex architecture, which might influence the hydro-mechanical behaviour of the fault system; 2. Chemical interactions (dissolution and precipitation processes, chemically-induced weakening, etc.) between CO2-enriched brine and the minerals constituting the fault zone can affect the mechanical stability and the transport properties of the faulted/fractured system. The research project FISIC (www.anr-fisic.fr, funded by the French National research Agency) intends to overcome those limitations by accurately modelling the hydro-chemo-mechanical complexity of a fault zone. The main goal is to improve the stability analysis of a fault both undertaking pressure increase and alteration due to the presence of an acidic fluid. The progress of this research project is presented here.