Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

One way to reduce the effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on climate is to inject carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources into deep geological formations such as brine formations or depleted oil or gas reservoirs. In this study we develop a system-level model using GoldSim for geological CO2 storage to evaluate performance, economic, and subsequent health, safety and environmental (HSE) issues. The processes considered include CO2 capture and separation, compression, pipeline transportation to the storage site, and CO2 injection. The reservoir simulations are performed using a special module of the TOUGH2 simulator, EOS7C, for multicomponent gas mixtures of methane and CO2 or methane and nitrogen. The application of the system model is focused on evaluating the feasibility of carbon sequestration with enhanced gas recovery (CSEGR) in the Rio Vista region of California. Using this approach, the economic benefits of enhanced gas recovery can be directly weighed against the costs, risks, and benefits of CO2 injection.