Infrastructure Analysis for Geologic CO2 Storage Applications in the Arches Province of the Midwest United States

摘要

A pipeline and injection infrastructure analysis was completed for CO2 storage applications for the arches geologic region in the Midwest United States. The Arches Province is an informal region in northeastern Indiana, northern Kentucky, western Ohio, and southern Michigan where sedimentary rock formations form broad arch and platform structures. In the province, the Mt. Simon sandstone is an appealing deep saline formation for CO2 storage because of the intersection of reservoir thickness and permeability along the province. Many CO2 sources are located in proximity to the Arches Province, and the area is adjacent to the coal fired power plants along the Ohio River Valley corridor. Infrastructure analysis included a pipeline routing study based on surface features, economic factors, location of large CO2 sources, and location of most promising geologic areas for CO2 injection. The evaluation of injection system arrangement was based on a combination of basin-scale reservoir simulations for the Arches Province area and more detailed injection well simulations. Together, these methods were used to estimate infrastructure requirements such as number of injection wells, pipeline routes, and maximum injection rates for large scale CO2 storage applications on the order of 60-130 million metric tons CO2 per year. Results of this analysis suggest that large scale CO2 storage applications are feasible in the Arches Province. There are central areas where regional storage fields may be connected by distributed pipeline networks. The analysis also provides some practical guidance on large scale CO2 storage applications for the Arches Province. This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory award DE-FE0001034 and Ohio Coal Development Office of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority grant D-10-03.