FERF Newsletter
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No. 4 January 2018 NEWSLETTER of the Fuel & Energy Research Forum EDITOR’S NOTES: A Happy New Year to all our readers, old and new from our committee. The new venture of the FERF is now beginning to find its feet and interest in what we are doing seems to justify our change of direction. This newsletter contains a detailed report on the UKCCSRC Autumn Biennial conference held in Sheffield on 11th and 12th September. As the event ran parallel sessions even those who attended would not have been able to attend every session. Hopefully this report, with some project background, may be easier to follow for the ‘lay’ reader of this newsletter. Preparations continue for the FERF biennial conference, still badged as ECCRIA now up to ECCRIA 12. Please watch out for further information and those wishing to submit abstracts have until 26 th January 2018 to do so. For further information regarding the conference visit our website at http://www.eccria- conferences.org/ Contact Details: Secretary Newsletter Editor & Treasurer Dr David McCaffrey Dr Alan Thompson The Fuel and Energy Research Forum The Fuel and Energy Research Forum Tel: 01242-236973 Tel: 01332-514768 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.tferf.org Student Bursaries for 2017-2018 Travel and subsistence bursaries of up to £300 are on offer to bona-fide full-time students who wish to attend appropriate National and International fuel and energy related conferences, (for example, the 12th ECCRIA Conference, please see the Calendar of Fuel and Energy Research Events for details of future conferences), and whose supervisor is a member of the Fuel and Energy Research Forum. To apply, please send the abstract submitted to the conference with a brief supporting letter from your supervisor together with details of the expected expenditure and other sources of funding applied for, to: Professor J.W. Patrick, Dept. of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nottingham, Energy Technologies Building, Innovation Park, Triumph Road, Nottingham NG7 2TU The requirements for eligibility for award of a bursary are that the recipient will submit a short report about his or her impressions of the conference to the Newsletter Editor for inclusion in the next edition. In addition, this report will provide some brief details of the beneficiary, their topic of study and the reasons for wishing to attend the conference. Potential applicants should see the template for these reports on the FERF website, http://www.tferf.org where such reports must comply with these requirements. Please note that these bursaries are only for travel and subsistence to attend the conference, (i.e. not for conference or other fees). In addition, priority will be given to applicants who will be attending the whole of a conference rather than one day of a multi-day event and will be using the conference accommodation provided should this be required. It may not be possible to fund all applications for bursaries or meet the request in full as this will depend on the funds available at the time. Notes of joint UKCCSRC Biannual meeting and the Inaugural Meeting of the FERF’s Carbon Capture and Storage Interest Group 11th and 12th September 2017 University of Sheffield This prestigious meeting was held at the University of Sheffield and attracted more than 100 attendees from all over the world. It was an ambitious programme with three streams each having three parallel sessions of oral presentations. A total of 30 presentations were given of which 26 have been made available and can be viewed on the FERF website. The main themes were “Transport and Storage” and “Capture”, each of which comprised three sessions. Other topics of which there were single sessions were on Biomass, Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR), Crosscutting projects and a Plenary Session. TRANSPORT AND STORAGE 1 This topic was opened by Anatoliy Vorobov of the University of Southampton whose paper was entitled “Thermo- and Hydrodynamics of Slowly Miscible Interfaces”. Anatoliy described his work on the theoretical modelling of miscible interfaces both gas/liquid and liquid/liquid. The model would take account of interfacial diffusion, variations in interface shape, dynamic surface tension, and hydrodynamic flows induced by concentration gradients. To illustrate the nature of his study he showed as an example the dissolution of a droplet of honey in a cup of tea or the absorption of a carbon dioxide bubble by crude oil. The derivation of a valid model would have applications in enhance oil recovery (EOR), CO2 sequestration, enhanced aquifer remediation and the chemical extraction of vegetable and essential oils. The second paper was entitled “Migration of CO2 through North Sea Geological Carbon Storage Sites: Impact of Faults, Geological Heterogeneities and Dissolution” and was given by Jerome Neufeld. No slides were provided after the presentation. Haroun Magherefteh of University College London gave a presentation entitled “The Development and Demonstration of Best Practice Guidelines for the Safe Start-up Injection of CO2 into Depleted Gas Fields”. Highly-depleted gas fields such as Hamilton and Viking A represent prime potential targets for large-scale storage of CO2. They have excellent storage efficiency (utilising between 70% to 80% of the available pore space), but do require careful operational management because of their very low pressure and relatively shallow depth. In the case of the Hamilton gas field, for instance, its shallow depth and low pressure means that the injected liquid or dense phase CO2 during start up injection will expand into the vapour phase. This results in a reduction in the storage capacity and the accompanying expansion- induced cooling of the CO2 also poses significant safety and operational risks. One potential solution is to pre-heat the CO2 on the platform until the liquid CO2 can be injected without crossing the liquid to vapour transition at any time during the injection process. However, this is expensive and is regarded as being ‘hit and miss’. The aim of this project was to develop a rigorous CO2 Injection Model, accounting for all the important processes governing the fate of CO2 in terms of its variation in pressure, temperature and hence the fluid phase along the well during the injection process. The objective was to demonstrate the efficacy of the model as a powerful optimal injection process control tool by simulating a real case study involving various ramp-up CO2 injection rates and starting temperatures and pressures. Results presented showed that using the model the simulated temperature and pressure profiles at any time and location along the may be used to determine optimum injection conditions for CO2 including the maximum allowable injection rate, ramping up duration, feed temperature and pressure, and if required, any preheating. The injection simulation model developed in this work provides such capability. The results presented are site specific and must not be generalised. Shallower reservoirs might exhibit lower pressure, exaggerating the above risks. TRANSPORT AND STRORAGE 2 This session was opened by Andy Chadwick from the UK GeoEnergy Observatories who talked about “UK GEOS”. As background Andy explained that the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) are two of the UK’s leading scientific organisations who have planned the creation of an ‘underground observatory’ in the Ince Marshes area of north Cheshire. It will be a world-class research site, bringing together leading scientists and engineers considering new energy technologies. The observatory will enable the project team to study how gases and fluids flow within different rock types and between different layers of rock over the next 15 years. Creating this site would involve the drilling of several observation boreholes. The data collected will be accessible to all. It will deliver a long-term environmental evidence base to inform future decisions about the use of the subsurface in the UK and the rest of the world. The Permo-Triassic Collyhurst Sandstone of the region was used in this study as it is analogous to that of the East Irish Sea. The aim of the work was to provide a better understanding of the key processes in the UK storage reservoirs. Work done to date includes a review and costing of well designs and the negotiation of land access. The next step is a critique by the project science advisory group and an external panel of CO2/well bore technology experts. The site will be characterised by drilling and core sample analysis. The CCS injection well will be located within the groundwater monitoring and seismic arrays. The risks are several and include the business risk of the cost and value for money obtained. The geological risks are that the fault geometry is uncertain and whether the Manchester marl would be able to act as an effective seal. Other engineering risks remain associated with the Extended Leak Off Test and there clearly needs to be access granted to the sites by the landowners. The project raises questions for the CCS community; for example, what is the future research programme of this well for the next 10 to 20 years? It also highlights the need to focus future research on the geology and reservoir processes to ensure ultimately that the expected value is achieved. Michael Kendell of the Bristol CO2 Group then spoke of the groups work on “The need for passive seismic monitoring on CO2 storage sites”. Geological issues with CO2 storage can result in leakage. These can be from either abandoned or active wells and can take the form of a loss of caprock either by geo-chemical dissolution, geo-mechanical deformation or fault reactivation. Seismic monitoring is by controlled 4-D (four-dimensional) surveying.