Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
9/18/2015
The Department of Energy this week announced the selection of five projects to receive more than $7 million in funding to study the feasibility of enhanced water recovery (EWR). A relatively new process, EWR aims to use captured CO2 to extract brine from geologic storage sites. Through the management of the pressure and the flow of CO2 as it is injected, brine can be extracted from the formation at specific points where fresh water can then be separated.
“The projects announced today will further advance enhanced water recovery technologies, which can provide a valuable water resource from carbon capture, utilization and storage operations, while also reducing harmful carbon emissions,” Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said in a DOE press release. “This is particularly important for regions that face water shortages, providing additional resiliency and protecting future generations from the harmful effects of climate change."
The projects will help advance commitments made by the U.S. and Chinese governments last November in a joint announcement by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. The announcement included plans to launch a new joint commercial-scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage project employing EWR, as well as pilot projects in both countries.
The five projects selected, hosted by the University of Illinois, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the University of Wyoming, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center, will have until an unspecified date in 2016 to complete the feasibility and design phase of their research. After this phase has been completed, one of the projects will be selected for a pilot program to validate its brine/water injection and treatment technology, according to the release.
With the $1.4 million funding from DOE, the University of Illinois will lead a project to develop and validate pressure management and CO2 plume control strategies based on computational and field demonstration work at the Archer Daniels Midland Corp. facility in Decatur, Ill.
EPRI’s project will receive $1.2 million to focus on site selection for the eventual pilot project. Additionally, EPRI will “conduct a life-cycle economic analysis for produced water extraction, treatment, and transportation; develop monitoring and water injection/production strategies for measuring and controlling the subsurface reservoir pressure and plume; and prepare a series of work plans that can be used to implement the field demonstration project,” according to the DOE release.
The University of Wyoming will receive $1.6 million to develop and validate technologies and engineering approaches for predicting, monitoring, and managing pressure plumes. “The team will also develop and validate advanced subsurface fluid flow simulation technologies using various injection and storage scenarios. The goal is to predict pressure responses and the movement of CO2 injected fluid in the reservoir,” the release says.
The University of Texas at Austin will receive DOE funding of $1.5 million to explore different well types. The team will test active brine extraction wells, passive pressure relief wells, and a combination of both to explore the pressure buildup in the storage formation.
The University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center will create a technical design package for a brine extraction and storage test with $1.5 million in DOE funding. “The test will focus on validating approaches to active reservoir management and extracted water treatment. Concurrent with site selection activities, viable pilot-ready water treatment technologies will be screened for their potential to be deployed at the Phase II site,” according to the release.
