Carbon Utilization and Storage through Rehabilitation of Groundwater Wells

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-64135-z. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Vivek Vidyadhar Patil , Gabriella Basso, Steven Catania, Christopher Cata, Timothy Ostapuk, Robert Vince

Abstract

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) of the United Nations (UN), rise in atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to anthropogenic factors is considered as the primary driver for global climate change. With almost every major corporation around the world working towards their “net-zero goals”, it is becoming increasingly important to have more technologies that can help reduce carbon footprint. Achieving sequestration of CO2 in the subsurface through Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies like CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery, CO2-Enhanced Geothermal Systems, CO2-Enhanced Coal Bed Methane, etc. is well accepted. We introduce yet another attractive CCUS opportunity through well rehabilitation. Aqua Freed® and Aqua Gard® are well-known well rehabilitation and preventive well maintenance technologies that utilize (inject underground) liquid CO2 for the purpose. The goal of this study was to quantify the storage capacity of Aqua Freed® and Aqua Gard®, and establish their CCUS credentials. Depending on the well being serviced, these technologies can inject up to 40 US tons of CO2 per well. Based on field data collection and statistical modeling, we estimated that 82-96 percent (median 90%) of the injected CO2 remains in the subsurface post injection. Overall, our results and analysis of the US market suggest that using CO2 for well rehabilitation and maintenance has a storage potential of several megatonnes of CO2 annually in the US alone.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5B95H

Subjects

Applied Statistics, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Climate, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Geochemistry, Hydrology, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability

Keywords

CO2 sequestration, CCUS, Net Zero, well rehabilitation, groundwater, geochemistry, Statistical Modeling, mixed-effects modeling, regression, carbon storage, low carbon technologies, carbon footprint

Dates

Published: 2023-05-20 23:25

Last Updated: 2023-05-21 06:25

License

CC-BY Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Data Availability (Reason not available):
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.