A lab study on earthquakes justifies pumping carbon dioxide underground to avoid global warming

Image and plans for the setup. (a) 3D schematic view of the assembled block showing the positions of 38 piezoelectric sensors (red, green and blue cones), the main injection well, a secondary injection well up to the interface and the saw cut interface (blue plane). Green, red, and blue arrows show the applied pressures. (b) Plan view of the block indicating the measured displacement ∆x and y and the calculated interface displacement ∆L. The open section of the main injection well is indicated by magenta shading. (c) Picture of the Castlegate Sandstone block just before the facade is cut. Credit: Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-022-11715-6

Professor Skoltech and colleagues from the Norwegian Seismic Array and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in the United States, conducted an experiment that reproduces carbon dioxide injections of greenhouse gases underground for semi-permanent storage to prevent global warming. They found that, despite some concerns, this process would not cause earthquakes if carbon dioxide was injected with commonly used pressures. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

Carbon storage is one of the pillars of a low-carbon economy, along with many ways to actually reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The main ways to bind carbon dioxide are in biomass – for example, by planting trees – and in deep aquifers, such as depleted oil fields. The latter approach, known as geolocation, is the subject of much controversy because of the perceived ability of pressure-pumped gas to induce seismicity.

“Our experiments show that, provided that we properly control and reduce the gas pump pressure, it is possible to safely sink CO2 into shale reservoirs deep within the Earth without causing devastating earthquakes,” said study co-author and Skoltech Professor Sergei Stanchits.

Both this study, which relied on equipment at Schlumberger in the US, and Stanchits’ ongoing work at Skoltech in Russia involve experiments with massive, cube-shaped boulders that have been sawn in half (see image) to mimic two sides of a geological fault sliding against each other. The cube is pressed on all six sides to simulate the driving forces of plate tectonics. Chemically inert silicone oil was injected into the rock to mimic the increased pore pressure caused by injecting carbon dioxide into the field.

“We operated improvised plate tectonics by applying unequal stresses to different faces of the sandstone cube, each side measuring about one meter,” explains Stanchitz. The ‘plates’ slowly began to crawl against each other, and we could hear them making a faint crackling sound with highly sensitive microphones placed on all sides of the cube.

This in itself, however, constitutes normal seismic activity. “This is how tectonic plates always move slowly,” the researcher adds. “And it never becomes a problem unless you huddle up for a while, the strain builds up and then comes off in an instant. That sudden slip of the fault is the earthquake.”

The team wanted to see if pumping fluid into a wellbore that came relatively close to the fault would produce something more than a faint crackling sound – a real earthquake in the lab! But she didn’t. “We did something that you’re not supposed to do in a real sequestration project: We had another hole, that got into the fault, and that’s where we now injected the fluid under the expected pressure into the ground during the carbon dioxide confiscation,” tells Stanchits. “However, somewhat disappointingly, the rocks continued to slide along at the same less than catastrophic pace.”

So the researchers modified the experiment’s method, modeled on the mythbuster. “We thought, OK, we could use the first hole, which ended with 10 centimeters of the fault, but we increase the pressure to the point of making a fracture in the rock,” says the scientist. “That’s something you definitely wouldn’t want to do on a carbon storage project, but it’s a bit like hydraulic fracturing.” Energy companies do this to get the oil or gas flowing from unconventional reservoirs, but also, potentially, reach the planet’s warm depths through the resulting crack and produce renewable geothermal energy.

To tell a long story, the team had to rise from 45 times the normal atmospheric pressure in the original trials to as much as 180 air pressures before the sandstone succumbed and opened up a fracture leading directly into the rift. “We shut off the injection, the borehole pressure dropped, and things remained quiet for about 10 minutes. But as we soon learned, this was the time it took for the fluid to redistribute in the fault zone to the point where, finally, there was noticeable vibration in the smooth motion of the plates. This certainly qualifies as a laboratory earthquake,” Stanchitz says, adding that in the field, preparation for an earthquake would likely take a day or so, if hydraulic fracturing was performed close to fault.

Summing up the results of this rather exciting experiment, the researcher concluded that underground carbon sequestration at pressures normally considered for purpose and at properly selected sites should be safe and should not cause earthquakes and gas leakage into groundwater or back into the atmosphere . Hydraulic fracturing appears to be safe if performed with local geology in mind: at sufficient distances from any fault. The study authors believe that similar laboratory experiments are necessary to reduce both the costs and risks inherent in any such geological interventions. It’s not something you want to do by trial and error, Stanchitz concludes.

Data from wells at plate boundaries can explain slow earthquakes More information: Volker Oye et al, Cubic meter-scale laboratory fault reactivation experiments to improve understanding of induced earthquake hazards, Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038 / s41598-022-11715-6 Submitted by Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Quote: Lab study of earthquake justifies pumping CO2 underground to avoid climate warming (2022, June 10) Retrieved on June 10, 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-06-lab-earthquake-co2-underground- avert.html

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