Mathematical modeling as a tool to assess microbial community responses to CO2 injection

Abstract:

The issue of subsurface microbial community responses to the injection of CO2 has great importance not only from a risk assessment point of view but also from the perspective of CO2 recycling to CH4. In this sense, the objective of this study is to develop mathematical models to make a quantitative description of the responses of subsurface indigenous microbial communities to the injection of CO2. For this end, TOUGHREACTV1.2 reactive transport simulator with its module ECO2N is used as the modeling framework. The targeted microbial community is composed of fermentative bacteria (Organic matter → Acetate & H2), acetotrophic methanogens (Acetate → Methane & CO2), acetotrophic Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) (Acetate → H2S & CO2), hydrogenotrophic methanogens (H2 & CO2 → CH4), and hydrogenotrophic SRB (H2 → H2S). Due to the multiple hydrogeological, geochemical and microbiological factors intervening in both the response of subsurface microbial communities to the injection of CO2 and the chemical and physical fate of CO2 itself, at this stage simulations have been performed in batch mode. That means numerical simulations aimed to track changes in CO2 saturation levels, pH, and concentrations of mineral and aqueous phase species over time at selected initial conditions. Numerical simulation results indicate that the activity of microbes associated with methanogenic processes in geological storage sites of CO2 is governed by the level of CO2 saturation in the pore space as well as by the presence of pH buffering minerals such as calcite. With calcite in the mineral phase attenuating drops in pH below inhibitory levels, for instance it is shown that acetotrophic and hydrogenotrophic SRB outcompete acetotrophic and hydrogenotrophic methanogens for acetate and H2, respectively. During the initial stages of the reaction when the pH level is lowest, the higher tolerance of hydrogenotrophic methanogens to acidic pH levels is reflected by a preferential formation of CH4 via the reduction pathway of CO2 with H2 serving as the electron source. However, the increase of pH levels due to both geochemical and microbial reactions in combination with the formation of acetate from the metabolization of organic matter, eventually leads to a preferential formation of CH4 via acetoclastic methanogenesis.