CO2 phase mutation by fluctuating water table in the vadose zone over a CCS site

Abstract:

Geological sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the feasible plans to control greenhouse gas emissions. In order to be more perfect, the plan has to prove that the injected CO2 gas will not be leaking. Even if CO2 leaking happens, we should possess a technique which provides information on specific aquifer system before critical effect to ground and subsurface environments. Many parameters have been utilized for early detection before risk to environments by sensing CO2 gas concentration, electric conductivity, pH, and ion analysis. However, these are not enough to all CCS sites for leakage detection. For example, the importance of gas leaking path is emphasized because finding the dominant gas flow path can reduce risk and provide a quick estimation. Herein, we investigate dissolved solute degassing and vertical flow from saturated zone to unsaturated zone in shallow depth aquifer. Especially we focused on the water table fluctuation effect. Based on field data and basic parameters, we perform a pilot scale gas injection test and calculate gas flow saturation with STOMP simulator. The CO2 gas concentrations at different depth levels according to amount of injected CO2 infused water, CO2 gas saturation in vadose zone have different concentration values. If we estimate this phenomenon in vadose zone by using CO2 gas detection method, we could presume that the CO2 dissolved in shallow groundwater is degassing and flow upward into vadose zone. However, the concentration level and change patterns are not same and will be changed according to the pattern of water table fluctuation. This study could be usefully applied to strategic CCS environmental monitoring of CO2 leakage.

Acknowledgement: Financial support was provided by the "R&D Project on Environmental Management of Geologic CO2 Storage" from the KEITI (Project Number: 2014001810003).