A pipeline and injection infrastructure analysis was completed for CO2 storage applications for the arches geologic region in the Midwest United States. The Arches Province is an informal region in northeastern Indiana, northern Kentucky, western Ohio, and southern Michigan where sedimentary rock formations form broad arch and platform structures. In the province, the Mt. Simon sandstone is an appealing deep saline formation for CO2 storage because of the intersection of reservoir thickness and permeability along the province. Many CO2 sources are located in proximity to the Arches Province, and the area is adjacent to the coal fired power plants along the Ohio River Valley corridor. Infrastructure analysis included a pipeline routing study based on surface features, economic factors, location of large CO2 sources, and location of most promising geologic areas for CO2 injection. The evaluation of injection system arrangement was based on a combination of basin-scale reservoir simulations for the Arches Province area and more detailed injection well simulations. Together, these methods were used to estimate infrastructure requirements such as number of injection wells, pipeline routes, and maximum injection rates for large scale CO2 storage applications on the order of 60-130 million metric tons CO2 per year. Results of this analysis suggest that large scale CO2 storage applications are feasible in the Arches Province. There are central areas where regional storage fields may be connected by distributed pipeline networks. The analysis also provides some practical guidance on large scale CO2 storage applications for the Arches Province. This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory award DE-FE0001034 and Ohio Coal Development Office of the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority grant D-10–03.
CO2 storage in deep geologic rock formations is one of many technologies being considered to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To be effective, the approach would require operation of many injection wells at fairly high injection rates. The Arches Province in the Midwestern U.S. has been identified as a major area for CO2 sequestration because of the intersection of reservoir thickness and permeability along the province (Kelley 2010; Barnes 2009; Gupta and Bair 1997). The province includes areas of Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio along several arch structures between the Appalachian, Illinois, and Michigan sedimentary basins (Figure 1). The main injection target is the Mt. Simon sandstone due to its depth, thickness, hydraulic properties, and brine salinity. There are many existing CO2 sources in proximity to the Arches Province, and the area is adjacent to the Ohio River Valley corridor of coal-fired power.
To better define the potential for CO2 storage in the Arches Province of the Midwestern United States, a simulation framework is being developed for the study area. The overall goal of the project is to build a geologic model for the Arches Province and complete advanced reservoir simulations necessary for effective implementation of large-scale CO2 storage in the region. This paper presents infrastructure analysis for CO2 storage applications in the Arches Province. The effort includes portions of the research completed to analyze pipeline and injection system requirements for application of large scale CO2 transport and injection in the study area. Research builds on several other aspects of the project, including review of Mt. Simon injection operations (Sminchak 2010) and characterization of the geologic setting (Sminchak 2011).