Basic Research Needs for Geosciences - Energetics Meetings and ...

APPENDIX 1: TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVES RESOURCE DOCUMENTFigure 5. Hypothetical operational life cycle for GCS project (Friedmann 2007).aspects (e.g., Mohr failure criteria, capillary entry pressure) are straightforward but require basicmeasurements of relevant rock types (Streit and Hillis 2004). Still other aspects require moresignificant geological sophistication (e.g., fault reactivation potential, fault-seal analysis, in situstress tensor characterization; Wiprut and Zoback 2002; Gibson-Poole et al. 2005; Chiaramonteet al. 2006). Some elements of the analysis are extremely difficult to define deterministically(e.g., well behavior in 50–100 years) and cannot be unambiguously circumscribed in anyreasonable operational context.Given this complexity, it is not broadly accepted today what terms constitute effective storage.The FutureGen project’s request for proposals (FutureGen Alliance 2006) laid out a set ofminimum criteria for acceptance. These criteria are based on expert opinion, laboratoryexperimentation, analog studies, and simulations. However, there is no empirical data set frommultiple geological carbon sequestration deployments that provides a standard forcharacterization of site effectiveness.Co-contaminant storageTo date, most studies have assumed pure CO 2 and focused on pure CO 2 -rock-brine systems.Very little work has focused on gas streams with variable concentrations of other gases, inparticular SO x , NO x , and H 2 S. However, it is likely that all existing carbon and separationtechnology pathways will produce storage gases with some of these components in varyingAppendix 1 • 18Basic Research Needs for Geosciences: Facilitating 21 st Century Energy Systems