Summary
    If you want to monitor it during the operational phase of an underground CO2 storage facility, then BRGM offers you its geophysical and geochemical services applied to the field of land-based underground storage.

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    Would you like more information about this offer or would you like to use our services? Please contact our teams.

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    Environmental monitoring above a CO2 storage site

    Environmental monitoring above a CO2 storage site (In-Salah, Algeria, 2018).

    © BRGM - Frédérick Gal

    Your challenges and needs

    To compensate for post-industrial CO2 emitters, many countries are considering developing geological solutios for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Potential underground CO2 storage sites on land need to be characterised both before they are commissioned and during the operational phase, in order to meet regulatory environmental protection requirements.

    The monitoring of a site involves following the evolution of the CO2 stored at depth in the target area. Geophysical and geochemical tools are used to ensure that this development is consistent with the scenarios established during the initial site characterisation. The aim is also to identify any deviations from these scenarios at an early stage and to check that there is no environmental impact on the near surface.

    Our added value

    BRGM has the experience, skills and infrastructure (expertise, laboratories and logistics) needed to carry out operational monitoring of sites for all types of land storage for industrial or institutional requirements, in France and abroad.

    For more than 30 years, its teams have developed and used powerful geophysical and geochemical techniques on research infrastructures and pilot sites in order to:

    • Monitor the sites by:
      • Continuous monitoring of boreholes;
      • Pumping or bottom sampling;
      • Chemical and isotopic characterisation of fluids (water and gas);
      • Characterisation and monitoring of aquifers used for storage (monitoring of injection and storage integrity);
      • Monitoring of sites by geophysical methods (seismic, electromagnetic, etc.).
    • Assessing environmental impacts:
      • Monitoring of gaseous emissions in the ground and at the ground surface/atmosphere interface;
      • Monitoring of storage integrity and the environment.
    Natural-gas abstraction at the Svelvik site

    Natural-gas abstraction at the Svelvik site (Norway, 2010).

    © BRGM - Frédérick Gal

    Technical resources

    • TER'GEOPHY ground geophysics platform;
    • Mobile geochemical equipment on site: physico-chemical logging in boreholes, pumping, downhole samplers, sampling in compliance with the Water Framework Directive, gas analysers (composition/flow);
    • COFRAC-certified analysis laboratories: major chemical, trace, organic, gas, isotope (dissolved elements and gases) analysis.

    Patents

    • Depth sampling device: patent FR-1259214, publication 04/04/2014 (no. 2996249)
    • Passive sampling system for slow-flowing groundwater: patent FR-1751476, publication 31/08/2018 (no. 3063346)

    A few references

    • Monitoring of CO2 injection at a depth of 800 m by the controlled-source electromagnetic method (CSEM) in time-lapse;
    • Monitoring of gaseous emissions from the Lacq-Rousse pilot site;
    • Monitoring of an induced CO2 leak in an aquifer and consequences on CO2-water-rock interactions;
    • Monitoring of deep aquifers using downhole sampling.

    Publications

    • Girard, J.-F. ; Coppo, N. ; Rohmer, J. ; Bourgeois, B. ; Naudet, V. ; Schmidt-Hattenberger, C. Time-lapse CSEM monitoring of the Ketzin (Germany) CO2 injection using 2×MAM configuration. Energy Procedia, 2011, 4, 3322-3329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.253.
    • Delatre, M. ; Manceau, JC. Applicability of Long-range Seismic Noise Correlation for CO2 Geological Storage Monitoring. Energy Procedia, 2013, 37, 4049-4056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2013.06.305
    • Gal, F.; Pokryszka, Z.; Labat, N.; Michel, K.; Lafortune, S.; Marblé, A. Soil-Gas Concentrations and Flux Monitoring at the Lacq-Rousse CO2-Geological Storage Pilot Site (French Pyrenean Foreland): From Pre-Injection to Post-Injection. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 645. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9040645
    • Humez, P. ; Négrel, P. ; Lagneau, V. ; Lions, J. ; Kloppmann, W. ; Gal, F. ; Millot, R. ; Guerrot, C. ; Flehoc, C. ; Widory, D. ; Girard, JF. CO2–water–mineral reactions during CO2 leakage: Geochemical and isotopic monitoring of a CO2 injection field-test. Chemical Geology, 2014, 368, 11-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2014.01.001
    • Gal, F. ; Lions, J. ; Grellier, S. ; Squarcioni, P. ; Barriere, J. Deep Aquifer Sampling and the Use of Ball Check-valves Systems. Energy Procedia, 2017, 114, 3812-3823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1512

    References

    Deep geothermal drilling site (Alsace, 2015).
    Reference, completed project
    Deep geothermal energy: a guidebook for controlling induced seismicity
    16 October 2024
    General view of the Bouillante high-temperature geothermal power plant in Guadeloupe
    Reference, completed project
    Geothermal potential of Non-Connected Areas (ZNI) in French overseas departments and territories
    14 October 2024
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