Worker Safety in The Carbon Capture/Storage Industry

In a recently published paper, ESD’s Preston Jordan (and former ESD head Sally Benson) project worker safety likelihood for a mature carbon capture and storage (CCS) industry, using government and private analog industry data.

On modeling the potential impacts of CO2 sequestration on shallow groundwater: Transport of organics and co-injected H2S by supercritical CO2 to shallow aquifers

Proper site selection for CO2 geologic storage requires assessing the impact of potential leakage of CO2 from deep subsurface reservoirs to overlying drinking water aquifers

Laboratory seismic monitoring of supercritical CO2 flooding in sandstone cores using the Split Hopkinson Resonant Bar technique with concurrent x-ray CT imaging

ESD’s Seiji Nakagawa led a team of investigators (including ESD’s Tim Kneafsey, Tom Daley, and Barry Freifeld) in conducting laboratory measurements of the seismic properties of sandstones during supercritical CO2 injection.

Call for Proposals for FY2014 LDRDs

Director Alivisatos recently issued the call for proposals for the FY2014 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program. All scientific staff from our Division are encouraged to think of potential innovative proposal topics.

ESD at AGU: A Zone of Constant Activity

The AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco last month (December 2012) was a great success, especially for LBNL’s Earth Sciences Division and our homebase at the site, the ESD booth—a zone of constant activity.

Effect of dissolved CO2 on a shallow groundwater system: A controlled release experiment

Sequestering CO2 underground has its own set of environmental risks, including the potential migration of CO2 out of the storage reservoir and resulting acidification and release of trace constituents in shallow groundwater.

Probabilistic analysis of fracture reactivation associated with deep underground CO2 injection

ESD Jonny Rutqvist recently collaborated with Korean scientists Jaewon Lee and Ki-Bok Min in conducting coupled multiphase fluid flow and geomechanical modeling to investigate how deep underground injection of CO2 induces geomechanical changes within and around the injection zone.

Pat Dobson, Chile, and Geothermal Energy

ESD’s Pat Dobson recently traveled to Chile to explore geothermal-energy collaborations with Chile, and to increase the practical and theoretical experience of Chilean graduate students in geothermal geochemistry and numerical modeling.

ESD Scientists Win FY2013 LBNL LDRD Awards

Scientists within the Earth Sciences Division won a number of LBNL FY2013 Laboratory Directed Research and Development awards, as announced recently within TABL by Lab Director Paul Alivisatos and shown below. Bravo, all!

Worldwide ESD Tracking of Geologic Carbon Sequestration

ESD’s Geologic Carbon Sequestration (GCS) Program website now features a searchable map of all the current, past, and future (planned) geologic carbon sequestration projects in the world today.