Evaluation of CO2 solubility-trapping and mineral-trapping in microbial-mediated CO2–brine–sandstone interaction
Introduction
The fourth IPCC report stated with ever-more certainty that anthropogenic emission of CO2 have been made primarily responsible for global warming (Ebigbo et al., 2010, IPCC, 2007). Thus, the reduction of potential CO2 in the atmosphere becomes obligatory to mitigate global warming (Frerichs et al., 2013). Recently, carbon capture and geological storage (CCS) is widely considered as a promising technology to reduce CO2 emission to the atmosphere (Benson and Cole, 2008, Metz et al., 2005a, Metz et al., 2005b, Portier and Rochelle, 2005). Potential geological reservoirs for CCS are depleted gas and oil reservoir, un-mineable coal seam formations and deep saline aquifers (Benson and Cole, 2008, Krüger et al., 2011). Particularly, deep saline aquifers are preferred and well-documented due to its large storage capacity, ubiquity, and potential for carbonate mineral trapping (Bachu and Adams, 2003, Goldberg et al., 2010, Goldberg et al., 2008, McGrail et al., 2006, Bergman, 1995). However, it may take a thousand years or longer to undergo mineral trapping in the deep saline aquifers (Metzker, 2005).
In the view of storage security, it is significant to reduce the time scale of mineral trapping (Cunningham et al., 2011, Naganuma et al., 2011). Microorganisms would be of interest, because they are predominant in earth biosphere, especially in deep saline aquifers. Many important processes in geological systems are partly catalyzed by microorganisms (Whitman et al., 1998). Therefore, it’s essential to investigate the potential role of microorganisms in the CO2 sequestration. Mitchell et al. (2009) proposed that biofilms could enhance geologic sequestration of supercritical CO2 and reduce leakage of CO2 by its plugging channels among rocks. Subsequent researches also demonstrated the potential effect of biofilms on the CO2 solubility and CO2 mineral trapping (Mitchell et al., 2010, Cunningham et al., 2009, Morozova et al., 2011). Recently, the microbial community was investigated in the CO2 injection or leakage environment. The microbial community variation of anaerobic and acidophilic microorganisms was found in CO2 leakage soil environment (Oppermann et al., 2010). Then H2-oxidising bacteria (Hydrogenophaga sp., Acidovorax sp., Ralstonia sp., Pseudomonas sp.), thiosulfate-oxidizing bacteria (Diaphorobacter sp.) and biocorrosive thermophilic microorganisms were detected in depleted gas reservoir (Morozova et al., 2011) and the Chromohalobacter marismortui, Halobacillus trueperi etc. were identified in deep saline aquifers with CO2 injection (Kirk et al., 2012, Krüger et al., 2011, Naganuma et al., 2011, Wang et al., 2012). These findings proved the potential growth of microorganisms in the extreme environment with long-term exposure of high CO2 concentration, and their potential effect on the CO2 solubility and mineral trapping. However, there were still few researches to evaluate the contribution of the specific indigenous microorganism to the CO2 solubility and mineral trapping in the CO2-brine- rock interaction.
To address some of the above-mentioned issues, experimental study focusing on the evaluation of CO2 solubility-trapping and mineral-trapping by microbial mediated process was investigated in this study. The objectives of this study are (1) to verify the potential growth of microorganisms under the extreme environment such as CO2 injection environment (pH < 5, temperature > 50 °C and salinity > 1.0 mol/L); (2) to evaluate the role of specific indigenous microorganisms in the CO2 solubility-trapping and mineral-trapping in the CO2–brine–sandstone interaction.
Section snippets
Experimental set-up
The experimental set-up in this study was shown in Fig. 1. Supercritical CO2 with 99.5% purity was injected into stainless steel reactors (with a volume of 1 L) via a booster pump and the samples were collected by a sample basket. The experimental condition was controlled by thermometer and pressure gauge.
Experimental materials
CO2 gas: CO2 gases were provided by Jv-yang Gases Company in China. Invert the gases cylinders and take out supercritical of CO2 by a liquid boost pump in the experiment.
Potential growth of microorganisms under the extreme environments
Three experimental sets (temperature, pH and salinity) were conducted in flasks to investigate the potential growth of indigenous microorganisms under the extreme environments. Certain quantity of microorganism in the logarithmic growth phase was inoculated into each flask with CO2 filled headspace and cultured in thermostatic incubator for 68 h. Then the biomass was measured by spread-plate method.
CO2 solubility-trapping and mineral-trapping in microbial mediated CO2–brine–sandstone interaction
The experiments with different microbial biomass of 0, 2.3 × 106, 7.0 × 106 and 11.7 × 107 CFU/mL
Potential growth of microbes under extreme environment
The pH of deep aquifer water could reach 4–5 when suddenly exposed to large amount of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2), consequently affecting the metabolic activity of microorganisms in the deep saline aquifers (Cunningham et al., 1997, Kirk et al., 2012). Afterwards, the pH in CO2 injected deep aquifer gradually increased up to 6–7 during long-term CO2–brine–sandstone interaction. In this study, the best pH for the growth of microorganisms was 5, verifying that the three isolated microbes
Conclusions
From our experiments, we can conclude that indigenous microbes isolated from a deep saline aquifer could adapt and keep relatively high activity under extreme environment. When microbes mediated in the CO2–brine–sandstone interaction, the CO2 solubility-trapping was enhanced to some extent. Correspondingly, the corrosion of feldspars and clay minerals such as chlorite was accelerated, providing a favorable condition for CO2 mineral-trapping. Secondary minerals such as transition-state calcite
Acknowledgements
The present work was funded by China Geological Survey working Project (Grant No. 12120113006300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41302182) and National Key Technology R&D Program - China (Grant No. 2012BAJ25B10).
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