Geo-electrical Characterisation for CO Sequestration in Porous Media

Developing monitoring strategies for the detection and monitoring of possible CO leakage or migration from existing and anticipated storage media are important because they can provide an early warning of unplanned CO leakage from a storage site. While previous works have concentrated on silicate and carbonate porous media, this work explores geoelectrical techniques in basalt medium in a series of well-defined laboratory experiments. These were carried out to identify the key factors which affect geoelectrical monitoring technique of CO in porous media using low cost and efficient time domain reflectometry (TDR). The system has been set up for simultaneous measurement of the bulk electrical conductivity and bulk dielectric permittivity of CO-water-porous media system in silica sand, basalt and limestone. Factors investigated include pH, pressure, temperature, salinity, salt type and the materials of the porous media. Results show that the bulk electrical conductivity and dielectric permittivity decrease as water saturation decreases. Noticeably, electrical conductivity and permittivity decrease due to the changes in water saturation and the relationship remains the highest in limestone except at the start of the experiment. Also, an increase in temperature, pressure and salinity tend to increase the bulk electrical conductivity (σ) and permittivity (ε) of the CO-water-porous media system during the drainage experiment. On the other hand, pH and concentrations of different types of salt do not seem to have significant effect on the geoelectrical characteristics of the system. It was evident that Archie’s equation fit the experimental results well and the parameters obtained were in good agreement with those in the literatures. The regression shows a good reliability in the prediction of electrical properties during the monitoring process of CO sequestration.