Asphaltenes, the most aromatic of the heaviest components of crude oil, are critical to all aspects of petroleum use, including production, transportation, refining, upgrading, and heavy-end use in paving and coating materials. As such, efficiency in these diverse disciplines mandates proper chemical accounting of structure−function relations of crude oils and asphaltenes, the vision of petroleomics (Asphaltenes, Heavy Oils and Petroleomics; Mullins, O. C., Sheu, E. Y., Hammami, A., Marshall, A. G., Eds.; Springer: New York, 2007). Indeed, the molecular characterization of asphaltenes is required as well as the detailed understanding of the hierarchical colloidal structures of asphaltenes and petroleum. With great prescience, Professor Teh Fu Yen and co-workers proposed a hierarchical model of asphaltenes to account for many of their characteristics known at that time (Dickie, J. P.; Yen, T. F. Macrostrucutres of asphaltic fractions by various instrumental methods. Anal. Chem. 1967, 39, 1847−1852). This m...

The Modified Yen Model

The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) brings together over 300 international researchers to provide an independent, scientifically based, integrated and policy-relevant analysis of current and emerging energy issues and options. It has been peer-reviewed anonymously by an additional 200 international experts. The GEA assesses the major global challenges for sustainable development and their linkages to energy; the technologies and resources available for providing energy services; future energy systems that address the major challenges; and the policies and other measures that are needed to realize transformational change toward sustainable energy futures. The GEA goes beyond existing studies on energy issues by presenting a comprehensive and integrated analysis of energy chalenges, opportunities and strategies, for developing, industrialized and emerging economies. This volume is a invaluable resource for energy specialists and technologists in all sectors (academia, industry and government) as well as policymakers, development economists and practitioners in international organizations and national governments.

Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future

This paper provides a review of the geomechanics and modeling of geomechanics associated with geologic carbon storage (GCS), focusing on storage in deep sedimentary formations, in particular saline aquifers. The paper first introduces the concept of storage in deep sedimentary formations, the geomechanical processes and issues related with such an operation, and the relevant geomechanical modeling tools. This is followed by a more detailed review of geomechanical aspects, including reservoir stress-strain and microseismicity, well integrity, caprock sealing performance, and the potential for fault reactivation and notable (felt) seismic events. Geomechanical observations at current GCS field deployments, mainly at the In Salah CO2 storage project in Algeria, are also integrated into the review. The In Salah project, with its injection into a relatively thin, low-permeability sandstone is an excellent analogue to the saline aquifers that might be used for large scale GCS in parts of Northwest Europe, the U.S. Midwest, and China. Some of the lessons learned at In Salah related to geomechanics are discussed, including how monitoring of geomechanical responses is used for detecting subsurface geomechanical changes and tracking fluid movements, and how such monitoring and geomechanical analyses have led to preventative changes in the injection parameters. Recently, the importance of geomechanics has become more widely recognized among GCS stakeholders, especially with respect to the potential for triggering notable (felt) seismic events and how such events could impact the long-term integrity of a CO2 repository (as well as how it could impact the public perception of GCS). As described in the paper, to date, no notable seismic event has been reported from any of the current CO2 storage projects, although some unfelt microseismic activities have been detected by geophones. However, potential future commercial GCS operations from large power plants will require injection at a much larger scale. For such large-scale injections, a staged, learn-as-you-go approach is recommended, involving a gradual increase of injection rates combined with continuous monitoring of geomechanical changes, as well as siting beneath a multiple layered overburden for multiple flow barrier protection, should an unexpected deep fault reactivation occur.

/pdf/the-geomechanics-of-co2-storage-in-deep-sedimentary-3k6vmdsuf7.pdf

The geomechanics of CO2 storage in deep sedimentary formations

A review of efficiency penalty in a coal-fired power plant with post-combustion CO2 capture

Human activities have led to a massive increase in $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 emissions as a primary greenhouse gas that is contributing to climate change with higher than $$1\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}$$
 global warming than that of the pre-industrial level. We evaluate the three major technologies that are utilised for carbon capture: pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel combustion. We review the advances in carbon capture, storage and utilisation. We compare carbon uptake technologies with techniques of carbon dioxide separation. Monoethanolamine is the most common carbon sorbent; yet it requires a high regeneration energy of 3.5 GJ per tonne of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 . Alternatively, recent advances in sorbent technology reveal novel solvents such as a modulated amine blend with lower regeneration energy of 2.17 GJ per tonne of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 . Graphene-type materials show $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 adsorption capacity of 0.07 mol/g, which is 10 times higher than that of specific types of activated carbon, zeolites and metal–organic frameworks. $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 geosequestration provides an efficient and long-term strategy for storing the captured $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 in geological formations with a global storage capacity factor at a Gt-scale within operational timescales. Regarding the utilisation route, currently, the gross global utilisation of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 is lower than 200 million tonnes per year, which is roughly negligible compared with the extent of global anthropogenic $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 emissions, which is higher than 32,000 million tonnes per year. Herein, we review different $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 utilisation methods such as direct routes, i.e. beverage carbonation, food packaging and oil recovery, chemical industries and fuels. Moreover, we investigated additional $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 utilisation for base-load power generation, seasonal energy storage, and district cooling and cryogenic direct air $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$
 capture using geothermal energy. Through bibliometric mapping, we identified the research gap in the literature within this field which requires future investigations, for instance, designing new and stable ionic liquids, pore size and selectivity of metal–organic frameworks and enhancing the adsorption capacity of novel solvents. Moreover, areas such as techno-economic evaluation of novel solvents, process design and dynamic simulation require further effort as well as research and development before pilot- and commercial-scale trials.

/pdf/recent-advances-in-carbon-capture-storage-and-utilisation-4j1ny764a6.pdf

Recent advances in carbon capture storage and utilisation technologies: a review

Lessons learned from 14 years of CCS operations: Sleipner, In Salah and Snøhvit

This paper quantifies the potential variation in compositionand PVT properties with depth due to gravity, chemical, andthermal forces. A wide range of reservoir fluid systems havebeen studied using all of the known published models forthermal diffusion in the non-isothermal mass transportproblem.Previous studies dealing with the combined effect ofgravity and vertical thermal gradients on compositionalgrading have either been (1) of a theoretical nature, withoutexamples from reservoir fluid systems, or (2) proposing oneparticular thermal diffusion model, usually for a specificreservoir, without comparing the results with other thermaldiffusion models.We give a short review of gravity/non-isothermal modelspublished to date. In particular, we show quantitativedifferences in the various models for a wide range of reservoirfluids systems. Solution algorithms and numerical stabilityproblems are discussed for the non-isothermal models whichrequire numerical discretization, unlike the exact analyticalsolution of the isothermal gradient problem.A discussion is given of the problems related to fluidinitialization in reservoir models of complex fluid systems.This involves the synthesis of measured sample data andtheoretical models. Specific recommendations are given forinterpolation and extrapolation of vertical compositionalgradients. The importance of dewpoint on the estimation of agas-oil contact is emphasized, particularly for newly-discovered reservoirs where only a gas sample is available andthe reservoir is near saturated.Finally, we present two field case histories – one where theisothermal gravity/chemical equilibrium model describesmeasured compositional gradients in a reservoir gradingcontinuously from a rich gas condensate to a volatile oil; andanother example where the isothermal model is grosslyinconsistent with measured data and convection or thermaldiffusion has apparently resulted in a more-or-less constantcomposition over a vertical column of some 5000 ft.IntroductionComposition variation with depth can result for severalreasons:1. Gravity segregates the heaviest components towards thebottom and lighter components like methane towards thetop

Lars Høier

Papers

Lessons learned from 14 years of CCS operations: Sleipner, In Salah and Snøhvit

Compositional Grading—Theory and Practice

Compositional Grading - Theory and Practice

Miscible Gas Injection in Fractured Reservoirs

Miscible Gas Injection in Undersaturated Gas-Oil Systems