Professor Sigurður Gíslason

University of Iceland

Biography

Sigurdur Gislason is a Research Professor in geochemistry (https://notendur.hi.is/~sigrg/)  at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland. He got his PhD from the Johns Hopkins University in 1985. His research group has focused on field and laboratory experiments related to mineral storage of CO2 in basaltic rocks as well as the chemical and physical erosion rates of basaltic terrains and their role in the global carbon cycle. They have also contributed to the understanding of the environmental impact of volcanic eruptions. He is a past president (2019-2020) of the European Association of Geochemistry, a co-founder and one of three directors of the CarbFix consortium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CarbFix, an international consortium on carbon capture and mineral storage. Sigurdur is a Geochemistry Fellow and a Fellow of the International Association of Geochemistry; a recipient of the Patterson Award of the Geochemical Society and the President of Iceland invested him with the Order of the Falcon first of January 2020. The Carbfix project is the 2020 co-recipient of the International Keeling Curve Award and The European Geothermal Energy Council´s Ruggero Bertani European Geothermal Innovation Award (https://www.carbfix.com/news).

All sessions by Professor Sigurður Gíslason

The “temperature and pressure window” for CO2 mineralization in basalt
03:30 PM

The Carbfix consortium has developed methods to capture CO2 from concentrated sources and ambient air and subsequent storage as minerals in basaltic rocks. Mineralisation is the safest way of storing carbon. Before injection via the Carbfix method, CO2 gas is dissolved in water. In the subsurface reservoir, the acidic CO2-charged water releases Ca, Mg and Fe from the basalt, that can combine with the CO2 to form stable carbonate minerals. In the talk we will define the temperature and pressure window for this storage method, which will affect the design of the injection equipment and thus the storage cost. For freshwater applications, the Carbfix method has been tested and applied from 20°C to 270°C. The upper temperature limit is defined by the reaction transforming Ca-carbonates and quartz to wollastonite. Low temperatures, 4°-20°C, slow down the rate of gas-water and water-rock interactions and have not yet been tested in the field. Bacteria activity could affect these processes at 4°-121°C. Seawater contains Ca and SO4, and when injected in areas with a high geothermal gradient, the temperature of injected seawater could rise past 150°C, resulting in anhydrite precipitation within the injection well, which could clog the well over time. Hence, the temperature window for CO2-charged seawater injections is narrower than that for freshwater, around 20°-150°. The pressure window is defined by the injection method and solubility of CO2 in water and seawater. If CO2 is dissolved at low pressure (e.g. 6 bar) in a scrubber on the surface, theoretical depth of a high injectivity well does not need to be deeper than 100 -200 m. If CO2 is dissolved within the injection well, the preferred gas pressure is around 25 bar at 25°C. This requires a minimum of 250 m water column above to point of gas release in the well, and a similar downhole distance of about 250 m for the kinetic driven dissolution of the down-going gas bubbles. Thus, the depth of the injection well has to be > 500 m. Once the gas bubbles are dissolved in the injection water, it is denser than the formation water, and has the tendency to sink. If the transmissivity of the well is good, there is no need to pressurize the injected water.

Professor Sigurður Gíslason

University of Iceland

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