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  4. The Potential for, and Possible Effects of CO2 Storage in the Basal Aquifer of the Northern Plains Prairie Region of North America: A Joint US-Canada Project
May 01, 2011 Abstract

The Potential for, and Possible Effects of CO2 Storage in the Basal Aquifer of the Northern Plains Prairie Region of North America: A Joint US-Canada Project

The Northern Plains - Prairie region of North America is underlain at the base of the sedimentary succession by a Basal Aquifer that, like the Mt. Simon aquifer in the US Midwest, extends over a very large area greater than 1.1 million km2 (686 thousand sq. mi.) in three western Canadian provinces and four US states. The CO2 sources with individual emissions greater than 1 Mt CO2/year in the region underlain by this aquifer account, at 80 Mt CO2/year, for 44% off Canada's emissions from such sources (i.e.., more than 10% of Canada's CO2 emissions), and 67 MMt CO2/year, or approximately 1% for such US sources. This aquifer, which reaches maximum depth and salinity of more than 5000 m and more than 350,0000 mg/L, respectively, crops out in Manitoba and South Dakota, where the water salinity is less than 10,0000 mg/L and where it serves as a source of potable ground water. This aquifer has a very large potential for storing CO2 emissions from various large sources in the region and even from neighbouring states like Minnesota that do not have CO2 storage potential of their own. Furthermore, this aquifer is penetrated by comparatively few wells, less than 30000, compared with the hundreds of thousands of wells drilled in this region, which makes this aquifer attractive from the point of view of security of CO2 storage. A joint US-Canada multiyear, multi-organizational study has been initiated in October 2010 with support from various levels of government in both countries. The main objectives of the study are to characterize the Basal Aquifer that underlies the Northern Plains - Prairie region of North America with respect to its static and dynamic CO2 storage capacities. Results of this evaluation will indicate the effects of long-term, large-scale CO2 injection from multiple sources, with particular attention paid to the fate of the injected CO2 and of the di

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Event/Meeting Information

10th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration
5/2/2011
Pittsburgh, PA