Nexus of Water and CCS: Findings of the Water Working Group (WWG) of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships Plains CO2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Phase III Task 14 Deliverable D107
The Water Working Group (WWG), comprising a team of experts from government, academia, and industry, initiated its efforts with the preparation of a white paper on the nexus of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and water. This white paper summarized the CCS processes and technologies that affect water usage, described the types of water that exist in deep formations targeted for storage, and described the potential impacts of CO2 storage on existing formation fluids as well as potable water resources. Also addressed were the treatment technologies that may be applied to water produced (extracted) from these deep formations during CO2 storage, including opportunities to utilize this water as-is or following treatment. This initial effort was followed by a technology gap assessment workshop, which identified gaps for a number of technical challenges created by the CCSwater nexus, and a stakeholder survey. Broadly speaking, the topics of most concern to the CCS stakeholders were the technical and economic challenges associated with the capture of CO2 and the potential impacts to water resources, followed closely by the mitigation of potential water impacts. The WWG then proceeded to conduct a mixture of stakeholder and technical outreach activities that were focused on facilitating the transfer of previous research as well as spurring the conduct of future research that targeted these water-related challenges, opportunities, and concerns. Concurrent with the efforts of the WWG, water-related CCS research was also conducted by various members of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships as well as other branches of the U.S. Department of Energy (e.g., Crosscutting Research Division of the Strategic Center for Coal). This work covered a wide array of topics such as the characterization, treatment, and utilization of extracted formation brines; the impact of CO2 injection and storage on the characteristics of formation brinView/Download Document