Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage

This method carries associated risks such as; potential reactivation of faults due to CO2 pressurization & injection; undesired migration of the injected CO2 plume (leading to leakage to surface in large quantities); fracture initiation/propagation driven by the injected CO2 & cap rock breach - can be listed as some of the risks associated with CCUS operations.

This is an extremely important area and operating companies need to understand the associated risks within the framework of complex geological settings and target formations.

Assessment of carbon storage risks serve as key requirements for CO2 site selection, injection management, and design of monitoring, mitigation, and verification (MMV) programs. This requires robust workflows implemented in physics-based tools and to close the existing gaps within industry standard subsurface MMV programs. Elfen software offers an all physics- based tool to address this gap.

Injection and storage of CO2 in subsurface increases the pressure of formations. The increase in pressure may result in surface uplift, reactivation of faults, CO2 leakage, fracturing and cap rock breach. Associated risks may depend on initial stress state, formation/reservoir properties, fault and natural fracture networks. This complex phenomenon requires coupled (flow & mechanical) models to capture a realistic realization of subsurface processes.

Elfen software builds on a hybrid Finite-Discrete element technology and provides a science-based understanding of the formation response to CCUS operations. Elfen integrates advanced geomechanical simulations with multi-phase flow algorithms, discrete fault surfaces as well as fracture initiation/propagation physics and damage assessment of the formation due to CO2 injection.