Study of the Brazilian potential to implement programs of carbon capture and storage allied with enhanced oil recovery

• Grant number: 15/13028-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): March 20, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: José Augusto de Lollo
• Grantee: Mariana Barbosa de Carvalho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

While humanity does not have available technology in order to be viable the utilization of energy obtained only through sources entirely clean and renewable, it is essential to search for techniques to mitigate the environmental impact caused by the current methods of non-renewable energy generation. Among the available methods of mitigation, the Carbon Capture and Storage stands out; it consists in capturing de carbon dioxide from large stationary sources and inject it in geological reservoirs, where the pollutant will be stored and will not return to the atmosphere. Additionally, another current problem is the increasing demand of energy, becoming of extreme importance the adoption of practices to increase the efficiency of the existent methods of energy production, like the Enhanced Oil Recovery, in which a miscible agent - possibly the CO2 - is injected in an oil reservoir in order to recover an extra portion of the original oil in place which could not be extracted by the traditional way. This project proposes the study of programs that combine the two methods, capturing the carbon dioxide provided from stationary sources that expel the CO2 as by-product of its major processes, and injecting the CO2 in oil reservoirs, so as to increase the productivity of the reservoirs and, at the same time, decrease the emission of CO2. In order to do that, will be analyzed the current situation of similar pilot projects already implemented in the Northeast Region of the country, the data from CARBMAP Project - which contains mapped data from stationary sources of CO2 and Brazilian sedimentary basins that could possibly become deposits of CO2 -, besides other information about the subject found in scientific articles, theses, books, reports, among others.