carbon disposal in the basalt lava fields of western ... · •a large composite lava field...
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Carbon Disposal in the Basalt Lava Fields of Western Arabia:
Potential and ChallengesAbdulkader M. Afifi
Acknowledgements
• Professor Hussain Hoteit, KAUST
• Professor Eric Oelkers, GET and UCL
• Dr. Serguey Arkadakskiy (Saudi Aramco)
• Professor Sigurdur Gisalson (U. Iceland)
Acknowledgements: APG research team at KAUST
• Jose Eduardo Abreu Torres. MS thesis: The potential for CO2 disposal in Western Saudi Arabia: The Jizan Group basalts
• Miliausha Petrova: MS thesis: The potential for CO2 disposal in Western Saudi Arabia: The Harrat Lava fields
• Jakub Fedorik: Postdoc
• Alexandros Tasianas: Postdoc
• Antoine Delaunay: Postdoc
• Arlette de Santiago: GIS specialist
• Tihana Pensa: PhD
• Ali Altammar: MS
• Murtadha Almallalah: MS
Menu
1. Background
2. Sequestration technologies
3. Current situation: fixed CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia
4. Carbon mineralization in the Harrat volcanic fields
5. Carbon mineralization in Red Sea rift volcanics (Jizan Group)
6. Carbon mineralization in ultramafic rocks
7. Conclusions
Motivation: CO2 emissions worldwide
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Ridding the atmosphere of CO2
From: Center for Environment, Commerce and Energy, 2011.
Why sequester in basalt?
• Basalt is unstable at near-surface conditions: (low T, hydrous and low pH)
• 20-25 wt. % CaO + MgO + FeO that can react with CO2 to form carbonates.
• Two technologies for carbon mineralization in basalt:• CarbFix project, Iceland: Dissolve CO2 in water at depth.
• Wallula project, Washington: inject supercritical CO2.
Mineral Carbonation Reactions
Gas dissolution: CO2(g)+ H2O = H2CO3(aq)
Acid dissociation: H2CO3(aq) = HCO3- + H+
HCO 3- = CO 32- + H+
Mineral dissolution:
Olivine: Mg2SiO4 + 4H+ = 2Mg2+ + SiO2 (aq) + 2H2O
Clinopyroxene: CaMgSi2O6 + 4H+ = Ca2+ + Mg2+ + 2SiO2(aq) + 2H2O
Plagioclase: CaAl2Si2O8 + 2H+ + H2O = Ca2+ + Al2Si2O5(OH)4
Carbonate precipitation: (Ca2+,Mg2+,Fe2+) + CO32- = (Ca,Mg,Fe) CO3
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Natural carbonation of basalt, Harrat Rahat
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Calcite filling intergranular porosity in basaltic agglomerate
Calcite coating fractures in basalt
Wallula Pilot Project
• Injected supercritical CO2 ~ 900 m depth
• Requires cap rock (vertical seal)
From McGrail et al. (2011, 2014, 2017)
Columbia River Basalt field
PacificOcean
Post-injection CT scan of sidewall core showing synthetic ankerite in vesicles
Wallula pilot well
CarbFix Project, Hellishedi GP, Iceland
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From Gislason et al., 2018
• Downhole dissolution of CO2-rich gas in water. Solution is denser than pure water and sinks into aquifer.
• Requires permeable aquifer.
• May work for flue gas, no need to capture and concentrate CO2
• Also mineralizes H2S or SO2 as sulfide minerals
CarbFix Project, Hellishedi Geothermal Field, Iceland
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Core with synthetic CaCO3
From Gislason & Oelkers, 2014
CO2 Solubility in water
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From: Hussein Hoteit, using CMG-GEM simulator.
Calculated using Henry’s law constants reported by Weiss et al. (1974)
Major industrial CO2 emissions on the west coast
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Yanbu Industrial city
Rabigh Petrochemical and cement plants
Jeddah-Sho’aiba P&WD plant
Jizan Economic City and Shuqaiq P&WD plant
CO2 disposal: Requirements for CarbFix
• Water saturated basalts > 500 m thick.
• Permeability: matrix permeability in interflow tuff layers & volcaniclastic rocks + fracture permeability in joints
• Supply of fresh or seawater.
• Proximity to fixed CO2 source.
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A “typical” basalt lava flow
500 m
Gisalson and Oelkers, 2014; McGrail et al. (2003)
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Distribution of Harrat lava fields (grey) showing volcanic vents (red dots)
ArabianShield
NubianShield
Sedimentaryrocks
Harrat Fields
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Tuff ring crater in Harrat Uwayrid
Distal basalt flows in paleovalley
H + V joints
Tuff
Lava
Quarry in a Quaternary cinder cone, Harrat Rahat, exposing internal stratification of basaltic tephra.
Alignment of monogenetic volcanoes over dikes
Feeder dikes
Aligned cinder cones
basalt
Eroded edge of 30 My old basalt, Harrat Hadan
Dike-fed Pleistocene volcanoes, Harrat Ash Shama
Primary volcanic structural trends for each Harrat in Saudi Arabia
North-Southern direction
North-Eastern direction
North-Western direction
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N 0֯
N 28֯ E
N 30֯ W
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Highest elevations are located west of the
Harrat Rahat: elevation showing en-echelon N15W trend of volcanic vents
E-W section across Harrat Rahat
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Basement
West East
Escarpment
Monogeneticvolcanoes
Lava flows
23Elevation base of basalt Basalt thickness
Basalt is thickest along axis of monogenetic volcanoes
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Water wells
Elevation of water table
Harrat Rahat: elevation of water table
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Vertical exaggeration is 10
W E
Harrat Rahat: E-W section showing water table
Harrat Rahat: vesicular basalt with corroded augite megacrysts
Harrat Rahat: basaltic lithic tuff
A B
Harrat Rahat
• A build-up of basaltic lavas along three right-stepping en-echelon N15W trends of monogenetic volcanoes (MMN volcanic line).
• Not a graben.
• Located near fixed CO2 emissions from Jabal Rokham, Rabigh and Al-Madinah.
• Pyroclastic rocks along axis, lava flows away from axis.
• Meets thickness requirement in 3 areas. Maximum thickness ~800m.
• Contains fresh water aquifer, maximum height 225m.
• Does not meet all Carbfix requirements, candidate for spCO2injection
Harrat Ash Shama: topography and structure
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Saudi Arabia
Jordan
Syria
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Harrat Ash Shama: tuff rings and cones
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Harrat Ash Shama: thickness
Harrat Ash Shama: Summary
• A large composite lava field extending from Saudi Arabia NW to Syria.
• Four separate build-ups of lava along NW trending, left-stepping en-echelon trends of monogenetic volcanoes.
• Maximum basalt thickness of 1200 m in Jabal Druz (Syria) which may be suitable for the CarbFix process.
• In Saudi Arabia, the basalt is <300 m thick, and its base is higher than the water table: unsuitable for the CarbFix process.
• The maars/tuff rings which penetrate the basalt field are potential leakage points for any injected fluids.
Harrat Lunayyir, <0.5 MY old
• Located on Arabian Shield, astride Red Sea escarpment
• Basalt fills modern wadis, < 75 m thick.
• High and dry location: unsuitable for carbon mineraliation.
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Harrat Hadan: Highly dissected syn-rift (Oligocene) basalt field
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Map showing elevation of top lava flows
Cross section
Harrat Hadan: tilted towards normal fault
Oligocene Jizan Group
• The Jizan Group is a section of hydrothermally-altered Oligocene volcanics which filled the southern part of the proto Red Sea continental rift.
• Fills antithetic half grabens up to several kilometers thick.
• Bimodal basalt-rhyolite composition, and heavily invaded by subvolcanic intrusions (sheeted basalt dikes, layered gabbro and granite) 30-22 Ma.
• Consists mainly of continental basaltic volcanics, interlayered with volcaniclastic sediments and fossiliferous lake beds.
Main Ethiopian rift, looking south: Graben is being filled by volcanics and volcaniclastic sediments similar to the Jizan Group. Analogue for the continental rift in the Red Sea (Schmidt et al., 1983)
Ethiopian Plateau
Somalian Plateau
Volcanoes
Volcanic dammed lakes
Oligocene JizanGroup volcanics
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ArabianShield
Pz
Mz
Jeddah
OligoceneJizan Group
Jizan
Jizan Economic City
Shuqaiq P&WD plant
ShoaibaP&WD plant
Pz
HarratHadan
Jizan Group: Geologic Cross Section
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Jizan Group: Jabal Sita
Tilted dike
Tilted basaltic lava and tuff
Dikes
Jizan Group: Sheeted basalt dikes
Jizan Group: Early carbonate-filled fractures and late open fractures
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Jizan Group: Hydrothermally-altered basaltic tuff
Jizan Group: Hydrothermal carbonation
Basement
Photomicrograph of vesicular
porphyritic basalt from the
Jizan Group, Jabal Sita, plane
polarized light. Chlorite (Chl)
lines vesicles and fractures,
which are filled with calcite
(Cc). Plagioclase laths (Plag)
partly replaced by chlorite.
Potential for Carbfix Process in the Jizan Group
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• The Jizan Group is well suited for carbon mineralization because:○ the geologic setting is favorable and well known,○ there is a large volume of basalt which is accessible for injection at
various depths,○ the location is in close proximity to sources of CO2 and SO2 in Jizan
Economic City and Shuqaiq P&WD plants, ○ seawater is available for injecting CO2 into the basalt reservoir.
Basement & pre-rift
sedimentary rocks
Miocene-Pliocene sedimentary rocks salt
Potential for CO2 disposal from Shoaiba power/desalination plantin the Jizan Group
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Jizan Group – Simulation of a 3D sector model by Hussein Hoteit
Snapshots for calcite precipitation in the matrix (left) and in fractures (right) after 20 years of injection
Ultramafic rocks:Terranes and Ophiolite belts, Arabian Shield
Nehlig, 2002, GeoArabia v. 7, 102-124
Disposal in ultramafic rocks: Jabal ThurwahOphiolite
CenozoicSedimentary
rocks
ArabianShield
Ophiolite
Basalt lava flow
Red Sea
RabighPetrochemical
Cement plant
Jabal Thurwah ophiolite near two sources of CO2:1- Rabigh Petrochemical complex2- As Safwa cement plant
Jabal Thurwah Ophiolite: Magnesite-filled fractures in serpentinized peridotite
Close up of magnesite fractures in peridotite
Jabal Thurwah and Cement Plant
Harrat Rahat
Alluvialfan
Cementplant
Peridotite
Potential CO2 disposal in Jabal Thurwah peridotites
1. In situ disposal in peridotite-sourced fanglomerates.2. Ex situ mining and industrial process.
Conclusions
• Most of the Harrat basalt fields are not suitable for carbon disposal due to insufficient thickness and groundwater saturation.
• Harrat Rahat has the best potential due to thicker basalts, a groundwater table, and proximity to industrial emitters.
• The best potential is in continental rift volcanics of the Jizan Group under the southern Red Sea coastal plain:• The geologic setting is favorable and well known.
• There is a large volume of basalt which is accessible at various depths.
• Located in close proximity to CO2 sources in Jizan Economic City and Shuqaiqpower/desalination plants.
• Seawater is available for injecting CO2 into the basalt reservoir
• Potential for combining CO2 disposal with geothermal energy production.
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Challenges
• Availability of water of injection and environmental impacts
• Uncertainties about geologic setting of some areas.
• Reactivity of hydrothermally-altered basalts.
• Identifying “sweet spots” & characterizing fracture permeability.
• Engineering challenges (e.g., corrosion and sulfate precipitation).
• Technologies for disposal in serpentinized peridotites