Carbon Dioxide Storage in Shale: An Experimental Evaluation

During carbon dioxide (CO2) injection in oil shale reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery operations, a volume of the injected CO2 can be stored in the shale reservoir. This is highly advantageous in many ways, including the increase in oil recovery associated with the CO2 injection, and the ability to reduce CO2 emissions from the injection process by storing a volume of the injected CO2 downhole. This research studies the storage potential of a shale sample from the Kansas Basin for CO2 storage and the impact of some of the factors on the storage capacity. The adsorption was measured using the pressure differential method (volumetric) using a specially designed setup. The void space between the shale particles was measured initially and was then used in the adsorption calculation. Results showed that the shale sample had a reasonable CO2 adsorption capacity, at different thermodynamic conditions