oa Next-Generation Approaches to Monitoring Subsurface Carbon Storage

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota has conducted applied research at multiple active carbon storage projects in the states of Montana and North Dakota to evaluate and demonstrate the commercial readiness of novel carbon storage-monitoring techniques. The techniques being evaluated were designed to have a lower environmental footprint during acquisition and yield more frequent results through automated sampling and processing protocols. An overview of the various techniques and initial results will be discussed, including an automated, integrated, modular (AIM) monitoring network for monitoring multiple environments in real time; a charged-well casing electromagnetic (EM) method capable of estimating the pressure plume within the target injection zone; a low-impact active seismic sourcing method that avoids surface data gaps and produces results with data quality similar to traditional seismic acquisition methods; a scalable, automated, sparse seismic array (SASSA) for monitoring the injected plume with static sourcing; and a passive seismic surface array for imaging the injected plume using ambient noise. Initial results will highlight their advantages and effectiveness for implementation in carbon storage projects.