An Enhanced Carbon Capture and Storage Process (e-CCS) Applied to Shallow Reservoirs Using Nanofluids Based on Nitrogen-Rich Carbon Nanospheres

Abstract

The implementation of carbon capture and storage process (CCS) has been unsuccessful to date, mainly due to the technical issues and high costs associated with two main stages: (1) CO2 separation from flue gas and (2) CO2 injection in deep geological deposits, more than 300 m, where CO2 is in supercritical conditions. This study proposes, for the first time, an enhanced CCS process (e-CCS), in which the stage of CO2 separation is removed and the flue gas is injected directly in shallow reservoirs located at less than 300 m, where the adsorptive phenomena control CO2 storage. Nitrogen-rich carbon nanospheres were used as modifying agents of the reservoir porous texture to improve both the CO2 adsorption capacity and selectivity. For this purpose, sandstone was impregnated with a nanofluid and CO2 adsorption was evaluated at different pressures (atmospheric pressure and from 3 × 10−3 MPa to 3.0 MPa) and temperatures (0, 25, and 50 °C). As a main result, a mass fraction of only 20% of nanomaterials increased both the surface area and the molecular interactions, so that the increase of adsorption capacity at shallow reservoir conditions (50 °C and 3.0 MPa) was more than 677 times (from 0.00125 to 0.9 mmol g−1).