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

• Main Authors: Elizabeth Rodriguez Acevedo, Farid B. Cortés, Camilo A. Franco, Francisco Carrasco-Marín, Agustín F. Pérez-Cadenas, Vanessa Fierro, Alain Celzard, Sébastien Schaefer, Agustin Cardona Molina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-06-01
• Series: Materials
• Subjects: adsorption; carbon capture and storage process (CCS); carbon dioxide; nanofluids; nanoparticles and shallow reservoirs
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1944/12/13/2088

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).