(23b) Techno-Economic Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Assessment of the CO2-EOR Operations on Farnsworth Unit

The processes involved in the capture, transportation and injection of CO₂ for use as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique and for storage have operational units/processors which may generate GHG emissions which are not captured or accounted for. This paper will present a full life cycle assessment (LCA) of the GHG emissions of the CO₂-EOR operations on Farnsworth Unit located in Ochiltree county, Texas, USA.

Methods, Procedures, Process

Two scenarios would be presented in this paper; the paper would first consider LCA of current operational conditions of the FWU (utilizing field data provided by the operators). Here CO₂-EOR processes with and without gas separation would be considered. secondly, a number of optimized operational conditions based on the LCA results from the first scenario will also be employed. Based on the operator’s new operational strategy and number of years to continue injection, a forecast of the injection and production activity through a simulation work would be conducted. The second Scenario would be applied to this forecast and LCA of the GHG conducted. Finally, economic analysis for all scenarios with respect to technology and operational units would be assessed.

Results, Observations, Conclusions

Net Emission factors (in kgCO_2e/bbl. of crude produced) and mass emissions (kgCO_2e) of GHG would be presented for the various operational units within the FWU boundary. Comparison with current FWU operational conditions and the optimized cases would be presented. This would be in terms of net emission factors, net mass emissions and net storage. Results of Economic analysis of all scenarios would also be emphasized to best describe the feasibility of all proposed optimized cases. The idea here will be to optimize conditions to minimize to the barest minimum net emissions and maximize net storage of CO₂. Thus, units including but not limited to energy sources, compressors and pumps, artificial lifts, land use/construction activities, produced fluid processing and storage facilities would be factored.

Novel/Additive Information

This paper in its entirety would provide an insight to operators of CO₂-EOR (more specifically to FWU) on key unit processes which contributes to GHG emissions, and possible areas of optimization to increase net CO₂ storage with minimal/reduced net GHG emissions.