Session: 13-02: Carbon Capture & Cleaner Fossil Fuel Technologies

Paper Number: 138636

138636 - Propositional Logic for Geohazards Assessment Associated With Carbon Geological Storage 

Abstract: 

Propositional Logic for Geohazards Assessment Associated with Carbon Geological Storage

Soroush Roghani, Shen-En Chen, Nicole Braxtan and Navanit Shanmugam

Abstract

Geoengineering has been suggested as the critical defense strategy for adverse climate effects due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-induced climate changes. The two approaches in geoengineering include Solar Radiation Management (SRM) and Carbon Dioxide Reduction (CDR). In particular, CDR using Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) has a strong connection to ground engineering practices and may result in severe geohazards that need to be investigated during and after carbon injection and any countermeasures should be implemented as early as possible.  CCUS starts from the capture and compression of CO₂ at the power or cement plants into super-critical liquids and transport them to injection sites for permanent storage.  While engineers are actively looking for more carbon utilization, majority of the captured CO2 will end up returning to the ground.  Hence, carbon geological sequestration is a critical part of CCUS and geohazards resulting from carbon injection can be critical due to the complex geoengineering processes. To ensure safe injection and permanency in sequestration, site monitoring schemes may be deployed and may include geophysical monitoring, which is a critical technology that can help detect site condition changes and possible systemic failures that may result in geohazards.  However, there has been very little discussion about the limitations of geophysical testing and environmental monitoring on geohazard prediction. It is important to recognize that some of the geoengineering activities may take years or decades to deploy and to show effects to the climate that goes well into the distant future (hundreds of years later).  Hence, the challenge would be for the project managers and subsequent investigators to identify and quantify the risk causation of the geoengineering activities and establish risk mitigation strategies. Propositional logic can be useful in rationalizing the connection between geoengineering process and the likely geohazards and also when the geoengineering projects resulted in cascading or compounded failures.  This study lays out the potential geohazards considered in geoengineering, specifically during CCUS activities and suggested the use of truth table analysis to tease out the potential hazardous scenarios due to geoengineering failures. For georisk detection, the simple truth table analysis is based on the analysis of “affirmative” (Yes) of “negation” (No) logical statements of detection of failures. “Affirmative” statement means that the outcome is true (failure exists), whereas “negation” means the outcome is not true (no failure). The georisks associated with failures in the geoengineering activities can be categorically identified as: Pressure system failure (P), geosystem failure (Q); geophysical monitoring failure (R), ground lift (S), and atmospheric CO₂ in surrounding air increase (U). Truth tables for permutations up to Triple failure scenarios are presented using the 2010-2012 carbon WAG (Water Alternating Gas) injection at Citronelle oil field in Alabama, USA, as a case study. The monitoring results schemes at Citronelle resulted in five different failure categories and with five different propositional connectives, the Truth Table resulted into 800 failure scenarios. By allowing additional conditions such as eliminating the case of CO₂ released back into the atmosphere, the outcomes are reduced to 360 scenarios.

Presenting Author: SOROUSH ROGHANI University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Presenting Author Biography: PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering- Infrastructure and Environmental Systems (INES) Major
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Research on Energy & Environment Topics:
Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage, Risk and Environmental Impact Assessment, Battery Fire Safety, Heat Transfer and Thermo-Fluid, GHG Emissions Control, Techno-Economic Analysis, and Feasibility Study.

Authors:

SOROUSH ROGHANI University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Shenen Chen University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Nicole Braxtan University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Navanit Shanmugam University of North Carolina at Charlotte