Iwanohara Demonstration Test Site
Brief description:
Comments
Facts:
A CO2 storage demonstration project was conducted in the south-west of Nagaoka City, in Japan, in order to obtain data on the behaviour of CO2 in an onshore aquifer. The project was carried out by the Japanese research agency, RITE, which was granted temporary use of Teikoku Oil's Minami-Nagaoka gas field.
Injection of CO2 into the reservoir, which was just over 1km underground, began in July 2003 at a rate of 20 tonnes per day. This was increased to 40 tonnes per day during 2004. Injection was completed in January 2005 after a total of 10,405 tonnes of CO2 had been sequestered - and without any problems being detected other than repairs needed to the CO2 supply plant in early 2004, and suspension of injection due to CO2 supply shortage and an earthquake occurrence.
Data analysis was reported to have demonstrated the feasibility of CO2 geological storage at an aquifer site of relatively low permeability. Understanding of CO2 and reservoir behaviour was also said to have been significantly advanced by the surveys and tests as well as by a monitoring and simulation study during and after CO2 injection. The relevance of existing technologies was demonstrated in a range of processes, including well excavation, design and construction of an injection facility, injection, monitoring, and simulation studies.
Earthquake impact
The impact of the Mid-Niigata Chuetsu earthquake on storage and the condition of the wells, reservoir and injection facility was studied and tested by various methods, including geophysical logging and seismic wave tomography, and the evaluation of well-bottom pressures (measured during the earthquake). The project concluded that the facility remained intact after the earthquake, and injection was resumed.
RITE (Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth) project information
Storage: