U.S. Department of Energy Efforts to Advance Remote Sensing Technologies for Monitoring Geologic Storage Operations

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is the lead federal agency for the research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) of carbon storage technologies. Monitoring, verification, accounting and assessment (MVA) is an essential element of geologic CO2 storage projects, since without MVA it is not possible to understand the fate of CO2 in the injection formation or to monitor any potential CO2 releases to underground sources of drinking water (USDW) or the atmosphere. Determining the location of CO2 in the subsurface and identifying indicators of the potential release of CO2 to the atmosphere are significant challenges requiring the adoption of existing technologies as well as novel approaches for monitoring large areas above a storage reservoir. Remote sensing technologies could offer a solution. Remote sensing refers to the use of monitoring tools that can gather data at a location remote to the area of interest, and could provide an option for non-invasive and large scale spatial monitoring. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has been developing and deploying remote sensing applications over the past decade to improve monitoring of both geologic and terrestrial carbon storage projects. MVA remote sensing tools being developed or improved by NETL sponsored research include interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), tiltmeters/GPS, remote operated vehicles (ROVs), SEQURETM, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), and multi-spectral/hyper-spectral scanning. Benefits associated with NETL's remote sensing effort include development and deployment of non-intrusive tracking and monitoring technologies, reduced manpower requirements needed to meet potential regulated MVA requirements, and reduced costs to implement monitoring technologies. These technologies can provide early detection of CO2 releases which, in turn, will allow for further refinement of project monitoring protocols using more conventional detection and mitigation technologies to better pinpoint CO2 location. This paper addresses selected remote sensing techniques under NETL development and field deployment of these technologies. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.