Status: AWARD END DATE: 08/31/2024

Background:

Characterization of deep-water Gulf of Mexico salt domes and proximal sediments for storage of hydrogen & sequestration of CO2

Deep-water hydrocarbon production facilities over salt bodies in the Gulf of Mexico offer significant opportunities to be expanded or repurposed for liquid and gas storage, CO2 sequestration, and energy transition purposes (please see Figure below). There is substantial promise for offshore energy processing and storage in various forms as well as hydrocarbon and renewable energy production. However, there are many aspects of offshore salt bodies and associated facilities that require characterization and consideration.

For example, hydrogen has only several underground storage facilities worldwide – all on land. What are the offshore challenges? While there are several operational marine CO2 sequestration sites, the advantages and limitations of offshore salt bodies and surrounding sediments is early in their evaluation. We are thus motivated to undertake this investigation into characterizing salt domes and their surrounding sediments for storage and sequestration possibilities for a variety of gases and fluids. We will continue investigation of CO2 marine injection sites (Sleipner and Volve, North Sea; Tiber, Gulf of Mexico) to improve the process of integrating seismic surveys and well logs to better image and monitor gas injections and sequestrations. Using both the physical modeling and offshore field data, we will develop enhanced seismic inversion methods and machine learning techniques to augment lithologic mapping, interpretation of salt and sub-salt structures, and elucidation of saturation changes and flow. Repeated injection/depletion cycles associated with natural gas, CO2, or hydrogen storage are important and detailed reservoir characterization will be conducted to build models for these varying processes. We will also conduct scaled physical surveys over salt body models in the lab before and after CO2-saturation to generate time-lapse effects for further imaging and analysis. These primary data will be instructive in developing algorithms and processing flows to delineate salt boundaries, internal structures and proximal sediments as well as develop our ability to recognize gas-saturation signatures.

Developing Methods of Producing and Processing Marine Algae to Biocrude

About 76% of the global warming is caused by CO2 emission from different industries including many petroleum refineries located in Gulf of Mexico and other human activities. Many carbon capture technologies have been developed to mitigate global warming. The green technologies such as fresh and marine Algae Carbon Capture (ACC) are getting more attractive due to possibility of producing different products like biocrude, biochar and proteins. It has been estimated that about 1.6 to 2.0 ton of CO2 is captured for every dry ton of algal biomass. Abundant sea water available in coastal area could be used to produce marine algae sustainably. Developing the proposed method of producing and processing marine algae to biocrude will help to mitigate CO2 from different industries in Gulf of Mexico and use the biocrude to produce biofuels using existing petrochemical infrastructure.

Extending the Life of Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico for Profitable New uses in Power and Hydrogen Generation in Preparation for the Energy Transition

The work on this project will be carried out under the umbrella of Project SHOWPLACE (Storing Hydrogen from Offshore Wind Power for Load-balancing and Carbon Elimination) - an Industry-Government-Public-Academia Collaborative Demonstration Project, led by the University of Houston UH Energy program. The project envisions repurposing offshore oil and gas infrastructure (platforms, wells, pipelines, and power transmission) for energy transition uses, such as power from wind, solar and wave energy sources, green hydrogen generation and storage, thus extending the life of such offshore infrastructure for two decades or more. With hundreds of platforms and hundreds of miles of pipelines, the Gulf of Mexico offers significant opportunity to leverage this infrastructure to create low carbon energy projects. This project will help the industry stakeholders develop a deeper understanding of the potential for such projects, as well as the associated challenges and changes needed to advance them.

Industry Impact

Characterization of deep-water Gulf of Mexico salt domes and proximal sediments for storage of hydrogen & sequestration of CO2

We are bringing together four strong geoscience and engineering groups at University of Houston (UH) plus substantial industry interaction which promise to bring transformational results to the offshore energy industry. The work will have major impact on the preparation and planning for future marine energy and effluent storage in the Gulf of Mexico in addition to extending offshore asset life, enhancing its integrity via monitoring, and assisting with the integration of renewable energies.

Developing Methods of Producing and Processing Marine Algae to Biocrude

The benefit of developing this process is multiprong which include: Using marine algae to sequester GHG could be used by different existing industries (petrochemical, natural gas/coal powerplant and others) located in the Gulf of Mexico coastal areas that release significant amount GHG in the atmosphere.

1. Sea water is widely available in coastal area and using them to produce marine algal biomass will be sustainable.
2. Developing the close loop integrated process will efficiently recycle the soluble waste stream rich in nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, minerals, hydrolyzed protein and carbohydrates) produced in FH process will help to efficiently managing the soluble liquid stream.
3. produce renewable biocrude using HTL process can be used in existing petroleum refinery infrastructure in Gulf of Mexico producing drop in biofuels benefit environment and reducing our dependence of fossil fuel.
4. Producing co-products such as biochar and HTL aqueous stream (rich in mineral and nutrients) could be used as soil amendments increasing soil organic carbon and plant growth promoting ingredients respectively benefiting agriculture

Extending the Life of Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico for Profitable New uses in Power and Hydrogen Generation in Preparation for the Energy Transition

The results of this project have the potential to guide new investments in low carbon energy projects, resulting in multiple pathways of benefits for the US GOM region. Offshore operators and regulatory bodies will stand to benefit from continued revenue generation from installed infrastructure through low carbon energy projects. A significant portion of the decommissioning expenditure can be delayed by a decade or two. The skilled workforce in the oil and gas sector can be productively employed beyond the end of the oil and gas phase of this infrastructure. And most importantly, the offshore GOM infrastructure will play a critical role in supplying low carbon energy to the population centers along the Gulf Coast.

Project Objectives

Characterization of deep-water Gulf of Mexico salt domes and proximal sediments for storage of hydrogen & sequestration of CO2

We will use our world-class laboratories and teams at UH to undertake core measurements, scaled salt body surveys (please see photographs below), algorithm development, and offshore field data analysis for substantial energy and environmental benefits.

Subsurface storage and sequestration begins with gas, fluid, and rock properties. Thus, we will conduct novel and difficult experiments on salt and salt-proximal sediments while saturating them with CO2, helium, and hydrogen to better understand their flow, elastic, and mechanical behavior (lab photos below).

Developing Methods of Producing and Processing Marine Algae to Biocrude

Marine microalgae sequester greenhouse gases such as CO2 and use them as carbon source to build their body mass comprising of carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins. Several cultivation methods have been developed to produce marine algal biomass using sea water and used as sustainable feedstock for producing biocrude. Here, we propose to develop a cost-effective method of producing marine microalgae Nannochloropsis gaditana contain (35-40% lipids) using sea water in a vertical tubular reactor system. The cultivated algal will be separated after flocculation by changing the pH and sedimentation. After de-watering, the algal slurry (10-15 wt %) will be pumped through a continuous flow-through hydrothermal Flash hydrolysis (FH) skid mount reactor. The FH processes results in breakdown algal cell wall producing hydrolyzed slurry comprising of soluble and insoluble streams. The insoluble algal stream is rich in lipid and soluble algal stream comprised of hydrolyzed peptides and carbohydrates. The insoluble stream will be subjected Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) to produce biocrude and biochar. The soluble algal liquid stream will be used as growth media for cultivating N. gadiatana effectively managing the waste stream. Our preliminary studies have shown that the lipids content in the insoluble stream has been increased from 33.5% in N. gadiatana to 65.5 wt. % (dry weight) and the ash content has been reduced by 70%. Further, HTL processing insoluble algal stream produce 69% biocrude, 2% biochar and remaining 29% are converted to aqueous phase, gases, and losses.

There are four major objectives for the proposed project to achieve the project goal.

1. Evaluate the feasibility of growing N. gadiatana algal biomass using recycled FH nutrients, flocculate, and separation.
2. Perform FH hydrolysis of N. gadiatana algal biomass slurry (10-15 wt.%).
3. Process the insoluble algal solid stream generated in FT process to biocrude using HTL process and characterize their chemical properties.
4. Determine the mass and energy balance for the proposed integrated process using reported procedures.

Extending the Life of Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico for Profitable New uses in Power and Hydrogen Generation in Preparation for the Energy Transition

1. Phase 1: High grading existing infrastructure locations in Texas GOM for potential life extension. Deliverables: LCOE and LCOH maps for the Texas Gulf of Mexico; Ranked list of existing infrastructure locations with a high potential of life extension.
2. Phase 2: Concept Optimization Studies for high-graded locations. Deliverable: Integrated system model; optimized concept for each high graded location.

Tasks:

Task 1: Characterization of deep-water Gulf of Mexico salt domes and proximal sediments for storage of hydrogen & sequestration of CO2

• Goal 1: Laboratory saturants and rock elastic properties (10% complete)
• Goal 2: Physical modeling surveys (3% complete)
• Goal 3: CO2 time-lapse field studies (15% complete)
• Goal 4: CO2, He flow tests (3% complete)
• Goal 5: Time-lapse algorithm development and interpretation (5% complete)

Task 2: Developing Methods of Producing and Processing Marine Algae to Biocrude

• Goal 6: Develop method of growing N. gaditana algal biomass in tubular photobioreactor (45% complete)
• Goal 7: Identify the best auto-flocculation and dewatering method to produce 10-15 wt. % algal (0% complete)
• Goal 8: Perform FH hydrolysis at varying solids loading (0% complete)
  • Goal 8.1: Evaluate the quantity of solid and liquid stream (50% complete)
• Goal 9: HTL process to produce biocrude using Insoluble FT solid stream (Not started)
  • Goal 9.1: Measure the chemical composition of biocrude using spectroscopy methods (Not started)
  • Goal 9.2: Calculate the energy and mass balance of the integrated process (Not started)

Task 3: Extending the Life of Offshore Oil and Gas Infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico for Profitable New uses in Power and Hydrogen Generation in Preparation for the Energy Transition

• Goal 10: High grading existing infrastructure locations in Texas GOM (100% complete)
  • Goal 10.1: Resource Mapping (100% complete)
  • Goal 10.2: Use Case Development (100% complete)
  • Goal 10.3: LCOE and LCOH Mapping (100% complete)
  • Goal 10.4: Final Report on Goal 10 and White Paper draft (100% complete)
• Goal 11: Conducting Concept Optimization Studies
  • Goal 11.1: Model Design and Set Up (25% complete)
  • Goal 11.2: Concept Optimization Studies (10% complete)
  • Goal 11.3: Final Report and White Paper on Goals 10 and 11 (0% complete)

Gantt Chart:

Publications:

• Modeling the Production of Microalgal Biomass in Large Water Resource Recovery Facilities and Its Processing into Various Commodity Bioproducts
• Developing Methods of Producing and Processing of Marine Microalgae to Biocrude