Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Subsurface injection of CO2 for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery, hydraulic fracturing of unconventional reservoirs, and geologic carbon sequestration produces a complex geochemical setting in which CO2-dominated fluids containing dissolved water and organic compounds interact with rocks and minerals. The details of these reactions are relatively unknown and benefit from additional experimentally derived data. In this study, we utilized an in situ X-ray diffraction technique to examine the carbonation reactions of forsterite (Mg2SiO4) during exposure to supercritical CO2 (scCO2) that had been equilibrated with aqueous solutions of acetate, oxalate, malonate, or citrate at 50 °C and 90 bar. The organics affected the relative abundances of the crystalline reaction products, nesquehonite (MgCO3 · 3H2O) and magnesite (MgCO3), likely due to enhanced dehydration of the Mg(2+) cations by the organic ligands. These results also indicate that the scCO2 solvated and transported the organic ligands to the forsterite surface. This phenomenon has profound implications for mineral transformations and mass transfer in the upper crust.
DOI: 10.1021/es506065d
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Engineering
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: green
Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wyoming, School of Energy Resources, University of Wyoming, Office of Fossil Energy, American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund, Biological and Environmental Research, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
OpenAlex ID: W2034630914