IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/greenh/v12y2022i2p321-331.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Downwind dispersion of CO2 from a major subsea blowout in shallow offshore waters

Author

Listed:
  • Curtis M. Oldenburg
  • Yingqi Zhang

Abstract

Growing interest in offshore geologic carbon sequestration (GCS) motivates risk assessment of large‐scale subsea CO2 well blowouts or pipeline ruptures. For major leaks of CO2 from wells or pipelines, significant fluxes of CO2 may occur from the sea surface depending on water depth. In the context of risk assessment of human health and safety, we have used previously simulated coupled well‐reservoir and water column model results as a source term for dense gas dispersion of CO2 above the sea surface. The models are linked together by one‐way coupling, that is, output of one model is used as input to the next model. These first‐of‐their‐kind coupled flow results are applicable to assessing the hazard of CO2 to people at and downwind of the sea surface location of emission. Hazard is quantified by plotting the downwind dispersion length (DDL), which we define in the study as the distances from the emission source to the point at which the emitted CO2 has been diluted to 5% and 1.5% in air by volume. Results suggest that large‐scale blowouts in shallow water (10 m) may cause hazardous CO2 plumes extending on the order of several hundred meters downwind. Details of the modeling show DDL has a maximum for windspeed (at an elevation of 10 m) of approximately 5 m/s, with smaller DDL for both weaker and stronger winds. This is explained by the fact that wind favors transport but also causes dispersion; therefore there is a certain wind speed that maximizes DDL. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Curtis M. Oldenburg & Yingqi Zhang, 2022. "Downwind dispersion of CO2 from a major subsea blowout in shallow offshore waters," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 12(2), pages 321-331, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:greenh:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:321-331
    DOI: 10.1002/ghg.2144
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.2144
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/ghg.2144?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antonio P. Rinaldi & Victor Vilarrasa & Jonny Rutqvist & Frédéric Cappa, 2015. "Fault reactivation during CO 2 sequestration: Effects of well orientation on seismicity and leakage," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 5(5), pages 645-656, October.
    2. Kerstan J Wallace & Timothy A Meckel & David L. Carr & Ramón H Treviño & Changbing Yang, 2014. "Regional CO 2 sequestration capacity assessment for the coastal and offshore Texas Miocene interval," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 53-65, February.
    3. A. Mazzoldi & D. Picard & P.G. Sriram & C.M. Oldenburg, 2013. "Erratum to ‘Simulation‐based estimates of safety distances for pipeline transportation of carbon dioxide’," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 3(4), pages 309-310, August.
    4. Alberto Mazzoldi & David Picard & Papagudi G. Sriram & Curtis M. Oldenburg, 2013. "Simulation‐based estimates of safety distances for pipeline transportation of carbon dioxide," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 3(1), pages 66-83, February.
    5. Curtis M. Oldenburg & Lehua Pan, 2020. "Major CO2 blowouts from offshore wells are strongly attenuated in water deeper than 50 m," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(1), pages 15-31, February.
    6. T.A. Meckel & A.P. Bump & S.D. Hovorka & R.H. Trevino, 2021. "Carbon capture, utilization, and storage hub development on the Gulf Coast," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 11(4), pages 619-632, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Onyebuchi, V.E. & Kolios, A. & Hanak, D.P. & Biliyok, C. & Manovic, V., 2018. "A systematic review of key challenges of CO2 transport via pipelines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2563-2583.
    2. Sikandar Khan & Yehia Khulief & Abdullatif Al-Shuhail & Salem Bashmal & Naveed Iqbal, 2020. "The Geomechanical and Fault Activation Modeling during CO 2 Injection into Deep Minjur Reservoir, Eastern Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-17, November.
    3. Samin Raziperchikolaee & Vivek Singh & Mark Kelley, 2020. "The effect of Biot coefficient and elastic moduli stress–pore pressure dependency on poroelastic response to fluid injection: laboratory experiments and geomechanical modeling," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 10(5), pages 980-998, October.
    4. Moon, Won-Ki & Kahlor, Lee Ann & Olson, Hilary Clement, 2020. "Understanding public support for carbon capture and storage policy: The roles of social capital, stakeholder perceptions, and perceived risk/benefit of technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Ramon H. Trevino & Susan D. Hovorka & Dallas B. Dunlap & Richard C. Larson & Tucker F. Hentz & Seyyed A. Hosseini & Shuvajit Bhattacharya & Michael V. DeAngelo, 2024. "A phased workflow to define permit‐ready locations for large volume CO2 injection and storage," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 14(1), pages 95-110, February.
    6. Callas, Catherine & Saltzer, Sarah D. & Steve Davis, J. & Hashemi, Sam S. & Kovscek, Anthony R. & Okoroafor, Esuru R. & Wen, Gege & Zoback, Mark D. & Benson, Sally M., 2022. "Criteria and workflow for selecting depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs for carbon storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:greenh:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:321-331. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)2152-3878 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.