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Battelle lands $6 million worth of energy projects
RICK ADAMCZAK
Special to the Legal News
Published: January 3, 2013
Giant Columbus research facility Battelle has secured approximately $6 million worth of energy projects from the U.S. Department of Energy and the World Bank.
The research will be used to address carbon management and oilfield-produced waters.
“These new awards illustrate our continued success in this area. In addition, most of these projects involve unique public-private partnerships — these government research projects develop technologies that without federal funding may not be developed,” said Marty Toomajian, president of Battelle’s Energy, Environment and Material Sciences Global Business.
The projects demonstrate continued advancement of Battelle’s subsurface resource management offerings to address complex energy and environmental challenges related to production and use of fossil fuels, he said.
“Battelle experts have managed and safely executed more than $100 million worth of carbon capture and storage field programs during the last five years,” said Toomajian.
One of the projects addresses subsurface brine disposal.
The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, chose Battelle’s proposal for assessment of subsurface disposal of oilfield brine under its unconventional resources program.
Battelle will address the growing demand for subsurface brine disposal from oil and gas production in the Northern Appalachian Basin in Ohio and neighboring states during the next two years.
The work includes compiling geological and reservoir data, developing geologic models from well logs and seismic data, and carrying out advanced reservoir and geomechanical simulations to better understand the geologic setting, reservoir dynamics, geomechanical issues and subsurface effects of brine disposal.
The Department of Energy also has selected Battelle for two projects dealing with carbon dioxide utilization and storage. The projects are co-funded by The Development Services Agency’s Ohio Coal Development Office for promoting clean use of Ohio coals.
The first project is “Systematic Assessment of Wellbore Integrity for Geologic Carbon Storage Using Regulatory and Industry Information.”
It will review well records to determine categories of well integrity based upon well age, construction methods and materials.
That information will be linked to field observations of well construction and pressures.
The project will help researchers understand and mitigate risk factors to facilitate the use of CO2 in enhanced oil recovery and storage in geologic formations. The project also is receiving funding and support from the oil and gas industry.
The second project will develop and validate simplified modeling tools that would assist project developers, risk assessors, modelers and regulators in carrying out rapid feasibility and risk assessment of CO2 sequestration projects. Battelle is collaborating with Stanford University on the project.
Meanwhile, Battelle has been selected by The World Bank Group to provide consulting services to assist China Power Infrastructure Co. for exploration of CO2 storage options from a coal-fired power plant in China’s Sichuan Basin.
The project will utilize Battelle’s CO2 storage and utilization expertise that’s been developed over the last 15 years in a country with very rapidly growing CO2 emissions. Battelle is collaborating with WorleyParsons and Chinese Geological Survey on the project.
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