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At least 91 records · Page 5
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1974

The total flow concept for geothermal energy conversion

A geothermal development project has been initiated at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) to emphasize development of methods for recovery and conversion of the energy in geothermal deposits of hot brines. Temperatures of these waters vary from 150 C to more than 300 C with dissolved solids content ranging from less than 0.1% to over 25% by weight. Of particular interest are the deposits of high-temperature/high-salinity brines, as well as less saline brines, known to occur in the Salton Trough of California. Development of this resource will depend on resolution of the technical problems of brine handling, scale and precipitation control, and corrosion/erosion resistant systems for efficient conversion of thermal to electrical energy. Research experience to date has shown these problems to be severe. Hence, the LLL program emphasizes development of an entirely different approach called the Total Flow concept.

Austin, A. L.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ion Exchange Processes for CO 2 Mineralization Using Industrial Waste Streams: Pilot Plant Demonstration and Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract An attractive technique for removing CO 2 from the environment is sequestration within stable carbonate solids (e. g., calcite). However, continuous addition of alkalinity is required to achieve favorable conditions for carbonate precipitation (pH>8) from aqueous streams containing dissolved CO 2 (pH<4.5) and Ca 2+ ions. In this study, a pH‐swing process using ion exchange was demonstrated to process 300 L of produced water brine per day for CO 2 mineralization. Proton titration capacities were quantified for aqueous streams in equilibrium with gas streams at various concentrations of CO 2 (pCO 2 =0.03–0.20 atm) and at various flow rates (0.5–2.0 L min −1 ). Energy intensities for the process were determined to be between 30 and 65 kWh per tonne of CO 2 sequestered depending on the composition of the brine stream. A life cycle assessment was performed to analyze the net carbon emissions of the technology which indicated a net CO 2 reduction for pCO 2 ≥0.12 atm (−0.06–−0.39 kg CO 2 e per kg precipitated CaCO 3 ) utilizing calcium‐rich brines. The results from this study indicate the ion exchange process can be used as a scalable method to provide alkalinity necessary for the capture and storage of CO 2 in Ca‐rich waste streams.

Chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2021

PREPARATION OF CLAY-COATED GLASS SURFACES FOR MICROFLUIDICS-BASED STUDY ON CLAY-FLUID INTERACTIONS

Unique characteristics of clay, even though make any clay abundant shales a good source of adsorbed gas, make them equally difficult to produce. The clay-water interaction can cause significant swelling and fines migration in the shale formation, both of which can significantly impair the overall hydrocarbon recovery from shale. Geomaterial micromodels, developed by functionalizing traditional glass or PDMS surface with geomaterials (e.g., calcite, quartz, clay) can represent the physico-chemical properties of the natural porous media and have been used during the last few years to understand and evaluate the solid-fluid physicochemical interactions. This study focuses on developing a clay-coated geomaterial surface and investigates the effect of base fluid's salinity on clay adsorption to the glass surface. Glass capillary tubes and straight channel borosilicate glass micromodels are coated with Illite clay minerals to represent the pore-scale clay chemistry of Caney Shale, a Mississippian unconventional play in Southern Oklahoma, USA. 10 wt.% of Illite clay slurries made with brines of four different salinities are used to coat the glass-capillary tubes to understand the effect of salinity in clay adsorption on the glass surface and overall coating quality. To achieve a stable coating and evaluate the impact of heat treatment on coating's stability, straight channel glass flow cells coated with Illite clay are heat-treated at low (25 °C) and high temperature (125 °C). Dynamic flooding tests were carried out with brines on the coated surface to evaluate the stability of the coating. The experiments' outcome indicated a strong relationship between the brine's salinity and the adsorption of clay particles on the glass surface. An increase in brine concentration resulted in improved adsorption of clay particles on the glass surface. Experiments involving heat treating the glass surface following the coating demonstrated significant improvement in the stability of the coating.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pool boiling on metal-foam enhanced tube bundle: heat transfer characteristics and flow visualization

A flooded evaporator configuration is common in large central air conditioning or process cooling systems. It is basically a shell and tube heat exchanger, in which a secondary fluid (brine or water) circulates inside the tube bundle and is cooled by the vaporization of the refrigerant on the outside surface of the tubes. The enhanced pool boiling process enables the compact design of flooded evaporators, which substantially reduces the refrigerant charge. High-porosity metal foam, with a large surface-area-to-volume ratio, could provide an extended heat transfer area and a high-density of nucleation sites. This study experimentally investigated the pool boiling heat transfer and flow characteristics on metal-foam enhanced tube bundles. The enhanced bundle consists of four aluminum tubes with aluminum foam brazed around the outer surface, which are horizontally mounted in a staggered arrangement. The results showed that the metal-foam enhanced tube bundles improved the heat transfer coefficient by 100-160% with a lower wall temperature difference of 1-10°C, compared to the baseline. In addition, the tube pitch played a significant role in determining the pool boiling behavior of the tube bundles.

Yang, Cheng-Min↗
DOE OSTI2021

Impact of exposure to brine/CO 2 on the mechanical and transport properties of the Mt. Simon Sandstone

When sandstone rocks are exposed to CO 2 -saturated brine, their transport and mechanical properties can, potentially, change due to chemical reactions as a result of such exposure. This paper investigates changes in the flow-through characteristics, porosity, and the mechanical properties of Mt. Simon Sandstone samples caused by such exposure to brine/CO 2 . A core, extracted from the Mt. Simon formation, was first characterized for its porosity and relevant transport properties, and it was then aged for over 500 hr in CO 2 -saturated brine at formation-relevant pressure, temperature, and confining stress conditions. The deformation of the sample was measured in situ during aging via strain gauges attached to the core's surface. Following the aging experiment, the sample's porosity and transport properties were again analyzed. Our experiments show that both the porosity and permeability of the Mt. Simon sandstone sample increase due to exposure to brine/CO 2 , with the impact on permeability being more significant. The deformation measurements employing strain gauges indicate a weakening of the core material. Analysis of the composition of the brine at the conclusion of the testing reveals changes, specifically, an increase in the concentration of several of the cations. These changes are indicative of mineral/clay dissolution, consistent with the porosity, permeability, and strain gauge measurements.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

NRAP-Open-IAM Multisegmented Wellbore Reduced-Order Model

Geologic carbon storage is one of the promising strategies to mitigate climate change by reducing the emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. As part of the National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP), a systems-level stochastic analysis tool called the open source integrated assessment model, NRAP-Open-IAM, has been developed to estimate and manage the risk of containment loss at a geological carbon sequestration site. NRAP-Open-IAM contains several wellbore leakage model components that estimate the fluid leak rate that may occur through compromised legacy wells due to the increase in pressure resulting from CO 2 injection activities. Coupled to a reservoir component model, these components estimate the leakage of CO 2 and/or brine from a storage reservoir to overlying aquifer layers and the atmosphere through legacy wells. This report presents the theoretical framework and quality testing of the multisegmented wellbore reduced-order model. The model allows for segmenting of the legacy wells passing through the overlying stratigraphy into several intervals to simulate a site’s specific stratigraphic and hydrogeologic properties. For quality assurance, the analytical model is validated against numerical reservoir flow simulations for single and multiple aquifer(s) models. The results indicate that the model accurately predicts the transport of two-phase fluids (brine and injected CO 2 ) through the well over time. A detailed description of the model helps users to understand the model and provides a basis for future improvements.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1991

Brine volcanism and the interior structures of asteroids and icy satellites

Brine vulcanism, in which MgSO4 and Na2SO4 are shown by carbonaceous chondrite mineralogies and elemental abundances to be the most important solutes, is presently suggested to account for the resurfacing observed on such icy satellites as Europa and Ganymede, and to have been a significant factor in the evolution of chondritic asteroids. Hypersaline brines have lower viscosities than familiar silicate lavas, although they remain more viscous than pure water; aqueous sulfate flows are seen as capable of constructing the vast, low-relief volcanic plains observed on Ganymede and Europa.

Kargel, Jeffrey S.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Geologic Settings of Martian Gullies: Implications for Their Origins

Martian gullies are found on steep slopes of all origins, on all sorts of terrains of all ages, scattered across nearly all of Mars. Gullies are observed on all manner of substrates (layered, massive, shattered, rubble), with or without nearby mantling deposits. Gullies are most common in the southern midlatitudes but also occur in the northern hemisphere, in near polar terrain, on equatorial volcanoes, and on northern plains. Most gullies in the southern hemisphere are on south-facing slopes, but they occur on slopes of all orientations. Gullies are among the youngest features on Mars but locally are overlain by eolian deposits and cut by faults. Old or eroded gullies are rare, and those found have been partially stripped from slopes, leaving no rock debris behind. Most gully deposits contain no detectable rocks. These data are inconsistent with published hypotheses of gully formation, including seeps and breakouts of water or brine, hydrothermal activity, cryovolcanism, and breakouts from liquid carbon dioxide. The data are consistent with gullies being dry flows of eolian material (dust and silt), comparable to climax snow avalanches on Earth. Eolian sedimentation should be correlated little with underlying geology: cause of slope, age of terrain, type of terrain, or the nature of the rocks. Eolian sedimentation should be correlated with wind deceleration (which will cause suspended sediment to drop), and areas with common gullies are those with strong wind deceleration (predicted by global circulation model). In such areas, sediment will be deposited preferentially in the lee of obstacles; for the gully-rich areas of the southern midlatitudes, winds blow from the NNW, so that sediment is deposited on SSE-facing slopes (i.e., poleward). These predictions are in accord with observations.

Treiman, Allan H.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dataset documenting reaction-induced changes to five fractured foamed wellbore cement cores during CO2 fluid flow

This dataset consists of reconstructed CT scans for four fractured foamed cement cores, generated in the lab using Portland Class H cement, and associated processed data. The cements were exposed to reactive brines, and CT scans were take at different time points through the experiment. The CT imaging allows for the tracking of dissolution-induced changes to fracture morphology, as well as alteration and dissolution in the cement matrix.

Computed Tomography↗
DOE OSTI2021

Treatment of brackish water reverse osmosis brine using only solar energy

Post-treatment of brine produced by reverse osmosis (RO) is a great challenge as it often requires high energy input and works under extreme operating conditions. In this study, brine from a RO plant in El Paso, TX USA was successfully treated using a pilot-scale nanophotonics enhanced solar membrane distillation (NESMD) system. The novel NESMD reactor has a nanophotonic membrane surface area of 0.2 m 2 and an internal heat recovery system to recover the latent heat released during vapor condensation. By utilizing a sweeping gas operational mode under real solar irradiation (585–827 W m -2 ), the NESMD realized successful desalination of RO brine with the membrane flux reaching 0.45–0.65 kg m -2 h -1 and total dissolved solids (TDS) removal greater than 99.5% without an external heat condenser. The decrease in the feed flow rate to the evaporation channel of the NESMD system led to an increase in the gained output ratio (GOR) from 0.35 to 0.62. We report to the best of our knowledge, this is the largest photothermal reactor utilized for the desalination of real RO brine under practical solar irradiation. Compared with conventional brine treatment processes that require high temperature or pressure, the NESMD desalinates RO brine at near-ambient temperature and pressure with free solar energy, providing a promising approach for water desalination, and RO brine post treatment.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Advanced Brine Processing to Enable U.S. Lithium Independence (CRADA Report)

Current production of LiOH, which is needed to make Li-ion battery cathode active materials, utilizes a multistep process including solar evaporation, precipitation with Na 2 CO 3 and then conversion to LiOH using Ca(OH) 2 . This process requires a large amount of land area for solar evaporation, the right weather conditions, and chemicals for the conversion process that result in NaCl and CaCO 3 waste products. The production of Ca(OH) 2 is very energy intensive and evolves significant quantities of CO 2 . An alternative process flow utilizing direct lithium extraction techniques, followed by a chemical free conversion process can have benefits in reducing the needed land requirements and chemicals for traditional brine processing. There are many potential direct lithium extraction technologies that are currently being developed. The direct lithium extraction process from typical brine sources will produce a LiCl solution with some impurities including typically high concentrations of Na. This brine then needs to be converted to LiOH for use in battery cathode production. Ideally this conversion could occur without the use of additional chemicals. Electrochemistry can do this conversion either via electrolysis or bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPED) to produce LiOH and HCl in solution. BPED utilized bipolar membranes to split water, which has a reduced potential as compared to splitting water at electrodes into hydrogen and oxygen gas. This reduced potential required results in a significant energy savings for BPED over electrolysis methods. This CRADA project aimed to develop such an integrated process using direct lithium extraction followed by BPED to produce a LiOH solution. That solution can then be crystallized into battery grade LiOH. In particular, Albemarle utilized a direct lithium extraction process to produce a concentrated LiCl solution that could be used for the BPED process. The BPED process was first tested using various LiCl solutions with impurity ions added at bench scale to understand the effects of impurities and determine processing parameters. Then testing was performed using the direct lithium extracted brine at the bench scale before scaling the process up. After the process was scaled up a long duration test was carried out to estimate the lifetime of the membranes, which is key to the economics of the BPED process.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sealing of fractures in a representative CO 2 reservoir caprock by migration of fines

The impact of fines migration on fracture transmissivity reduction was investigated by injecting a brine solution containing a suspension of 0.1 wt. % kaolinite particles with a mean particle size distribution of 9.6 µm through fractured shale core samples. The fractures had apertures estimated to be approximately 100 µm. A mass balance approach was used to determine the quantity of kaolinite that was deposited within the fractures (influent – effluent = amount deposited in fractures). Large fractions (44 to 90%) of the suspended kaolinite pumped through the fractures were deposited within the fractures. Based on fracture volumes estimated with X-ray computed tomography, it was determined that approximately 10 to 17% of the fracture volume was filled with kaolinite at the point when flow was completely restricted. These results indicate that 100 µm fractures in CO 2 reservoir caprocks could be sealed within hours if the brines passing through the fractures contain a proportional volume of particulates to the tests performed in this laboratory study.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

An Integrated Multiscale Experimental-Numerical Analysis on Reconsolidation of Salt-Clay Mixture for Disposal of Heat-Generating Waste (Final NEUP Technical Report)

The overall purpose of this research is to improve understanding of THMC coupling effect on the reconsolidation of granular (or crushed) salt-clay mixture used for seal systems of shafts and drifts in salt repositories. This proposed work is partially motivated by the recent work on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) that shows the promising sealing capability of clay-salt mixture compared to crushed salt. In particular, primary emphasis is to develop a fully integrated multiscale experiment-numerical study to determine and explain what leads to the superior sealing ability of the clay-salt mixture. These research activities are designed to seek further understanding of (1) why clay additives may enhance the fluid trapping and (2) whether this flow barrier effect may prevail under different combinations of temperature, confining pressure, deviatoric stress and other foreseeable environmental factors. If successful, this enhanced flow trapping ability of the seal provides significant improvement to the seal and repository performance and therefore make the repository safer in the long-term. The experiment component includes microstructural investigation and macroscopic tests on a reconsolidated salt-clay mixture. In the microstructural study, the goal is to (1) characterize microscopic distributions of distinct phases (e.g., clay, salt crystal boundaries, trapped brine, and pore) to examine the connectivity of the pore network inside the salt-clay mixture with different amounts of clay additive and moisture content and (2) analyze multiscale imaging data to reconstruct the polycrystalline microstructures for numerical simulations. Meanwhile, macroscopic tests are performed to analyze how clay alters the failure/creep mechanisms in the salt-clay mixture. Microscopic and macroscopic experimental observations will both be used to calibrate and validate a multiscale model that explicitly simulates the capillary and multiphase flow in the connected pores and the deformation due to the presence of intra-crystalline brine at the pore scale via a new polyhedral discrete element–lattice Boltzmann method (DEM-LBM) coupling model. The pore-scale simulations are homogenized via an upscaling procedure that converts pore-scale information (e.g. force exerted on grain boundary, sliding, pressure-solution) to continuum measures (e.g. Cauchy stress, Darcy’s flow) at each integration point in the macroscopic multiphase TMHC model. This multiscale scheme will allow coupling be- tween high-fidelity simulations of brine-salt-clay interaction and the macroscopic TMHC model. The multiscale model helps the understanding of how the trapped brine inclusion affects the pressure-solution mechanism with the presence of clay and moisture. This work brings new insight into the sealing capacity of salt-clay mixture under elevated temperature over a long period of time - a key to evaluating the potential of salt-clay mixture usage for salt repositories.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Strategies toward the Synthesis of Advanced Functional Sorbent Performance for Uranium Uptake from Seawater

A polymer fiber-based adsorbent (AF1) composed of acrylonitrile and itaconic acid functional groups was synthesized by a radiation-induced graft polymerization technique onto hollow-gear shaped polyethylene (PE) fibers. Investigation of the optimum reaction parameters for the conversion of grafted cyano moieties into amidoxime groups was conducted by the reaction with hydroxylamine at different temperatures and periods in a variety of aqueous and organic solvents. The 13 C CP/MAS spectra of amidoximated AF1 adsorbent fibers from water–methanol and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) revealed that both the cyclic imide dioxime and open-chain amidoxime were formed through the reaction. The conversion from amidoxime to imide dioxime was found to occur slowly and gradually with the increasing reaction time. The quicker diffusion of DMSO as compared to that of water–methanol, in the grafted trunk PE fiber, resulted in faster kinetics of the amidoximation reaction. The uranium adsorption capacity of the amidoximated AF1 samples was determined after (i) 24 h contact with sodium-based brine spiked with uranium and (ii) 56 days of exposure to filtered seawater (Sequim Bay, WA, USA) in flow-through columns. Finally, the uranium extraction performance of the adsorbents after exposure to filtered seawater was consistent with the laboratory screening results, and the amidoximated AF1 samples (in DMSO at 70 °C for 3 h) exhibited the highest 56 day uranium adsorption capacity (5.04 ± 0.15 g U/kg-ads) with faster adsorption kinetics compared to the pristine AF1 adsorbents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Modeling Contact Angle vs. Temperature for the Quartz-Water-Decane System

Innovative approaches are needed to improve the efficiency of oil recovery technologies to meet the growing demands of fossil-fuel based energy consumption. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods such as low-salinity waterflooding and chemically tuned waterflooding aim to optimize the reservoir’s wetting properties, detaching oil globules from rock surfaces and allowing easier oil flow through pore throats. This wetting behavior is commonly quantified by contact angle measurements of the rock-oil-brine interface, which have been thoroughly investigated and theorized for many systems at ambient temperatures and pressures. However, few studies exist for extending contact angle theories away from ambient conditions. In this paper, we model the contact angles of a quartz-water-decane system at elevated temperatures using the surface tension component (STC) approach. Temperature-dependent van der Waals [Lifshitz-van der Waals (LW)] interactions and hydrogen-bonding (acid-base) interactions were calculated and are incorporated into the model for the quartz-water-decane interface. Additionally, the Hough and White procedure was used to create temperature-dependent dielectric functions of quartz, water, and normal decane for calculations of Hamaker coefficients. Hamaker coefficients calculated this way are highly linear with temperature and agree well with Israelachvili’s approximation. The acid-base interactions likely contribute the most to system wettability changes. Resulting contact angles of the quartz-water-decane system shift from water-wet (16°) to slightly water-wet (57.4°) as temperature increases. The model was also successfully verified for the quartz-air-water system. Our results can be used in future studies to determine optimal injected water compositions for specific rock-oil-brine and other systems with consideration of reservoir temperature.

02 PETROLEUM↗
NASA NTRS2005

Aqueous Alteration of Basaltic Glass Under a Simulated Mars Atmosphere

For the past several years we have been performing experiments designed to produce brines under Mars-simulated conditions. Previously, we had generated and analyzed Mars-analog brines by allowing a mixture of minerals derived from SNC mineralogy to soak in pure water under a synthetic current-Mars atmosphere and under a gas similar to the present Mars atmosphere but with added acidic gases. The latest version of these experiments incubates basaltic glass, obtained from recent Kilauea flows (Mother's Day flow in December 2002), in pure water under a present-day Mars analog atmosphere at 25 C. This abstract and our presentation will discuss the composition of these Mars-analog brines and implications for Mars surface chemistry.

Bullock, M. A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

INVESTIGATION OF ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS USING GEOMATERIAL MICROFLUIDICS

Illite and Illite-Smectite clays are reportedly the Caney Shale's most prevalent clay minerals. The swelling and fines migration of clays may occur when water-based fluids contact the clay minerals. This may result in the reduction of pore space and permeability, and wettability alteration. Therefore, we quantified the swelling potentials, fines migration and wettability alteration of Illite and Illite-Smectite clays upon exposure to model brines and a produced water, and a model oil and a crude oil. We measured density, viscosity, pH, TDS, and interfacial tension as they are important in multiphase flow and displacement characteristics. Geomaterial microfluidics is recently being used to study physicochemical interactions of solid-fluid systems. It facilitates visualizing the surface behavior upon exposure to various fluids. This study includes preparation and characterization of Illite-Smectite clay-coated glass capillary tubes. Illite and Illite-Smectite clay-coated geomaterial microfluidic surfaces were prepared to investigate the effects of first contact fluid, brine salinity, and aging on wettability. In this work, advancing and receding contact angles of model brine-air, model oil-air, produced water-air, crude oil-air, model brine-model oil systems, and produced water-crude oil systems have been measured in the untreated, and clay-coated microfluidic channels of 1000 µm width and 50 µm depth. The aging effect was studied by retaining the non-aqueous and aqueous solutions in the corresponding microfluidic channels for approximately 24 h in the case of channels first contacted by aqueous and non-aqueous solutions, respectively. The advancing and receding contact angles of Caney shale-crude oil-produced water systems were also measured. The experimental findings indicate the swelling potential, fines migration, and wettability alteration of Illite and Illite-Smectite clays. The results signify the influence of first contact fluid, brine salinity, and aging on wettability of the untreated and clay-coated microfluidic surfaces. The experiments also demonstrate the wetting nature of the Caney shale samples from reservoir and non-reservoir zones.

02 PETROLEUM↗