isramart: Raytheon Tests Carbon Sequestration

isramart report:
Raytheon Tests Carbon Sequestration
By Kevin Ferguson

Raytheon says it is testing a leak-proof method of keeping sequestered carbon dioxide buried deep in the ground — using some of the same technology it developed to increase production of oil from shale.

The latest sequestration method involves encasing the gas in gel, pumping it underground, and then heating it with microwaves until the gel solidifies. The extraction technology, for its part, involves heating the shale with microwaves before pumping liquid carbon dioxide into the formations to separate kerogen, an organic precursor of oil, from the rock.

In both instances, Raytheon partnered with CF Technologies of Hyde Park, Mass. CF Technologies specializes in so-called supercritical fluids, substances that share properties of both liquids and gases when subjected to high pressure and temperature. Carbon dioxide is commonly used as a supercritical fluid.

The oil-from-shale technology, which Raytheon says yields four or more barrels of oil for every barrel expended in the process, was sold in January to Schlumberger, an oilfield services provider based in Houston. Conventional methods typically yield half as much, Raytheon said.

The potential is huge. The largest known oil-shale deposits in the world are in the Green River Formation, which covers portions of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a 2005 RAND report. Estimates of the recoverable oil resources within the Green River Formation range from 500 billion barrels to 1.1 trillion barrels, according to the report.

The paradox of using similar technology to both release oil and sequester carbon dioxide is not lost on John Cogliandro, a senior program manager at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems unit in Tewksbury, Mass., which is heading the project. “It’s a good business,” Mr. Cogliandro said. “If the U.S. was able to get energy from shale here, we could cease our imports.” At the same time, more land could be used for CO2 sequestration, including earthquake-prone tracts of earth, he added. “Now that CO2 sequestering is in vogue, they pump CO2 down into the ground, cap the well, and then run away and hold their breath,” Mr. Cogliandro said of competing sequestration methods. “If the topology is right, it will stay there. But if there is an earthquake, it may seep out very slowly — or not so slowly.”

Raytheon envisions the sequestration technology being used at depleted shale fields and abandoned oil wells in the United States, Mr. Cogliandro said. “Our chemistry works well there.”

But he added that the American market for CO2 sequestration is slow. “I think that the U.S. market will form, but it is behind the European market,” he said. As such, Raytheon is looking at “other types of geological formations where this would work well,” including in Europe and Asia.

In any case, it will be at least a few years before Raytheon’s sequestration method has any impact. “The process has not been tested at a commercially representative scale, and is still considered high risk, however, and therefore requires further development before it can be fielded,” Mr. Cogliandro said.