SUBSURFACE INSIGHTS LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 20j

Description

Geologic sequestration of CO2 is one of the primary proposed approaches for reducing total atmospheric CO2 concentrations. MVAA Monitoring, Verification, Accounting and Assessment) of CO2 sequestration is an essential part of the geologic CO2 sequestration cycle. MVAA activities need to meet multiple operational, regulatory and environmental objectives, including ensuring the protection of underground sources of drinking water USDWs). Anticipated negative consequences of CO2 leakage into groundwater, besides possible brine contamination and release of gaseous CO2 include a significant increase of dissolved CO2 into shallow groundwater systems and associated reduction on groundwater pH and trace metal mobilization. Cost effective techniques and technologies are needed which can detect CO2 leakage in near real time to allow for mitigation. Novel low cost autonomous hardware will be developed which will collect data which will allow for the detection of CO2 leakage in groundwater. Data from this hardware will be automatically processed to provide real time information to diverse stakeholders about possible CO2 leakage into the groundwater. In Phase I we will enhance Subsurface Insights developed prototype hardware and develop a fieldable system. We will develop and enhance methodologies which will allow for the identification of the data in terms of CO2 leakage. We will also enhance an existing cloud based data ingestion and processing system to receive and process data from the novel hardware. This system has numerous applications in groundwater monitoring, including CO2 leakage monitoring, monitoring of salt water intrusion along coastal areas, remediation progress monitoring and the monitoring of impoundment tailings and civil infrastructure.