LSU Petroleum, Mechanical Engineering Professors Developing Leakage Sensor for CCS Sites, CO2 Pipelines
November 27, 2023
BATON ROUGE, LA – Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a way of reducing carbon emissions
by capturing the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by power generation or industrial activity;
compressing and transporting it via pipelines, trucks, or ships; and then storing
it deep underground in geological formations, such as saline aquifers or depleted
oil and gas reservoirs. While CCS has proven to be mostly safe, there is always a
chance of leakage.
Thanks to a nearly $500,000 experimental grant from the LSU Institute for Energy Innovation, LSU Craft & Hawkins Department of Petroleum Engineering Assistant Professor Jyotsna Sharma is leading a team of researchers that includes LSU Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Manas Gartia and collaborators at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to develop a distributed fiber-optic sensor (DFOS) to monitor CO2 leaks and structural integrity in CCS sites and CO2 pipelines.
“The use of distributed fiber-optic sensors for leak and structural integrity monitoring is very attractive since a single cable can provide spatially- and temporally-continuous measurements and also enable seismic profiling along the entire length of the fiber with no additional electronics in the optical path,” Sharma said.
The DFOS is smaller than 1cm in diameter and is lightweight, allowing for a quick response time to a leak. Its flexibility also enables easy retrofitting on several kilometers of pipelines and wellbores.
“These wells and pipelines are so long that we need large-scale sensing,” Sharma said. “If we have a 5,000-ft. fiber, we have a 5,000-ft. sensor, which gives us a big advantage over regular CO2 point-sensors that only measure one location. If we know where it’s leaking, we can do something about it.”
Gartia is working on the synthesis of nanomaterials that will be sensitive to CO2. He and Sharma plan to coat the nanomaterials on the surface of the DFOS after removing the cladding.
“The synthesis of nanomaterials will be using a chemical synthesis process,” Gartia said. “We will try out a few different nanomaterials to find the optimum material suitable for achieving the best sensitivity and stability for the sensing application.”
Sharma says packaging of the sensor before deploying it into a well will be important.
“We want to make sure the coating on the fiber lasts for several years,” she said. “The longevity of the sensor will be something we need to evaluate.”
Sharma and Gartia will demonstrate the sensor performance experimentally in low- and high-pressure flow loop facilities and the 5,163-ft. deep wellbore at LSU’s PERTT Lab, as well as demonstrate the sensor in a CCS field site through their partnership with Shell, one of two industry collaborators on this project.
“We have two industry collaborators on this project—Shell and Air Products,” Sharma said. “Hopefully, having them will help us commercialize it and demonstrate it in the field. The idea of having partners is that we can learn and improve on the project because nothing is perfect the first go-round. We’re very excited to work with them.”
Like us on Facebook (@lsuengineering) or follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@lsuengineering).
###
Contact: Libby Haydel
Communications Manager
225-578-4840
ehaydel1@lsu.edu
Latest College of Engineering News
- Computer Science PhD Student First to Receive Competitive AwardApril 25, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - LSU Computer Science Ph.D. student Ruxin Wang is the recipient of the highly competitive 2024 Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Rising Stars Award, making her the first-ever LSU student to receive the honor. She is also the first female LSU student to publish a first-author security paper at one of the Big 4 Security conferences.
- LSU Mechanical Engineering Professor Designs Toxic Chemical SensorApril 24, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - LSU Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Manas Gartia is leading a team of researchers in designing a novel electrochemical sensor that will detect toxic chemicals in the environment. This sensor will help with environmental research, public health testing, and PFAS containment and alarm system.
- Wang Receives NSF CAREER Award, Research Addresses Privacy Concerns in VideoconferencingApril 18, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - Since the pandemic, our primary means of interacting have evolved to include video conferencing applications, which are broadly used to connect geographically distant people for work, school, and even socially. During these interactions, it's not uncommon for a user to turn off his or her microphone and/or camera out of concern for privacy. However, microphones and cameras can still leak other kinds of information beyond what is seen and heard through "micro signals," which are too tiny for humans to recognize but detectable by machines.
- LSU Civil, Environmental Engineering Researchers Study Coastal Wetland Root DynamicsApril 16, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - A team of LSU researchers led by LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Navid Jafari (principal investigator) and LSU CEE Research Assistant Mohamed Hassan (co-PI) recently received a $50,000 National Science Foundation I-Corps grant to commercialize its algorithms in studying root productivity in Louisiana wetlands. A second grant was awarded by the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), which is part of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., that allows the team to use X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans to study these roots.
- LSU, Delaware and Johns Hopkins Researchers Examine the Mechanics of the Human BrainApril 4, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - Faculty from LSU, the University of Delaware, and Johns Hopkins University are collaborating on a project that may help us better understand how fast or slow mechanical forces deform the brain during events such as falls and car crashes. Having this understanding is critical to developing computer models for predicting brain injury, as well as designing safer personal protective equipment and brain injury management and prevention strategies.
- LSU Mechanical Engineering Professor Researches Biodegradable, Metal-Free BatteriesApril 1, 2024BATON ROUGE, LA - Each year, Americans throw away more than 3 billion batteries, creating 180,000 tons of hazardous waste. Imagine how many more are discarded throughout the world. Thanks to a $50,000 grant, LSU Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Ying Wang is exploring biodegradable, metal-free batteries that will be more sustainable in the medical field and less harmful on the environment.