Research: Geochemistry of Geological Carbon Storage

Geological carbon storage offers a means of managing anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. My research combines physical modelling with field based, petrological and geochemistry research projects in order to better understand the behaviour of carbon dioxide in crustal reservoirs. Much of this work focuses on understanding fluid-flow and fluid-mineral interactions in natural accumulations of carbon dioxide in the Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains, USA.

Understanding the performance of fault and reservoir seals, and the sequestration of carbon in carbonate minerals, is crucial for prediciting the long-term performance of storage sites. I examine the long-term behaviour of faults as either barriers or conduits to the flow of carbon dioxide by studying temporal changes in the geochemistry of U-series dated carbonate mineral veins, deposited in carbon dioxide degassing faults. I employ element and isotope geochemistry, petrology and physical modeling of carbon dioxide rich groundwater systems and exhumed reservoirs to quantify the rates of fluid-mineral reactions, that stabilize stored carbon dioxide and control the mobilization of potentially harmful trace elements.

As part of the NERC research consortium CRIUS I am using measurments of fluid and gas geochemistry from small-scale carbon dioxide injection experiments into depleted oil-fields to constrain the short-term fluid-mineral reactions and two-phase flow behaviour that occurs during carbon dioxide storage and injection for enhanced oil recovery.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Kampman, N., Burnside, N. M., Shipton, Z. K., Chapman, H. J., Nicholl, J. A., Ellam, R. M. & Bickle, M. J., (2012). Pulses of carbon dioxide emissions from intracrustal faults following climatic warming. Nature Geoscience, 5, 352-358, doi: 10.1038/NGEO1451

Wigley, M., Kampman, N., Dubacq, B. & Bickle, M., (2012). Fluid-mineral reactions and trace metal mobilization in an exhumed natural CO2 reservoir, Green River, Utah. Geology, doi: 10.1130/g32946.1.

Kampman, N., Bickle, M., Galy, A., Chapman, H., Zhou, Z., Dubacq, B., Wigley, M., Warr, O., Sirikitputtisak, T. & Ballentine, C., (2011). Short-Term CO2-Fluid-Mineral Interactions in a CO2 Injection Experiment, Wyoming. Mineralogical Magazine, 75 (3), 1149 

Kampman, N., Bickle, M., Becker, J., Assayag, N. & Chapman, H., (2009). Feldspar dissolution kinetics and Gibbs free energy dependence in a CO2-enriched groundwater system, Green River, Utah. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 284, 473-488, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2009.05.013


 

Figure 1 a) Crystal Geyser, Green River, Utah. b) Carbonate travertine deposits at Crystal Geyser, Utah. c) Carbonate mineral veins, Salt Wash Graben, Utah



 

 


Publications: 2006-Present

Last updated on 09-May-12 14:46