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Reactive transport modeling of arsenic mobilization in shallow groundwater: impacts of CO2 and brine leakage

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Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and saline water leakage from deep sequestration reservoirs to overlying shallow drinking water aquifers is a major concern for geologic CO2 sequestration. In this study, a field-scale reactive transport model of a natural CO2 analog, the Chimayo site in New Mexico, was created to quantify water–rock–CO2 interactions and arsenic (As) mobilization responses to CO2 and saline water leakage. This study provides analyses and forecasts of the site following field observations of hydrogeological and geochemical data, and integrated calculations with combined batch experiments and reactive transport simulations of geochemical reaction kinetic parameters. The results of this study suggest that: (1) with the regional groundwater flow of 1% hydraulic gradient, the leakage of CO2 could reach to 3000 m downstream in 1000-year time scale; (2) clay minerals of the aquifer show a strong capacity to mitigate As mobilization with adsorption reactions, and within 1000-year simulation time, the aquifer sediments stabilize almost 100% leaked As; (3) the deeper brackish water is the source of As contamination of the Chimayo groundwater, and As concentration increase only appears along the fault.

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Acknowledgement

For sake of development of a modeling approach appropriate for subsurface CO2 storage sites, partial funding for this project was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) through the Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) under Award No. DE-FC26-05NT42591.

Disclaimer

This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored in part by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Ting Xiao, Brian McPherson & Wei Jia

  2. Energy and Geoscience Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA

    Ting Xiao, Brian McPherson & Wei Jia

  3. Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA

    Ting Xiao, Zhenxue Dai & Hari Viswanathan

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  1. Ting Xiao
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  2. Zhenxue Dai
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Correspondence to Brian McPherson.

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Xiao, T., Dai, Z., McPherson, B. et al. Reactive transport modeling of arsenic mobilization in shallow groundwater: impacts of CO2 and brine leakage. Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. 3, 339–350 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-017-0058-2

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