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Caprock analysis from the Mihályi-Répcelak natural CO2 occurrence, Western Hungary

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Abstract

Caprock integrity is one of the most important factors regarding the long-term safe underground storage of CO2. As a result of geochemical reactions among the caprock mineralogy and CO2 saturated pore water, the physical properties of caprock such as porosity, permeability may change, which could affect its sealing capacity. Natural CO2 occurrences can help to understand these long term reactions under storage conditions on geological timescale. Our study area, the Mihályi-Répcelak natural CO2 occurrence, is believed to be leak-proof system on geological timescale. To identify and understand the mineral reactions in the caprocks we applied XRD, FTIR-ATR and SEM analysis of drill cores derived from the study area. The petrophysical properties of the studied rock samples were determined from the interpretation of geophysical well-logs and grain size distribution. The effective porosity (~4 %), permeability (0.026 mD) and clay content (~80 %) of the drill cores imply that the studied clayey caprocks represent an adequate physical barrier to the CO2. Our analytical results show that dawsonite has formed within the caprocks. In most cases the dawsonite crystallized after albite dissolution. This implies that CO2 or CO2-saturated brine can penetrate into the caprock resulting in mineral reactions and most likely changing the porosity and permeability of the sealing lithology. On the other hand the caprock may react as a geochemical buffer for the CO2 and, at least part of it, can be stored within the caprock as solid phase, thereby increasing the storage capacity of the system.

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Acknowledgments

The authors give thanks to the Hungarian Geological and Geophysical Institute and to Faculty of Science Research and Instrument Core Facility at Eötvös University (ELTE FS-RICF) for the use of analytical equipment. This research was supported by KMOP project nr. 4.2.1/B-10-2010-002 by the European Union and carried out in agreement between ELTE and MFGI (TTK 2461/1/2013 and MFGI 206-114/2013) with partial financing by the Hungarian—national Research Fund (K 115927 for Gy. Falus). The authors are grateful for co-operation of Zoltán Dankházi, Zoltán Szalai, Imre Magyar and Zsolt Bendő. This is the 81st publication of Lithosphere Fluid Research Lab at Eötvös University. This study was also supported by a Bolyai Postdoctoral Fellowship to IK.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lithosphere Fluid Research Lab, Eötvös University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/c, 1117, Budapest, Hungary

    Csilla Király, Eszter Sendula & Csaba Szabó

  2. Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary, 14. Stefánia út, 1143, Budapest, Hungary

    Ágnes Szamosfalvi, László Zilahi-Sebess, Péter Kónya, István János Kovács & György Falus

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  1. Csilla Király
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  2. Ágnes Szamosfalvi
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  3. László Zilahi-Sebess
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  4. Péter Kónya
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  8. György Falus
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Correspondence to Csaba Szabó.

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Király, C., Szamosfalvi, Á., Zilahi-Sebess, L. et al. Caprock analysis from the Mihályi-Répcelak natural CO2 occurrence, Western Hungary. Environ Earth Sci 75, 635 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5399-6

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