The CEMENTEGRITY project seeks to develop and test better materials for sealing wellbores exposed to CO2 stored in underground reservoirs.
Such materials should 1) prevent leakages from forming; 2) demonstrate self-healing behaviour when leakages do form; 3) have a smaller environmental footprint than currently used materials.
The leakage of CO2 through or along wellbores has been identified as one of the main challenges to secure underground CO2-storage. Currently used materials for sealing wellbores are commonly based on Ordinary Portland Cement, and the integrity of these materials can be a vulnerability during CO2-injection and -storage. Leakages may form through the cement, or along the cement-steel or cement-rock interfaces, as the result of chemical, thermal, or mechanical effects.
In order to successfully develop improved sealing materials, we need to identify critical properties that will ensure seal integrity. We also need to develop practical methods for measuring these properties under realistic conditions, and models that can be used for extrapolation. The CEMENTEGRITY project will perform experimental research that addresses the chemical, thermal and mechanical mechanisms that may damage wellbore integrity during CO2-injection and -storage on a range of different sealant material compositions. We will support this experimental work with numerical modelling. Through these activities, we will identify key properties that ensure long-term integrity of wellbore sealing materials, and we will also identify suitable methods for measuring these properties. The findings can then be applied when developing new sealing materials for CO2-storage, to ensure the long-term integrity of underground CO2-storage reservoirs.
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