SINTEF AS
3490 Klokkarstua, Norway

STORAGE

SVELVIK CO2 FIELD LAB (NO3.12)

Svelvik CO2 Field Lab

Svelvik CO2 Field Lab is a small-scale laboratory in an easily accessible geological environment, which fills the gap between bench laboratory experiments and pilots. Due to its size, the controlled environment, and the potential of repeatable experiments, the field laboratory provides excellent possibilities to perform rapid and cost-efficient development and testing of CO2 monitoring methods and equipment.

The laboratory is established in the glaciofluvial-glaciomarine Holocene deposits of the Svelvik ridge and occupies a non-active part of a sand and gravel quarry in the outer part of Drammensfjorden, about 50 km south-west of Oslo in Norway. Down to approximately 30 m, the test site consists of unconsolidated to weakly consolidated sand. Below, rather heterogeneous, and interlayered sand, silt and clay layers in varying proportions exist, displaying a large span of porosity and permeability.

 

The field laboratory consists of an injection well and four monitoring wells. The injection well is designed for injecting water and/or CO2 at 64-65 meters depth. Tracers may be added to the CO2 stream. The four monitoring wells are 100 m deep and positioned at the corners of a rhombus with the injection well (#2) in the centre. The monitoring wells are located 9.9 m (M3 and M4) and 16.5 m (M1 and M2) from the injection well. 

Areas of research

Areas of research at Svelvik CO2 Field Lab include different aspects related to CO2 monitoring and leakage detection:

  • Development and testing of seismic and non-seismic techniques
  • Quantitative CO2 monitoring including pressure and saturation determination
  • Fibre optic-based monitoring including testing of new cables, interpretation of recorded signals, and comparison with conventional methods
  • Surface detection methods for CO2 leakage
  • Testing tracers for CO2 storage and leakage detection

Installations

Instrumentation of monitoring wells

The monitoring wells are completed with PVC casing and instrumented behind the casing with:

  • Capillaries for pore pressure measurements at three different depths, including the injection depth
  • Capillaries for water sampling at the depth of injection
  • Sensors measuring pressure and temperature at the depth of injection
  • Electrodes for electrical resistivity tomography (ERT)
  • Commercial fibre optic cables from SOLIFOS: Straight DTS (Distributed Temperature Sensing), DSS (Distributed Strain Sensing) and DAS (Distributed Acoustic Sensing)
  • Fibre optic cables provided by Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory (LBNL): Straight (DSS and DAS) and helical (DSS and DAS).

The interior of the wells is available for non-permanent monitoring equipment as the permanent instrumentation has been installed behind the casing. For instance, seismic P- and S-wave borehole sources may be used together with 3C borehole receivers or hydrophone chains, creating high resolution seismic cross-well data sets. The collocation of conventional seismic receivers and DAS cables will provide additional opportunities for the development and testing of fibre optic cables and processing techniques for this type of data. The inside of the wells will also be available for development and testing of future monitoring systems.

Fibre optic cable installation

The commercial fibre optic cables are thin and flexible and could therefore be installed in a continuous loop through all four wells without splicing. Terminated ends are located inside an instrument cabin. While the DTS cable consists of four multi-mode fibres; two 50 mm and two 62.5 mm fibres, the DSS and DAS cables are composed of one and four single-mode fibres, respectively.

The straight cable from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is a standard tactical fibre cable, whereas the helical cable is constructed using optical fibres wound at a 30° angle on a low durometer central mandrel. Both cables are relatively thick and stiff and had therefore to be cut off at the well-ends. To facilitate looping comparable to the commercial cable installations, the fibres inside the cables were spliced at the well-ends, creating down- and upgoing branches, connected at the well bottom. The cables will be looped in a future project.

State of the Art, uniqueness & specific advantages

Svelvik CO2 Field Lab enables cost-efficient studies of quantitative CO2 monitoring methods and technology where high-quality data can be acquired under controlled conditions; where pressure and CO2 saturation can be varied independently; where a cross-well setup yields clean data undisturbed by "outside" or surface effects; and where experiments are repeatable as CO2 is not stored permanently in the subsurface. Svelvik CO2 Field Lab is unique as no other test sites can offer this combination.

Scientific Environment

Skilled scientists and technicians are available to assist visiting researchers, both on-site and remotely. One experienced person from SINTEF will be on-site as the on-site HMS manager during the project execution. Only trained SINTEF personnel are allowed to operate the injection infrastructure.

SINTEF has implemented and maintains a quality management system that fulfils the requirements of the standard NS-EN ISO 9001:2008 within research and development in materials technology, advanced materials and nanotechnology, applied chemistry and biotechnology, oil and gas, and green energy and process industry.

Operating by

SINTEF AS

SINTEF AS
Norway
STORAGE technologies:
Pressure/injection, Migration, Caprock/well integrity, Leakage, Monitoring
Research Fields:
Geology/Geophysics, Mechanics/Geomechanics, Remote sensing, Monitoring, Modelling
Facility's fact sheet

Location & Contacts

Location
3490 Klokkarstua, Norway
Contacts
Cathrine Ringstad
RICC Contacts - Secondary contact
Rune Bredesen

Facility Availability

Day
Unit of access (UA)
Day
Availability per year (in UA)
180 AU (days)
Duration of a typical access (average) and number of external users expected for that access
Duration about 2 - 4 weeks (14 - 28 days)
Average number of external users expected for typical access
Number of external users: 3 - 4

Quality Control / Quality Assurance (QA)

Activities / tests / data are
Controlled: ISO 9001

Operational or other constraints

Specific risks:
Instructions are necessary in order to reduce operational risks. One experienced person from SINTEF will always be on-site as the on-site HMS manager. Only trained SINTEF personnel are allowed to operate the injection infrastructure. Most important risks are related to handling of equipment brought by external users and possible CO2 leakages from the CO2 tank and injection system. Users must adapt to local security and HMS instructions.
Legal issues
Access to the labs of SINTEF is dependent on compliance to all relevant procedures and policies of the institute relating to HSE and protection of the intellectual property.

CCUS Projects

Other CCUS Projects
ERA Net Co-fund
ACT project Pre-ACT Pressure control and conformance management for safe and Efficient CO2 storage - Accelerating CCS technologies
CLIMIT-Demo Idea study
2019
DAS/DSS/DTS data acquisition at Svelvik CO2 Field Lab
Research Council of Norway - Centre for Environment-friendly Energy Research NCCS Norwegian CCS Research Centre
2016-2024
Industry-driven innovation for fast-track CCS deployment
Master Thesis at NTNU
2018
Modelling medium-depth CO2 injection at the Svelvik CO2 Field Laboratory in Norway
EU-Funded CCUS Projects
H2020
SECUREe Subsurface Evaluation of CCS and Unconventional Risks
H2020 RIA
ECCSELERATE

Selected Publications

European Geoscience Union EGU, General Assembly 2020, online 4 – 8 May (2020)
Tracer Design and Gas Monitoring of a CO2 Injection Experiment at the ECCSEL CO2 Field Lab, Svelvik, Norway.
Weber, U. W., Heeschen, K., Zimmer, M., Raphaug, M., Hagby, K. F., Ringstad, C. and Sundal, A.
European Geoscience Union EGU, General Assembly 2020, online 4 – 8 May. (2020)
Effects of geological heterogeneity on fluid distribution and pressure propagation in a shallow, stacked aquifer system at the ECCSEL Svelvik CO2 Field Lab, Norway
Sundal, A., Grimstad, A.-A., Weber, U. W., Kurschner, W., Hagby, K. and Ringstad, C.
Abstracts and proceedings of the Geological Society of Norway. The 34th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting, 8 – 10 January 2020 in Oslo, Norway. (2020)
A CO2 monitoring experiment for pressure-saturation discrimination at the new Svelvik CO2 Field Lab.
Eliasson, P., Jordan, M., Ringstad, C., Raphaug, M. and Hagby, K.
Abstracts and proceedings of the Geological Society of Norway. The 34th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting, 8 – 10 January 2020 in Oslo, Norway. (2020)
Hydrogeological characterization of Holocene deposits in the Svelvik aquifer – implications for reservoir properties
Sundal, A., Weber, U.W., Kürschner,W.M., Grimstad, A.-A., Ruden, F., Aagaard, P., Hagby, K., Revheim, M. and Ringstad, C.
Abstracts and proceedings of the Geological Society of Norway. The 34th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting, 8 – 10 January 2020 in Oslo, Norway. (2020)
Gas Composition of the Svelvik Ridge Aquifers Used to Design Noble Gas Tracers for a CO2 Injection Experiment.
Weber, U. M., Raphaug, M., Revheim, M., and Sundal, A.
Abstracts and proceedings of the Geological Society of Norway. The 34th Nordic Geological Winter Meeting, 8 – 10 January 2020 in Oslo, Norway. (2020)
Tidal effect on pressure in upper and lower aquifer of the Svelvik Ridge
Revheim, M.K., Weber, U.W., Falk Hagby, K., Ringstad, C. and Sundal A.
Presented at Trondheim CCS Conference, 17 – 19 June 2019 (TCCS-10) (2019)
Svelvik CO2 Field Lab: A small-scale laboratory for development of equipment and CO2 monitoring techniques
Ringstad, C., Jordan, M., Eliasson, P., Grimstad, A.-A., Hagby, K., Schmidt-Hattenberger, C., Weinzierl, W., Wiese, B. and Wüstefeld, A.
Poster at Trondheim CCS Conference, 17 – 19 June 2019 (TCCS-10) (2019)
Monitoring concept for a CO2 migration experiment at the Svelvik CO2 Field Lab
Schmidt-Hattenberger, C., Weinzierl, W., Wiese, B., Zimmer, M., Jordan, M., Eliasson, P., Ringstad, C., Hagby, K. and Wüstefeld, A.
Conference proceedings, Fifth EAGE CO2 Geological Storage Workshop, 21 – 23 November 2018, Volume 2018, p. 1-5. (2018)
Svelvik CO2 Field Lab: Upgrade and Experimental Campaign
Eliasson, P., Ringstad, C., Grimstad, A., Jordan, M. and Romdhane, A.
14th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, 21 – 26 October 2018 in Melbourne, Australia (GHGT 14) (2018)
Modelling medium-depth CO2 injection at the Svelvik CO2 Field Laboratory in Norway
Grimstad, A.-A., Sundal, A., Hagby, K.F. and Ringstad, C.
14th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, 21 – 26 October 2018, Melbourne, Australia (GHGT-14) (2018)
Re-vitalisation and Upgrade of the Svelvik CO2 Field Laboratory in Norway
Ringstad, C., Eliasson, P., Jordan, M. and Grimstad, A.-A.