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The goal of this project is to develop a biomineralization technology for sealing preferential flow pathways in the vicinity of injection wells. This was accomplished by characterizing an Alabama well test site, designing a protocol for and performing a field test, and evaluating the test results. The concept is based on the presence of the enzyme urease in some bacteria (i.e. Sporosarcina pasteurii) which hydrolyzes urea to form ammonium and increases pH. Urea is quite fluid and, when injected into a well, can penetrate deeply into small-aperture fractures in and around the wellbore. As a result of the bacterial activity, bicarbonate HCO3-is subsequently produced which in the presence of Ca+2 precipitates calcium carbonate (Calcite), thereby sealing the fractures into which the urea has penetrated.
Improved methods for sealing potential leakage pathways into wellbores will allow project developers to more confidently ensure that the CO2 is permanently stored in geologic formations. This contributes to better storage technology thus reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. Specifically, this project is developing and performing a field test to determine whether injection of urea and subsequent biomineralization reactions are capable of precipitating calcium carbonate (CaCO3) minerals and sealing a small aperture pathway.