Reducing carbon dioxide emissions with enhanced oil recovery projects: A life cycle assessment approach

A wide range of industries are investigating methods of reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide(CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous pride (N2O). Several options have been identified ranging from energy efficiency and reforestation to capture and storage in oceans, aquifers, or underground. Although greenhouse gases are not yet regulated, the power generation and petroleum industries are already considering greenhouse gas capture and storage methods to reduce their emissions to the atmosphere. Preferred options are the ones utilizing CO2 as a product and therefore providing an additional economic benefit to the oil and gas production process. Currently, CO2 is widely used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects to extract more oil out of aging reservoirs: Thus, storage of CO2 in active reservoirs does not require technology advances and offers the advantage of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. The present research conducted a life cycle assessment to determine the benefits derived from staring CO2 in active reservoirs while enhancing the,extraction of oil and the impacts on the environment over the process lifetime. The potential for CO2 storage in: a specific oil reservoir in Texas was demonstrated, as well as the mass balance of greenhouse gas emissions generated from the energy-intensive process. Our findings suggest that the storage capacity of this reservoir is huge,the process emissions are minimal in comparison, and the EOR activity is almost carbon-neutral when comparing net storage potential and gasoline emissions from the additional oil extracted.