The Demo-CO2 project: Monitoring and comparison of two shallow subsurface CO2 leakage experiments with gas tracer associated in the carbonate vadose zone

A shallow CO2 injection experiment was performed on a pilot site near Bordeaux, France, in February 2015. A gas mixture composed of approximatively 90% CO2 and 5% of each He and Kr as gas tracers was injected through a vertical well, with low injection rate, at 1.80 m depth and into the carbonate vadose zone. A set of geochemical monitoring tools was installed in order to monitor the developing gas plume and to allow comparison between this experiment and a former release experiment which used a higher flow injection was made. Measurement showed a heterogeneous spatial and temporal variation of the gas plume. Difference in time arrival of peak concentration of He, Kr and CO2 confirmed that diffusion alone did not occur in the porous media. Former studies mentioned advective flow drove through preferential paths. Both advection and diffusion flow may have been observed in the experiment. It also shows that the difference in molecular weights and the heterogeneity of the limestone could lead He to be used as a temporal tracer, and Kr as a spatial tracer as it allows us to estimate the extent of CO2 plume. The ratios between the various gas components also indicate that a sizeable amount of CO2 could be consumed before it reaches the subsurface, meaning that the vadose zone could be a buffering zone to CO2 leakage. The comparison between this experiment and a former one with different injection condition revealed that the presence of advection is dependent of the heterogeneity of the limestone. However, the injection rate induces the amount of gas diffusing or/and advecting. Observations from both, our recent and a previous leakage experiment and future laboratory experiment could improve our understandings of the buffering zone and help to foresee CO2 leakage for future storage site. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.