Innovations

Click on each innovation button to access a summary of the research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL.

You can also access the full innovations report: SECURe Milestone M9_Innovations

 

 

Innovation 1:
synergies of environmental baseline strategies		 Innovation 2:
multi-tracer gas fingerprinting		 Innovation 3:
isotopic ratio of methane in soil gas		 Innovation 4:
UAV-based CO2 sensor		 Innovation 5:
gas source based microbial sensors
Innovation 6:
leakage detection of heavy metals		 Innovation 7:
fracture leak rate prediction to validate flow sensors		 Innovation 8:
noble gas downhole sensor		 Innovation 9:
possible well cement failures		 Innovation 10:
remediation of leakage using silicate gels

 

 

 

 

 

Innovation 1: synergies of environmental baseline strategies (UK and Canada sites) (linked to D3.3)

Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

  • a field campaign (Grenoble, France, October 2019), allowing a suite of monitoring techniques to be trialled and tested
  • samples for testing and analysis of clumped isotopes for a bacteriological study (GEUS, BGS) allowing design recommendations to optimise environmental baseline strategies

    •  

     

     

     

    Innovation 2: integrated multi-tracer fingerprinting of gas and fluid migration (linked to D3.6)

     

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • investigated the combination of a large set of gas (C, H and O isotopes on alkanes and CO2) and groundwater isotope fingerprints (O, H, C, S, Sr, B, Li isotopes) for local Environmental Baseline Assessment (EBA) around shale gas exploration/exploitation boreholes will be for the Danish Vendsyssel site (subtask 3.1.4)
    • demonstrated the potential of multi-isotope studies in areas of complex and multiple gas and salinity sources where less comprehensive approaches will lead to ambiguous conclusions
    • used multi-isotopic data from mud gas upon drilling down to 3600 m depth to be able to identify the depth at which eventual surface-near stray gas originates

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 3: methodology optimisation for methane and higher hydrocarbons concentrations/isotopic ratio measurements in groundwater and soil gas (linked to D3.6)

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • analysed samples collected in the French Subalpine Chain site gas seeps (October 2019 campaign) (Lerouge et al., 2020)
    • conservation of thermogenic gases in surface-near, partially weathered claystones suggest that these measurements may provide access to shale gas fingerprints, provided that secondary processes, for example alkane oxidation can be measured and, ideally, corrected
    • direct outgassing, upon weathering, of thermogenic methane will also be taken into account when assessing the environmental baseline in areas where the shale-gas bearing formations outcrop directly as contribution to the geogenic gas background values
    • technology will be demonstrated on the French SE sedimentary basin shale gas play (currently under moratorium) as a relevant environment

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 4: UAV-based CO2 sensor (linked to D4.1)

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • BGS's fixed-wing drone with CO2 sensor was flown at a test site in the UK in June and August 2019 and successfully recorded background CO2 levels
    • the main purpose of the outing was to test operation of the prototype system in flight and to determine baseline levels at the site; there was no controlled gas release
    • undertook test flights of the TOTAL rotary drone with the CO2 and CH4 sensors at natural gas seeps in the French Alps in October 2019; on-site telemetry suggests that the UAV sensors successfully recorded gas emissions

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 5: gas source based microbial sensors (linked to D4.6)

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • combined culture and molecular biology-based techniques to determine the source (thermogenic/biogenic) of methane; this is particularly useful in those instances where wet gas:dry gas ratios and isotope work give confflicting results
    • the advantage of a microbial approach would enable the detec- tion of microbial methanotrophs at the time of sampling ground water, which may be able to indicate intermittent leakage in the recent past, but which are not leaking at present
    • optimised methods for field sampling and preparation methods, testing of carbon sources for best diagnostics and data analysis

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 6: a tool for the detection of potential leakage (rate) of high heavy metal concentrations (linked to D4.7)

     

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • analysis of elemental mobilisation during the interaction of Bowland shale with simulated fracturing fluids through quantitative determination of geochemical fluid compositions from batch reactor experiments
    • chemical pathways in the subsurface following introduction of fluids are regulated mainly by pH and temperature, which mobilises potentially harmful contaminants
    • undertook bench-top batch experiments combined with thin section elemental mapping; manuscripts are being written up for publication

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 7: fracture leak rate prediction to validate flow sensors (linked to D4.4)

     

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • an existing general purpose open source flow solver has to be modified to suit a particular flow scenario: this is a labour-intensive process that, although possible, can require specialist IT hardware in terms of computing size and speed so the current TRL level for these predictive models is considered TRL 2
    • developed open-source libraries for the OpenFoam software environment, which are online and publicly available

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 8: noble gas downhole sensor (linked to D4.8)

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • conducted field testing of the noble gas downhole sensor and surface cabin and related infrastructure (including chromatographs) at the SIG Geo-1 borehole (Switzerland) during February 2020, obtaining full capacity and part-capacity samples from ~400 m below ground level
    • analysis and estimation of gas/water ratios and volumes of inert gas: the composition of dissolved gases has been verified
    • Preliminary results have been discussed with the subcontract partner

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 9: study possible failures of well cement (linked to D5.1)

     

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • Main research questions:
      • Are we able to fracture cement in a field relevant way?
      • Can we mimic what would happen in a field setting when cement fails? — the main issue in the field is the cement cannot be reached
    • used a mini wellbore simulator to fracture cement and surrounding rock by pressurising casing and the recipe for sealant was distributed among SECURe partners to conduct multi-laboratory testing

     

     

     

     

    Innovation 10: remediation of leakage using silicate gels (linked to D5.2)

     

    Research undertaken as part of SECURe to advance TRL:

    • the main research question:
      • using silicate gels to remediate well leakage was only tested in a sandstone setting where slow/weak remediation was possible; larger fractures were tested as part of SECURe, which requires a high concentration of silicate gels
      • this presents practical problems on the well site, in order to get the gel into the fractures without solidifying before reaching optimal placement
    • used a laboratory-based mini wellbore simulator (described in D5.2) to test a large fracture in the middle of a cement core at a concentration low enough for the gel to be fluid
    • tests were conducted to slowly up the silicate gel concentration to seal leakages