Carbon dioxide has been identified as one of the main compounds affecting the stability of the earth’s climate. The reduction of the total volume of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere is ...considered a key mechanism to mitigate climate change. Geological storage of CO2 in deep saline aquifers is currently a well-accepted method of storage, because saline aquifers have larger storage capacities than other geological media. Rock–water–CO2 interactions initiated in the aquifer with CO2 injection play a vital role in CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers, and include different trapping mechanisms: geological trapping, hydrodynamic trapping and geo-chemical trapping (solubility trapping and mineral trapping). Of these, geological trapping and solubility trapping are more effective in the short term, but mineral trapping is safer and more economical in the long term. Current knowledge of geochemical trapping is still at an early stage compared to other trapping mechanisms due to the extensive time required to complete the process. To date, very few studies have been conducted on sandstone reservoirs, which are considered to have the largest storage capacity among geological formations. However, due to the long-term safety of CO2 storage with geochemical trapping, there has been a recent trend to research this process. Both solubility and mineral trapping processes in saline aquifers depend on injecting CO2 and the fluid–rock mineral properties of the aquifers. Until very recently, although it was assumed that temperature, pressure, the salinity of the formation water and the mineral composition of the formation rock are the only parameters which affect mineral trapping, recent research has shown that a number of other reservoir parameters, such as layer thickness, tilt angle, anisotropy and bedding pattern may also significantly affect geochemical trapping. This review provides a comprehensive examination of the current knowledge of the geo-chemistry of solubility and mineral trapping processes in deep saline aquifers.
Fusion energy has the potential to address long-term energy requirements and climate change. However, fusion energy is characterized by a "development divide" between the International Thermonuclear ...Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium members and the non-ITER "Global South" states. It is beset with problems, which can be divided into geopolitical, geo-economic, geo-sociocultural, and geo-technological (GEO-PEST). Geopolitical problems include cooperation on fusion energy development between ITER members (of the Global North) and the Global South on fusion development. Geo-economic problems include the cost of funding ITER versus newly emerging private-sector fusion companies. Geo-sociocultural problems include the requirement to maintain the peacebuilding tradition of nuclear energy (embodied by the Cold War-era "Atoms for Peace" initiative), as well as public perceptions of radiation. Geo-technological problems include tokamak lock-in, fuel type, the viability of "compact reactors," and disruptive technology events. In this article, we outline these problems and discuss how to address them in a timely fashion via an external independent review mechanism, modeled on the International Energy Agency's "Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency," established in 2019 and due to deliver recommendations in 2020.
This study deals with the contribution of Ehden's region geo-landscape and geo-heritage to make better known the Lebanese landscape and to promote geo-tourism and landscape conservation in Lebanon. ...It tends to acknowledge the landscape as the core of the unalterable integrated relationships between geology, geomorphology, geography and tourism. The region of Ehden in North Lebanon and its surroundings is characterized by a high geodiversity along with the natural coexistence and closeness of different landscape units and geological features. It sets a great sample as a cross-section of the variety of landscapes that identify the Lebanese territory. Geo-tourism potential of Ehden's area is evidenced based on a first of its time geomorphological study of the landscape presented through this paper. A geo-heritage field assessment was conducted to localize the main geosites using ArcGIS online base-maps. Based on a regional inventory, seven geosites have been selected, assessed and valorized through a rank of most to least geo-touristic potential based on a specific assessment framework. These geosites are identified as the most characteristic and illustrative of the distinguished landscape sectors. For each geosite, one or more landscape perspectives have been detected. The selected geosites are easily perceptible both onsite and further through the extensive scenery within Ehden area and the surroundings. They are well-reserved and maintain a major role within the identity and recognition of the region through both the natural and cultural aspects. The study validates the landscape for the instrument and right tool to interpret geosites and to promote geo-tourism and geo-conservation.
The oxidation of fossil fuels produces billions of tons of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from stationary and nonstationary sources per annum, contributing to global warming. The ...natural carbon cycle consumes a portion of CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. In contrast, substantial CO2 emissions accumulate, making it the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and causing a rise in the planet's temperature. The Earth's temperature was estimated to be 1 °C higher in 2017 compared to the mid-twentieth century. A solution to this problem is CO2 storage in underground formations, abundant throughout the world. Millions of tons of CO2 are stored underground into geological formations annually, including deep saline aquifers. However, these geological formations have minute concentrations of organic material, significantly influencing the CO2 containment security, fluid dynamics, and storage potential. Examining the wetting characteristics and influencing parameters of geological formations is pertinent to understanding the supercritical CO2 behavior in rock/brine systems. Wettability is an important parameter governing the ability of injected CO2 to displace formation water and determine the containment security and storage capacity. Previously, many studies have provided comprehensive overviews of CO2-wettability depending on various factors, such as pressure, temperature, salinity, formation type, surfactants, and chemicals. However, mineral surfaces in these wettability studies are chemically cleaned, and natural geological storage conditions are anoxic (containing organic molecules) where reductive conditions ensue. A severe gap exists in the literature to comprehend the effects of organic material for determining the CO2 storage capacities and how this effect can be reversed using nanomaterial for increased CO2 storage potential. Therefore, we conducted a thorough literature review to comprehend the recent advances in rock/CO2/brine and rock/oil/brine systems containing organic material in different geo-storage formations. We also present recent advances in anoxic rock/CO2/brine and rock/oil/brine systems that have employed nanomaterial for wettability reversal to be more water-wet. This comprehensive review is divided into four parts: 1) reviewing CO2 emissions and geological systems, 2) recent advances in direct quantitative experimental procedures in anoxic rock/CO2/brine systems and effects of organic contaminations on experimental methodology and their controls, 3) effects of organics and nanomaterial in rock/CO2/brine and rock/oil/brine systems, and 4) the future outlook of this study.
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•Earth's temperature is continuously rising due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which is the main cause of global warming.•An effective solution to control global warming is to capture and store CO2 emissions in underground formations.•CO2-wettability determines residual and structural trapping potential in geo-storage formations.•Natural geo-storage formations have the presence of organic acids which substantially alter the wettability to CO2-wet.•The effect of organic acids on CO2-wettability can be reversed by the injection of nanofluids in geo-storage formations.
In H2, CO2 and natural gas geo-storage, rock-fluid interfacial tension (γrock−fluid) is a key parameter which influences pore-scale fluid distribution and reservoir-scale gas storage capacity and ...containment security. However, γrock−fluid data is seriously lacking because of the inability to measure this parameter experimentally. Therefore herein, a semi-empirical method is used to calculate γrock−fluid at geo-storage conditions. Additionally, effects of organic acid and silica nanofluid on γrock−fluid are studied. The following results are obtained. γrock−gas decreases with pressure, temperature, organic acid concentration and carbon number increase, while γrock−H2O increases with organic acid concentration and carbon number increase; γrock−gas first increases and subsequently decreases with silica nanofluid concentration increase, while γrock−H2O first decreases and then increases with silica nanofluid concentration increase; for same thermo-physical and rock surface chemistry conditions, γrock−gas follows the order H2 > CH4 > CO2. These insights provide pivotal guidance on gas geo-storage and thus aids in the implementation of a more sustainable energy supply chain.
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•γrock−gas decreases with increasing pressure and organic acid concentration.•γrock−gas first increases and then decreases with nanofluid concentration increase.•γrock−gas follows the order H2 > CH4 > CO2.
Geodiversity has tremendous geological and physical elements on the planet earth such as minerals, rocks, soils, fossils, and landforms, as well as active geological and geomorphological processes. ...Geodiversity constitutes the natural diversity for the richness of geoheritage sites and it attracts geotourism. The prime objective of this research is to identify the potentials and limitations for geo-diversity in the Jhamarkotra area, Udaipur. It's based on qualitative and quantitative information, which were collected through numerous sources such as USGS (Sentinel-2A) satellite data, Bhuvan, and in-depth literature review. All Data has been analyzed through ArcGIS, Erdas software, and bibliographical-speculative method. The Matrix of NDVI, LULC, DEM, BSI. Geology has been calculated for suitability and vulnerability for geoheritage and geotourism site of the Jhamarkotra Area. As well as SWOT analysis (strengths, weakness, opportunity and threat) and TOWS matrix (threat, opportunity, weakness and strengths) were used for systematic analysis of these outcomes for develop geotourism. Results showed that the Jhamarkotra area has maximum potentials with suitable physical and cultural features. On the other hand, it has some minuscule problems such as deprived communities and lack of knowledge to develop geoheritage sites for geotourism activities. Eventually, the Jhamarkotra Area needs an inclusive and holistic approach with sustainable mining, processing, eco-friendly geotourism activities, and integration of all stakeholders to cultivate for geoheritage and geopark ecosystem, which will be supportive of grass route to worldwide geoheritage services.
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•Caprock geological formations depict intermediate-wet conditions.•Increased pressure and reduced temperature inversely affect hydrogen wettability.•Hydrophilic caprock geological ...formations become intermediate wet in the presence of organic acids.
Actualization of the hydrogen (H2) economy and decarbonization goals can be achieved with feasible large-scale H2 geo-storage. Geological formations are heterogeneous, and their wetting characteristics play a crucial role in the presence of H2, which controls the pore-scale distribution of the fluids and sealing capacities of caprocks. Organic acids are readily available in geo-storage formations in minute quantities, but they highly tend to increase the hydrophobicity of storage formations. However, there is a paucity of data on the effects of organic acid concentrations and types on the H2-wettability of caprock-representative minerals and their attendant structural trapping capacities.
Geological formations contain organic acids in minute concentrations, with the alkyl chain length ranging from C4 to C26. To fully understand the wetting characteristics of H2 in a natural geological picture, we aged mica mineral surfaces as a representative of the caprock in varying concentrations of organic molecules (with varying numbers of carbon atoms, lignoceric acid C24, lauric acid C12, and hexanoic acid C6) for 7 days. To comprehend the wettability of the mica/H2/brine system, we employed a contact-angle procedure similar to that in natural geo-storage environments (25, 15, and 0.1 MPa and 323 K).
At the highest investigated pressure (25 MPa) and the highest concentration of lignoceric acid (10−2 mol/L), the mica surface became completely H2 wet with advancing (θa= 106.2°) and receding (θr=97.3°) contact angles. The order of increasing θa and θr with increasing organic acid contaminations is as follows: lignoceric acid > lauric acid > hexanoic acid. The results suggest that H2 gas leakage through the caprock is possible in the presence of organic acids at higher physio-thermal conditions. The influence of organic contamination inherent at realistic geo-storage conditions should be considered to avoid the overprediction of structural trapping capacities and H2 containment security.
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CO2 geo-storage is a technique, where millions of tonnes of CO2 are stored in underground formations every year for permanent immobilization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Among ...promising geo-storage formations, basalt is attracting keen interest from researchers and industry. However, the literature severely lacks information on the wetting behaviour of basaltic rocks at geo-storage conditions.
To enable a more general statement of basalt-scCO2-brine contact angles, the wettability of a basalt from Western Australia was compared with a similar rock type from Iceland. This study reports the advancing and receding contact angles for a basalt-scCO2-brine system at pressures ranging from 0.1 to 20 MPa and temperatures of 298 and 323 K, respectively. Based on the experimental data, the amount of CO2, expressed by the column height, which could be safely trapped beneath the basalt was then calculated.
The basalt was initially water-wet but with increasing pressure, it was converted sequentially from a water-wet to an intermediate-wet and then finally into a completely CO2-wet template at pressures exceeding 15 MPa and 323 K. Under those experimental conditions, found in the field at depths below 1500 m, injected supercritical CO2 into a porous basalt reservoir is assumed to flow freely in lateral and vertical directions and is less impeded by capillary/residual trapping, potentially leading to CO2 leakage. It is suggested that the injection depth should not be chosen too deep to avoid increased free CO2 plume mobility. It is found from CO2 column height calculations that at 800 m depth (a minimum requirement to keep CO2 supercritical), the height of the CO2 column that can be safely trapped below the cap rock, was still 100 m but shrank to nil at ≥1500 m.
Clay is one of the most important mineral components in geological formations, and it is widely used in many industrial applications. One clay property, which is of key importance in many areas, e.g. ...mineral processing, agriculture, fundamental geologic understanding, hydrology, oil/water separation and multi-phase fluid flow, is clay wettability. However, clay wettability is a complex parameter which is determined by clay surface chemistry, in-situ aqueous and non-aqueous fluid chemistries, and geo-thermal conditions. Thus, a systematic review of published results on the wettability of six different clay minerals (kaolinite, montmorillonite, illite, mica, talc and pyrophyllite) is provided here, spanning from experimental studies to molecular dynamics simulations. This is integrated with a critical discussion to elucidate the origin of significant inconsistencies in the reported data. Finally, a range of conclusions is clearly established and a future outlook is given. This review will thus advance the understanding of clay wettability and provide guidance for the various applications discussed.
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•A comprehensive review on the wettability of six different clay minerals is provided.•Factors influencing clay wettability are critically discussed.•Current limitations are highlighted and a future outlook is given.
Image and Object Geo-Localization Wilson, Daniel; Zhang, Xiaohan; Sultani, Waqas ...
International journal of computer vision,
04/2024, Volume:
132, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The concept of geo-localization broadly refers to the process of determining an entity’s geographical location, typically in the form of Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates. The entity of ...interest may be an image, a sequence of images, a video, a satellite image, or even objects visible within the image. Recently, massive datasets of GPS-tagged media have become available due to smartphones and the internet, and deep learning has risen to prominence and enhanced the performance capabilities of machine learning models. These developments have enabled the rise of image and object geo-localization, which has impacted a wide range of applications such as augmented reality, robotics, self-driving vehicles, road maintenance, and 3D reconstruction. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of visual geo-localization, which may involve either determining the location at which an image has been captured (image geo-localization) or geolocating objects within an image (object geo-localization). We will provide an in-depth study of visual geo-localization including a summary of popular algorithms, a description of proposed datasets, and an analysis of performance results to illustrate the current state of the field.
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