Screening Microorganisms for Remediation of Wells via Carbonate Precipitation

Abstract

Borehole infrastructure in near end-of-life oil and gas reservoirs can potentially be reused for CCS operations when repurposing fields for use as CO2 storage reservoirs. The integrity of such wells may not be sufficient for immediate applications; however remediation could make them suitable for reuse. Microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) is ubiquitous in nature and had been proposed as a suitable technological solution for reducing permeability in several geotechnical scenarios. However, the relatively high temperatures, and high pH of down well environments provide challenges to microorganisms. We present a suite of screening techniques and simplified flow apparatus to enable screening of MICP microorganisms and optimization of parameters to better understand the application of novel microorganisms for remediation in deep subsurface conditions.