IPTC 11737
The CO2 pilot at Lacq: an integrated oxycombustion CO2 capture and geological
storage project in the South West of France
Nicolas Aimard, Total; Marc Lescanne, Total; Gérard Mouronval, Total; Claude Prébende, Total
Copyright 2007, International Petroleum Technology Conference
This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology
Conference held in Dubai, U.A.E., 4–6 December 2007.
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Abstract
For decades to come, oil and gas will remain an energy source
of choice to meet increasing demand. But oil and gas operators
have to develop fields requiring much more processing and
energy - i.e. very sour gases or extra heavy oils - while
reducing the Green House Gases (GHG) emissions to mitigate
the climate change consequences.
Among the possible options, carbon capture and geological
storage (CCS) appears to be a promising option in addition to
power efficiency increase or renewable energies use.
Total launched end 2006 an integrated CCS project in the
South-West of France. It entails the conversion of a steam
boiler into an oxy-fuel combustion unit, oxygen being used for
combustion rather than air to obtain a more concentrated CO2
stream easier to capture. The pilot plant, which will produce
some 40 t/h of steam for use other facilities, will emit up to
150,000 tons of CO2 over a 2-year period, which will be
compressed and conveyed via pipeline to a depleted gas field,
30 kilometers away, where to be injected into a deep carbonate
reservoir. CO2 injection is scheduled to begin end 2008.
The paper presents the characteristics of the 30MWth oxy-
boiler, one of the world first industrial oxy-combustion units.
Then, it focuses on the critical issues that can be addressed
with an integrated project of combustion CO2 injection into a
geological formation: CO2 purity level required by each
element of the CCS chain, validation of CO2 injection and
migration models, and validation of the methodologies put in
place to assess well and storage integrity. It discusses the
potential application among others of such technology in an
extra heavy oil "hot production" scheme with emphasis on the
benefits to integrate all aspects of the CCS chain mentioned
above for future large scale applications.
Introduction
For decades to come, oil and gas will remain an energy source
of choice to meet increasing demand. But oil and gas operators
have to develop fields requiring much more processing and
energy - i.e. very sour gases or extra heavy oils - while
reducing the Green House Gases (GHG) emissions to mitigate
the climate change consequences.
Among the possible options, carbon capture and geological
storage (CCS) is an important option for tackling greenhouse
gases emissions. In their 2007 summary report for policy
makers on “Mitigation of Climate Change”1, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) describes
this option as one of the key mitigation technologies and
practices currently available.
While the worldwide CO2 atmospheric emission was around
30 billion tonnes in 20052, CO2 geological storage capacity
could be very significant: 600-1,200 billion tonnes in oil and
gas depleted fields, 3-200 billion tonnes in unmineable coal
seams and up to 1,000-10,000 billion tonnes in deep saline
formations2. This represents between 70 and 500 years of
storage at current production rates.
But to ensure that CCS technology will be reliable on short
and long term, energy efficient, accepted by the public and
commercially viable, industrial pilot plants are necessary.
Total launched end 2006 an integrated CCS project in the
South-West of France. It entails the conversion of a steam
boiler into an oxy-fuel combustion unit, oxygen being used for
combustion rather than air to obtain a more concentrated CO2
stream easier to capture. The pilot plant, which will produce
some 40 t/h of steam for use other facilities, will emit up to
150,000 tons of CO2 over a 2-year period at the Lacq existing
facilities. Then the CO2 will be treated, compressed and
conveyed via pipeline to the depleted gas field named Rousse,
30 kilometers away, where to be injected into a deep carbonate
reservoir as shown on Figure 1.
The main objectives of the pilot plant currently under
construction for a start-up end 2008 are:
ƒ To demonstrate the technical feasibility and reliability of
an integrated CO2 capture, transportation, injection and
storage scheme for steam production at a reduced scale,
typically 1/10th of future larger scale facilities, but within
industrial facilities
ƒ To design and operate a 30MWth oxycombustion
retrofitted boiler for CO2 capture in order to confirm the
following targets of
o 50% reduction of capture cost compared to
classical post capture technologies
o 50% reduction of overall direct and undirect CO2
emissions if undirect emissions are not captured
2 IPTC111737

ƒ To develop and apply geological storage qualification Total and Air Liquide studied from 2003 to 2005 the
methodologies, monitoring and verification techniques feasibility of using the oxycombustion of gas and different
on a real operationnal case to prepare future larger scale heavy oil residues for large steam boilers in Steam Assisted
long term storage projects Gravity Drainage (SAGD) heavy oil production scheme
associated with CO2 capture as shown on Figure 3. Those
Interest of oxycombustion for CO2 capture studies and laboratory experiments were sponsored by
ADEME, the French National Agency for Environment and
The capture and geological storage of CO2 is a process that Energy Conservation.
consists of separating and recovering the CO2 from process Oxycombustion was compared to a more classical amine unit
gases or flue gases at large industrial installations, then (post capture technique) installed on a boiler exhaust for CO2
transporting it and injecting it into a suitable underground capture. The results can be summarized in the table below a
formation for storage. Of the three main steps involved in the typical 500MW boiler. The reference is a "no-capture case".
process (i.e., capture, transport and storage), the first phase in
which the CO2 is separated from the other constituents Direct
Boiler Undirect CO2 total CO2 CO2
emissions
(mainly water vapor and nitrogen) of flue gases or other gas emissions emissions captured emissions avoided
not captured
streams is by far the most costly, estimated by the IPCC2 to Reference 130 130 130 0
Post-capture 130 5 100 125 105 25
amount to two-thirds of the overall cost. Oxycombustion 130 4 65 126 69 61
Yet this step is crucial for at least two reasons:
ƒ Combustion gases contain an average of 3 to 15% CO2, so Table 1: 500 MW boiler emissions in CO2 tons per hour
removing the CO2 reduces the volume that must be
transported, and therefore the associated costs and energy Results must be compared on the basis of the "CO2 avoided".
required; As shown on Figure 4, even though the CO2 emitted by the
ƒ There will be only a limited number of formations that will boiler - i.e. direct emissions - is mostly captured with both
meet the requirements for CO2 storage, so isolating the techniques, the CO2 emitted by all associated utilities, CO2
CO2 is a means of optimizing the available storage compression, CO2 transportation and injection must be taken
capacity. into account - i.e. undirect emissions. The main contribution of
undirect emissions for the post capture technique is the amine
According to the type of facilities, CO2 capture may take regeneration unit and the main contribution for the
place at three different stages as shown on Figure 2, named oxycombustion unit is the electric power required for the Air
post-combustion, precombustion, or oxycombustion. Each of Separation Unit by cryogenic separation.
these techniques is at a different stage of maturity and offers
its own advantages and drawbacks (cost, energy consumption, The relative share of the undirect emissions associated with
operability, retrofittability, etc.). the CO2 capture process can be summarized as follows:
ƒ Post-combustion is the most mature, but also the most
costly of the three techniques, and is appropriate for Boiler Amine unit
Boiler Air
existing installations. It involves separating the CO2 emissions
emissions
and/or flue CO2
Separation
before gas compression
contained in combustion gases, usually by means of a capture
not captured
treatment
Unit
liquid solvent such as mono ethanol amine (MEA). Reference 100 100 14 0 0
ƒ Pre-combustion yields two separate concentrated streams Post-capture 100 4 62 36 0
of hydrogen and CO2, thereby facilitating CO2 capture. Oxycombustion 100 3 5 19 20
The process consists of treating the fuel either with steam
and air (steam reforming) or with oxygen (partial Table 2: Relative direct and undirect CO2 emissions
oxidation) to produce a synthesis gas that contains mainly (basis = 100)
carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen, a potential energy
carrier that generates no CO2 emissions. A second step The reference case is 100. The amine unit and flue gas
converts the CO in the presence of water (H2O) then treatment include the amine contactor and regenerator for the
separates the resulting CO2 for capture and storage. post combustion process as well as CO2 dehydration and SOx
ƒ Oxycombustion is still at the pilot phase. This technique removal process. The CO2 compression includes the final
consists in replacing air by oxygen for combustion and compression stage to reach CO2 supercritical conditions at
therefore yields a combustion gas (or flue gas) highly ambient temperature. The Air Separation Unit required
concentrated in CO2 (between 80% and 90% by volume). electrical power has been assumed produced by a co-
It could also constitute a suitable retrofit technology for generation unit with a typical CO2 emission factor of
existing installations. Nevertheless, this process requires 0,928kgCO2/kWh. Oxygen purity has been assumed at 95%.
high-purity oxygen that must be extracted from air, leading
to additional energy consumption and indirect CO2 Those results show the interest of using oxycombustion in
emissions. some cases for CO2 capture. Moreover, progresses are
underway for reducing the Air Separation Unit power
Oxycombustion has been selected for the Lacq pilot based on consumption and new schemes are looking at a better synergy
the possibility to retrofit an existing boiler and the efficiency between CO2 treatment and air cryogenic distillation as well
of such capture technique for large industrial steam boilers. as possible use of the nitrogen rejected in the process.
IPTC 11737 3

The CO2 pilot at Lacq: CO2 capture by

oxycombustion combined with CO2 geological Oxygen purity 95% 98% 99,50%
storage in a depleted gas reservoir Molar composition
CO2 32,72% 33,46% 33,81%
CO 0,01% 0,01% 0,01%
As shown in the following figure enlarged in Figure 5, the H2O 62,20% 63,60% 64,28%
CO2 pilot is an integrated CO2 capture, transportation, SO2 0,00% 0,00% 0,00%
injection and storage scheme in the Lacq region in the South NO 0,02% 0,02% 0,02%
West of France. NO2 0,00% 0,00% 0,00%
O2 1,51% 1,46% 1,43%
Carbon capture & geological storage in Lacq region Ar 2,17% 1,33% 0,34%
N2 1,36% 0,13% 0,11%
CO2 injection TOTAL 100,00% 100,00% 100,00%
CO2 transportation Gas production

CO2 capture
Table 3: oxycombustion of natural gas - flue gas composition
Compression

CO2 injection
9
8 Commercial gas
The flue gas leaving the boiler at approximately 220°C will be
CO2 Transportation

7
Utilities
Boiler oxycombustion
Lacq
gas power plant cooled down, dust and water will be removed. Water dew
Steam

5
4 point will be achieved by molecular sieves in order to avoid
4500 m 3
CO2 storage Purification / CO2 dehydration

Compression
Natural gas
any condensation in the transportation system (100ppm water
2
10
6
Oxygen
Production
Unit
Natural gas inlet
content to be achieved).
CO2

Rousse reservoir

Lacq gas production

CO2 will be transported via a 30km long existing pipeline
4000 m
(12" and 8" diameters) at 30 barg in gas phase before being
1

recompressed at the wellhead for injection into the Rousse gas

Lacq deep gas reservoir
depleted mano reservoir at a maximum pressure of 70 barg. As
© Total far as the transportation and the injection are concerned, there
Figure 5: Lacq CO2 pilot general scheme is no need to remove excess oxygen, nitrogen and argon. The
consequences of the CO2 composition are then investigated
Within the existing Lacq gas treatment complex, an existing within the subsurface studies to evaluate their impact on the
boiler (refer to Figure 6) built in 1957 within the utilities reservoir.
facilities will be converted into an oxyboiler, oxygen replacing
air for combustion of gas in the first phase and liquid fuel in a An existing well RSE1 that was used to produce wet sour gas
second phase. The 30MWth oxyboiler will produce 40t/h of since 1972 will be converted into CO2 injector. It has been
high pressure steam (60 bar and 450°C) that will be used as selected after a cement and corrosion logging that took place
heating medium or power generation within the complex. It end 2006. A work over is planned mid 2008 for the well
will be fully integrated in the existing facilities. conversion and the installation of the monitoring equipment.

A new dedicated Air Separation Unit by cryogenic distillation After project approval end 2006, basic engineering studies
will be installed to produce 240t/day of oxygen at a purity started early 2007 and most of the long lead items have been
varying from 95% to 99,5%. The influence of oxygen purity ordered by mid 2007. The start-up of the facilities is planned
on combustion parameters will be evaluated in order to for end 2008.
optimise future larger scale applications. Nitrogen rejected by
the Air Separation Unit will be partially used for CO2 Then, an average rate of 75'000t of CO2 per year will be
dehydration molecular sieves regeneration. injected during 2 years.

A Residual Life Assessment study of the existing boiler has

been performed in order to specify the modifications to be Injection into the depleted mano reservoir of the
implemented. Test runs including leak tests of the boiler have Rousse gas field
been conducted. CO2 will be partially recycled to the inlet of
the boiler to limit the heat flux. The recirculation rate will be As previously said, the objective of the 150'000 t of CO2
also a parameter that will be tested during operation. injection is to develop and apply geological storage
qualification methodologies, monitoring and verification
The four existing burners will be replaced by four 8MW techniques on a real operationnal case to prepare future larger
oxyburners developed by Air Liquide. Those burners will be scale long term storage projects.
able to start with air before switching to oxygen.
In the future, there will be different type of CO2 geological
The flue gas composition at the boiler exhaust will contain storage but the methodology will remain the same.
mainly CO2, water, residual nitrogen and argon depending on
oxygen purity, NOx and excess oxygen in case of natural gas On one hand, active and depleted oil or gas reservoirs present
oxycombustion as shown in the following table. many advantages, the most important of which being that
4 IPTC

these reservoirs are usually reasonably well known and have stresses during all the operational phases of a well (from
effective seals: as shown on the mano reservoir of Rousse, drilling to completion, production and work over)4.
they have already contained hydrocarbons and in some cases
H2S and CO2 and prevented the escape of these hydrocarbons Regarding the reservoir integrity studies, some key EU funded
for thousands of years. Therefore, the risks of loosing the project such as CO2STORE5 or CO2ReMoVe will be used as
formation integrity can be considered as minimal. Geological reference.
knowledge has been acquired before their initial development
for hydrocarbon production and during the exploitation phase. The CO2 storage integrity issues are summarized in the figure
herebelow.
On the other hand, deep saline aquifers are defined as porous
and permeable reservoir rocks containing brine in the pore
spaces. These saline waters are considered as technically and
economically non exploitable for surface use. The world
cumulated storage capacity of saline aquifers is very high.
However, they are not well known as they have never been
studied in the past due to lack of interest.
But the mechanism involved in CO2 injection for storage will
be the same for both depleted oil and gas fields and deep
saline aquifers.

The mano reservoir of the Rousse field where CO2 will be

injected is a deep dolomitic reservoir. Initial pressure was
485barg at a depth of 4500m. The field is now largely depleted
with an average downhole pressure of 30barg. The average
downhole temperature is 150°C. Gas that has been produced at
Rousse contained up to 4,6% of CO2 and 0,8% of H2S. Figure 8: CO2 storage typical integrity issues

An important issue in CO2 injection projects is the

BOR1 understanding of the long term geochemical and
geomechanical phenomena. It is necessary to demonstrate that
RSE 3 the stress modification in and around the reservoir induced by
RSE 2 RSE 1
the CO2 injection, combined with possible chemical
SST 1
modification of the materials, will not affect the structure and
Ch damage the sealing of the cap rock by creating new fractures
am or opening existing sealing faults.
pd
em
Rousse eil
lo n Concerning capillary sealing efficiency to acid gas, acid gas
leakage through cap rocks and sedimentary pile (excluding
Ba
wells) may be grouped into three categories: convective flow
se
Cr
éta
in fractured rocks, capillary entries into cap rocks and
Ro
cé nti
gn diffusive flow of dissolved acid gas within the aqueous phase.
on
Experiments demonstrated the significant wettability changes
expected when CO2 contacts cap rocks, which may affect
sealing efficiency of the cap rock7,9. Such experiment will be
Figure 7: top cretaceous map of Rousse and Meillon gas fields conducted on Rousse caprock samples.
with wells identified
It is also necessary to model the fate of CO2 and its impact on
As shown on the above figure, the Rousse field has been the reservoir. Basic processes are CO2 dissolution into the
produced with two wells (RSE1 and RSE2) but only one well residual formation water, CO2 speciation into HCO3– and H+
has crossed the mano reservoir. Therefore, well integrity (the latter acidizes the water), and mineralization.
studies are limited to a single well. Wells providing a potential Experimental measurements on reservoir samples will be
transmissive pathway for CO2 leakage from storage reservoirs necessary to calibrate the geochemical model.
to other geological formations or even to the surface, the fact
that there is no other existing or abandoned well in the storage Base line surveys and monitoring program are also a major
is an adavantage for risk assessment. New well cement part of the CO2 injection project.
logging will be performed during the well workover. It will be
also used a proprietary software, SealWell®, which allows Soil gas mapping at different surface locations is under
prediction and analysis of the cement mechanical damage definition. It is planned to take place every 3 months at least a
along well bores taking into account mechanical and thermal
IPTC 11737 5

year before injection to identify natural CO2 emissions from References

the soil linked to seasons and meteorological conditions. 1. IPCC Working Group III “Mitigation of Climate Change –
Summary for Policy makers”, available at http://www.ipcc.ch/,
The well work over planned for mid 2008 will comprise the May 2007
installation of specific monitoring equipmeny within the well. 2. IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage,
chapter 5, available at http://www.ipcc.ch/, September 2005
A fiber optic along the tubing will allow the measurement of 3. Total-Air Liquide-ADEME study "Oxycombustion of heavy oil
temperature and pressure along the well at different depth. It residues applied to steam production", G. De Schmedt, N.
will allow the monitoring of the downhole conditions as well Aimard, February 2006
as the calibration of the well injectivity and well pressure drop 4. Fourmaintraux D., Pierre-Bois A., Fraboulet B., Saint-Marc J.,
models. SPE 94176 - Efficient Cement Sheath Design Using SRC
Method
5. “CO2Store Best Practice Manual”, available at
http://www.co2store.org, Jan 2007
P&T Pressure mandrell 6. Frangeul, J., Nghiem, L., Caroli, E. and Thibeau, S.:
optical “Sleipner/Utsira CO2 Geological Storage: Full Field Flow
Tubing 3
fibre and Geochemical Coupling to Assess the Long Term Fate of
½ Pressure mandrell
P&T the CO2”, AAPG Bulletin Vol. 88 (2004), No. 13.
7. Jacquemet, N., Pironon, J. and Caroli, E., ‘’A new experimental
procedure for simulation of H2S+CO2 geological storage –
3 Seismic Pressure mandrell
P&T Application to cement ageing’’, Oil & Gas Science and
stations
Technology, IFP publication, Vol. 60, 2005.
8. Aimard, N. and al., ‘’Geological Storage of Acid Gases’’,
GHGT-8 Conference, Trondheim, June 19-22, 2006.
P&T
9. Chiquet, P, Daridon, JL., Broseta, D. & Thibeau, S.,
‘’CO2/water interfacial tensions under the pressure and
Man temperature conditions of CO2 geological storage’’, paper
o submitted to Energy Conversion Management, 2006
10. Wildenborg T, , Leijnse T, Kreft E, et al. (2004). Long-term
Bottom4795 M/TR - Temp safety assessment of CO2 storage : the scenario approach. In :
150°/160°c Seventh International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control
Technologies (GHGT-7) 7-11 September 2004.
Figure 9: RSE1 well monitoring equipment

Microseismic monitoring system is also planned to be installed

to identify possible effect of the CO2 injection on the
reservoir. This system will comprise 6 microseismic sensors
around the injection site area installed at an average depth of
100m and 3 microseismic sensors installed downhole slightly
above the top of the reservoir.

Conclusion

The Lacq CO2 pilot project is a unique challenging project as

it integrates both industrial CO2 capture facilities within an
existing complex with CO2 compression, transportation,
injection and storage into an onshore gas depleted reservoir. It
requires not only strong engineering and subsurface studies
but an open dialogue with the French administration and
regulation bodies as well as a tranparent dialogue with the
public and local, national or international stakeholders. A
scientific committee with French experts from Universities or
Institutes such as BRGM and IFP has been set up to follow up
the on-going studies and the injection phase.
6 IPTC111737

FIGURES

Figure 1: Location of Oil and Gas fields in the South West of France showing the Lacq and Rousse gas fields

Gaz
Gas
Huile
Oil

Figure 2: Oxycombustion among the different CO2 capture technologies

Figure 3: Extra Heavy Oil production scheme in Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage associated with CO2 capture by oxycombustion of
oil upgrading and refining residues

200'000 BPD
Oil & Water Upgrader
treatment (Atm. Distillation + Coker+ HDT…)
CO2
4–5 M tons / year

Infield pads Residue Synthetic

(Bitumen,
(Bitumen, VDR,
VDR,
Asphalt,
Asphalt, Petcoke)
Petcoke) Crude
Min. overburden
100m To Refineries
Oxyboiler
~5m 86'000 t/d
500 to 1000m

(SAGD) Steam Generation

Air Separation Unit Oxygen

CO2 Fuel gas
Air
IPTC 11737 7

Figure 4: Typical comparison of the CO2 avoided with post-capture or oxycombustion

CO2 avoided

CO2
captured
CO2
captured
-20%
-50%
CO2
CO2
emitted emitted CO2
direct and emitted
undirect
direct and
undirect

Reference Post-capture Oxycombustion

Figure 5: General diagram of the Lacq CO2 pilot

Carbon capture & geological storage in Lacq region

CO2 injection

CO2 transportation Gas production

CO2 capture

Compression

CO2 injection
8 Commercial gas
9 CO2 Transportation
Lacq
Utilities
gas power plant
Boiler oxycombustion
7
Steam
4
5 3
CO2 storage 4500 m Purification / CO2 dehydration Natural gas

Compression
2
Oxygen
10 Production
6 Unit
Natural gas inlet
CO2

Rousse reservoir

Lacq gas production

4000 m

Lacq deep gas reservoir

© Totall
8 IPTC I11737

Figure 6: Existing boiler within the Lacq complex

© Totall