CERC News
Featured Story
The Bakersfield Californian covered the April 9 CRC Energy Transition Lecture, led by Sarah Saltzer, Managing Director of the Stanford Center for Carbon Storage. Her talk, "CCS Project Evolution," was attended by CSUB students and industry professionals. Check out The Californian's story for highlights from the talk.
Press Release
Carbon TerraVault's California DAC Hub Consortium Selected for U.S. DOE Funding to Bring Direct Air Capture and Storage to the Golden State
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Carbon TerraVault Holdings, LLC (CTV), a subsidiary of California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC), today announced that the California Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hub has been selected to receive $11.8 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under its Regional DAC Hubs Initiative related to the proposed development of California's first full-scale DAC plus storage (DAC+S) network of regional hubs. DAC+S is a solution that is intended to remove and then permanently store atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) using low carbon emission energy and provide economic benefits to surrounding communities. This first DOE amount will be used to perform Front End Engineering Design (FEED) studies in 2024 on the proposed DAC facilities in Kern County, followed up with additional funding requests and planned development and construction potentially beginning in 2025. With selection for the DOE funding, the California DAC Hub is also eligible for additional funding from the California Energy Commission.
Other News
CRC Energy Transition Lecture led by Bill Bartling featured in The Bakersfield Californian: Article by John Cox of The Bakersfield Californian; Oct. 30, 2024
CERC hosts third Carbon Management and Energy Innovation Technical Symposium: Around 180 experts gathered for annual event; April 24, 2024
CERC to host third Carbon Management and Energy Innovation Symposium: Experts will gather to discuss challenges, opportunities; April 10, 2024
CSUB students doing research with world's best: Hard to grasp magnitude’ of work with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists; Aug. 9, 2023
Journalists from Central Asia visit CSUB to learn about energy: CSUB hosts nine foreign journalists, coming from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekista; June 20, 2023
Experts discuss carbon management at CSUB symposium: Industry, science and policy stakeholders talk challenges, opportunities; April 25, 2023
CSUB federal award a 'breakthrough' for energy research: DOE funds also will recruit under-represented groups to the geosciences; Dec. 15, 2022
State budget supports CSUB's Energy Innovation Center: $83 million allocation will help university reimagine future of energy; June 27, 2022
Symposium highlights local opportunities, challenges of carbon storage: Article by John Cox of The Bakersfield Californian; April 29, 2022
Carbon Sequestration Symposium brings energy experts to CSUB: CERC event will be live-streamed April 29; April 15, 2022
CSUB professor makes the Belgian news: Dr. Saeed Jafarzadeh spoke to international journalists on solar energy in Kern County; Nov. 9, 2021
Researching sustainable waste treatments and entrepreneurship: Drs. Luis Cabrales, Zhongzhe Liu and Jeremy Woods are working together on a USDA grant-funded collaborative study with UC Riverside; Sept. 29, 2021
Transforming knowledge into experience: Professors in CSUB's College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering led students in research projects for the first year of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE); Aug. 18, 2021
Research spotlight: Dr. Tat Acharya: Dr. Acharya was asked to talk about his research on sustainable energy; July 26, 2021
Research Publication Example
These are examples of published research with student co-authors resulting from CERC-sponsored research:
"Evaluation of CO2/Water Imbibition Relative Permeability Curves in Sandstone Core Flooding—A CFD Study" by Tathagata Acharya, Tapinder Dhaliwal, Alina Ludian, Gorang Popli, Benjamin Wilemon, Leonardo Hernandez, Maryam Farahani and Liaosha Song
Abstract: Greenhouse gases such as CO2 can be safely captured and stored in geologic formations, which in turn can reduce the carbon imprint in the Earth’s atmosphere and therefore help toward reducing global warming. The relative permeability characteristics in CO2/brine or CO2/water systems provide insight into the CO2 trapping efficacy of formations such as sandstone rocks. In this research, CO2/water imbibition relative permeability characteristics in a typical sandstone core sample are numerically evaluated. This work uses transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to study relative permeability characteristics, and a sensitivity analysis is performed based on two different injection pressures and absolute permeability values of the sandstone rock material. Results show that when the irreducible water fraction remains unchanged, the imbibition relative permeability to the non-wetting phase decreases with an increase in injection pressure within the sandstone core sample. Also, with the irreducible water fraction being unchanged, relative permeabilities to both non-wetting and wetting phases decrease with an increase in the absolute permeability of the rock material. Finally, at irreducible water saturation, relative permeability to the gas phase decreases with an increase in injection pressure.
"Evaluation of Relative Permeability Curves in Sandstone Core Flooding Using Computational Fluid Dynamics" by Tathagata Acharya, Liaosha Song, Elizabeth Duginski and Andrew Goodwin
Abstract: Geological carbon sequestration is a proven method of safely storing carbon dioxide in formations, thereby reducing atmospheric carbon imprint and mitigating global warming. The relative permeability to carbon dioxide versus brine/water in geological formations determines flow characteristics of one fluid in the presence of another. The objective of this research is to evaluate the relative permeability to carbon dioxide in both the gas phase and the supercritical state in the presence of water in a Vedder sandstone core sample. The sandstone sample used is medium- to fine-grain arkosic artenite containing primarily quartz, potassium feldspar, plagioclase, and biotite. The effect of the viscosity ratio between the non-wetting phase and the wetting phase, on the relative permeability to the non-wetting phase, is studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used for this study. Results show that with the same amount of irreducible water fraction, the endpoint relative permeability to the non-wetting phase is approximately one order of magnitude lower for supercritical carbon dioxide than for gaseous carbon dioxide. The endpoint relative permeability does not change significantly with the change in inlet pressure for gaseous carbon dioxide. Additionally, the endpoint relative permeability to the non-wetting phase increases with an increase in the viscosity ratio. Results suggest that CFD can be effectively used to study relative permeability, precluding expensive experiments.
UCTV Carbon Dioxide at Scale
UCTV Carbon Capture and Storage: the What, Why and When
Previous Events
CRC Energy Transition Lecture draws around 90 attendees
Bill Bartling of Geo2Watts speaks to a packed classroom on "Repurposing Idle Oil and Gas Wells to Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Long Duration, Dispatchable Electricity Delivery."
Great attendance at second CRC Energy Transition Lecture
Dr. Jared Kluesner, Research Geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, gave a talk entitled "3D Seismic Investigation of structure, fluid flow, and slope failure in the Santa Barbara Basin" to a packed audience at CSUB. His talk was part of the CRC Seminar Series hosted by CERC.
April 29, 2022: Carbon Sequestration Symposium
March 11, 2022: "Sustainable Development and the Energy Transition" with Denise Cox, President of Storm Energy