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Life cycle assessment of enhanced oil recovery
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is often considered a solution to reduce GHG emissions from oil production and utilization [1,2]; some studies even claim net-negative emissions from EOR (‘carbon-negative oil’) [3], considering the injection of captured CO2. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a suitable method to evaluate the overall environmental burdens over the entire life cycle of an EOR system. However, many of these current LCA studies have limited system boundaries (i.e., not cradle-to-grave), thus typically excluding emissions, for example, from burning oil. Here, we aim to determine the so-called ‘solution space’ in terms of GHG impacts (and beyond) of EOR systems, considering a wide range of scenarios and CO2-sources (biogenic, fossil, etc).
Keywords: Life cycle assessment, sustainability analysis, decarbonization, negative emission technologies, carbon dioxide removal, energy transition
Main tasks during the MSc project:
• Literature review on prior LCA performed on enhanced oil recovery, determining the system boundaries, multi-functionality, and scope. Additional attention will be given to how EOR is modelled, especially regarding the CO2 source used, and what kind of allocation method or system expansion approaches are applied.
• Knowledge from the literature review is used to collect data on the different unit processes considered within the system boundaries of EOR. To be decided whether to use GHG impact factors or full life cycle inventories (if possible).
• Sketching and generating EOR scenarios, considering different CO2-sources, allocation methods, system expansion, and possibly a dynamic LCA approach [4].
• Calculating the LCA impacts considering these different scenarios using brightway2 (Python).
• Finally, recommendations will be given on how to perform consistent LCA of EOR. If time allows, a framework will be made available which allows estimating the impacts of EOR based on different LCA modelling choices.
Main tasks during the MSc project:
• Literature review on prior LCA performed on enhanced oil recovery, determining the system boundaries, multi-functionality, and scope. Additional attention will be given to how EOR is modelled, especially regarding the CO2 source used, and what kind of allocation method or system expansion approaches are applied.
• Knowledge from the literature review is used to collect data on the different unit processes considered within the system boundaries of EOR. To be decided whether to use GHG impact factors or full life cycle inventories (if possible).
• Sketching and generating EOR scenarios, considering different CO2-sources, allocation methods, system expansion, and possibly a dynamic LCA approach [4].
• Calculating the LCA impacts considering these different scenarios using brightway2 (Python).
• Finally, recommendations will be given on how to perform consistent LCA of EOR. If time allows, a framework will be made available which allows estimating the impacts of EOR based on different LCA modelling choices.
Performing a comprehensive and consistent life cycle assessment of different enhanced oil recovery product systems.
Performing a comprehensive and consistent life cycle assessment of different enhanced oil recovery product systems.
Please contact and send your CV, transcript of records, and short motivation to Dr. Tom Terlouw (tom.terlouw@psi.ch) and/or Vittoria Bolongaro (bolongav@epse.ethz.ch) by email.
Please contact and send your CV, transcript of records, and short motivation to Dr. Tom Terlouw (tom.terlouw@psi.ch) and/or Vittoria Bolongaro (bolongav@epse.ethz.ch) by email.
Master_thesis_PSI_EOR.pdf
