Contact:

Email: Arthur.Wells@NETL.DOE.GOV

Arthur Wells is a research chemist with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh campus and has a BA and MS in inorganic chemistry from the University of Northern Colorado.  Art has served as NETL team lead for the development and field testing of near-surface and geological monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) in application to the geological sequestration of CO2.  The near-surface component of this technology is collectively referred to as SEQURE^TM technologies and has received two R&D 100 awards and granted a patent.  NETL first successfully demonstrated this technology at the West Pearl Queen depleted oil well test site near Hobbs, NM, one of this country’s first geological sequestration test sites.

Art has served as NETL team lead for the MVA effort at the Southwest Partnership’s Pump Canyon coal-bed sequestration test site where NETL has contributed to both near-surface and geophysical monitoring.  Sequestered CO2 was monitored by the addition of chemically inert perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) compounds to the CO2 stream being sequestered.  Monitoring was then conducted for the presence of tracer in soil-gas or atmospheric plumes at extremely low concentrations (femto liters).  Tracer results were correlated to results from surface CO2 flux monitoring, and the monitoring of hydrocarbons and CO2 in soil-gas.  The presents of tracers in production gas at off-set wells was monitored and used to track the movement of tracer in the reservoir, with application to reservoir modeling.  Geophysical monitoring has included VSP surveys with particular application to the evaluation of fault structures that might represent potential migration pathways to the surface.

Education:

MS, Inorganic Chemistry, University of Northern Colorado 

BS, Inorganic Chemistry, University of Northern Colorado

Selected Publications:

Arthur W. Wells, Richard W. Hammack, Garrett A. Veloski, J. Rodney Diehl, Brian R. Strazisar, Thomas H. Wilson, Henry Rauch, Curt M. White, “Monitoring, mitigation and verification at sequestration sites: SEQURE technologies and the challenge for geophysical detection” The Leading Edge, October 2006, pages 1264-1270.

Thomas H. Wilson, Arthur W. Wells, J. Rodney Diehl, Grant S. Bromhal, Duane H. Smith, and William Carpenter, “Ground Penetrating Radar Survey and Lineament Analysis of the West Pearl Queen Carbon Sequestration Pilot Site, New Mexico” The Leading Edge, July 2005, vol. 24, p. 718-722.

Arthur W. Wells, J. Rodney Diehl, Grant Bromhal, Brian R. Strazisar, Thomas H. Wilson, Curt M. White, “The use of tracers to assess leakage from the sequestration of CO₂ in a depleted oil reservoir, New Mexico, USA” Applied Geochemistry, 2007, vol. 22, p. 996-1016.

Arthur W. Wells, Michael Nowak, J. Rodney Diehl, Brian Strazisar, Richard Hammick,Garret Veloski, and Pheobe Hamill  “NETL Monitors CO₂ Storage” Clean Coal Today, No. 71, Spring 2007.

Brian R. Strazisar, Arthur W. Wells, and J. Rodney Diehl, “Near Surface Monitoring for the ZERT Shallow CO2 Injection Project “ International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Volume: 3 Issue: 6  Pages: 736-744   Published: DEC 2009

Recent Presentations:

George J. Koperna, Jr. SPE; and Anne Y. Oudinot, SPE; Advanced Resources International, Inc., Glenn R. McColpin, SPE, Pinnacle Technologies, Ning Liu and Jason E. Heath, SPE, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Arthur Wells, US Department of Energy NETL, Genevieve B. Young, SPE, Colorado Geological Survey.  “CO2-ECBM/Storage Activities at the San Juan Basin’s Pump Canyon Test Site.” SPE Conference. New Orleans, LA. October 4-7, 2009.

Mitchell Small, Ya-Mei Yang, Donald Gray, Egemen Ogretim, Gavin Liu, Grant Bromhal, Arthur Wells, Brian Strazisar. “Integrating CO₂ and Tracer Transport Models to Predict Leak Detection Probabilities for a Monitoring Network.” Nineth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration, Pittsburgh, PA. May 7-10, 2010.

 Ya-Mei Yang, Mitchell J. Small, Egemen O. Ogretim, Donald D. Gray, Grant S. Bromhal, Brian Strazisar, and Arthur Wells.  “Integrated Leakage Detection Using Multiple Near-surface Monitoring Techniques Applied to Hypothetical Leaks at the ZERT site.”  Nineth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration, Pittsburgh, PA. May 7-10, 2010.

Hema J. Siriwardane, Raj K. Gondle, Art Wells, Grant S. Bromhal, Benjamin D. Bowes, and Brian Strazisar.  “Modeling of CBM Production and CO₂ Injection at Pump Canyon CO₂ Sequestration Field Site in San Juan Basin.”  Nineth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture & Sequestration, Pittsburgh, PA. May 7-10, 2010.

Tom Wilson, Les Nutt, Ric Smith, Jitendra Gulati, Marcia Coueslan, Dwight Peters, Art Wells, Craig Hartline, George Koperna and Bill Akwari  “Pre- and Post-injection Vertical Seismic Profiling over the Southwest Regional Partnership’s Phase II Fruitland Coal CO₂ Pilot.”  AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting. Durango, Colorado, June 13-16, 2010