Signal propagation from portable active seismic source (PASS) to km-scale borehole DAS for continuous monitoring of CO2 storage site

Abstract

We have developed a portable active seismic source (PASS) to monitor CO₂ storage reservoirs at a depth of approximately 1 km. Despite its small size, stacking the signals generated by the PASS improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the seismometer data far from the source. The smaller size and lower cost of the PASS enables its permanent deployment in many locations to continuously monitor CO₂ storage reservoirs. To achieve continuous monitoring, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is also a vital technology. Based on DAS, we can continuously record the signal from the PASS in an extensive area, including within boreholes and offshore fields. Here we report application of the PASS for the borehole DAS system. We confirmed the PASS signal propagation to a depth of ∼1 km when we used a PASS with 630N at 50 Hz close to the wellhead and recorded the signal by the borehole fiber optic cable. The ability of the system to propagate the PASS signal to a depth of ∼1 km enables continuous monitoring of most CO₂ storage reservoirs with high temporal resolution. Furthermore, deploying multiple PASS systems could improve the spatial resolution of monitoring results. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.