Large-Scale Geological Carbon Sequestration - Introduction to Carbon Capture and Sequestration - page 473

Figure 10.2.10 Organic matter in clayshale
Pore structure of a clayshale mapped by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with a
5 nm resolution. The lower part of the fi gure shows a three-dimensional reconstruction
of the structure of an organic grain generated from SEM images of a large number of
very thin slices of the sample. A signifi cant fraction of the largest ( ∼ 100 nm wide) pores
in this sample are associated with organic matter. Image courtesy of Tim Kneafsey,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The animated version of Figure 10.2.10 (b) can
be viewed at: http://www.worldscientifi c.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/p911#t=suppl
microorganisms on the fate of CO 2 is their ability to accelerate the rates
of dissolution and precipitation reactions that will eventually sequester
CO 2 as mineral carbonates, for example, by catalyzing mineral nucleation
reactions [10.18]. Studies of natural CO 2 seeps suggest that microorgan-
isms may play exactly this role in the natural environment [10.19].
Confi nement effects
Another assumption of fi eld-scale models is that the aquatic geochemis-
try of pore water located in geological formations is identical to that of