CO2 injection below the Venice Lagoon: a numerical study
A. Comerlati, M. Ferronato, G. Gambolati, M. Putti, P. Teatini
Dept. Mathematical Methods and Models for Scientific
Applications, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
ABSTRACT
The existence of the historical setting of the city of Venice and the
environmental ecosystem of her lagoon is jeopardized by the increasing
frequency of floods occurred over the last decades. The endless debate
on the most appropriate solution for the Venice safety seems to have
recently come to a final conclusion with the official approval of MOSE,
an impressive engineering project consisting of 79 mobile barriers
planned to close the lagoon inlets during the most severe storms, thus
preventing the sea from flooding the city. However, MOSE has still many
opponents who do not believe it can work effectively to preserve both
the city and the lagoon ecosystem .We present here a new solution which
has none of the environmental consequences charged to MOSE and can complement it
in duration and safety. This is concerned with the injection of anthropogenic
CO2 in a brackish sandy aquifer lying 600-800 m below the lagoon.
Based on new recent hydrogeological and geomechanical information of the
Northern Adriatic basin, a numerical study is performed with the aid of
multiphase flow and geomechanical models showing that
a set of vertical injection wells properly located in the lagoon area can
uniformly raise Venice up to 12 cm over a 10 year time, with a partial
mitigation of most of the high tides that threat the existence of the city.
Moreover,CO2 sequestration in a safe geological formation can
also contribute to meet the requirements of the 1997 Kyoto protocol
on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed solution appears
to be a promising strategy to be investigated with further analyses.
