The final week of the 2020 Virtual Integrated Project Review Meeting, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NETL, will explore the accomplishments and upcoming work to be undertaken by two NETL-led programs — the National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) and the Science-informed Machine Learning for Accelerating Real-Time Decisions in Subsurface Applications (SMART) Initiative. 

A full slate of presentations and updates on the SMART Initiative will be held Monday, Nov. 2, and Tuesday, Nov. 3. Click here to review the SMART Initiative Annual Review Meeting agenda and to obtain online registration and WebEx instructions.

The NRAP Technical Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4, and Thursday, Nov. 5, will feature an array of speakers who will discuss the development of tools and approaches for effective risk management of carbon storage sites. Click here to review the agenda for the NRAP sessions and to obtain online registration and WebEx instructions.

Registration is free for all SMART Initiative and NRAP sessions.

The SMART Initiative is in its first year of an envisioned 10-year, multi-organizational effort that will transform our understanding and management of the subsurface through real-time visualization, real-time forecasting and virtual learning.

The SMART Initiative is funded by DOE’s Carbon Storage and Upstream Oil & Gas Programs to transform how people interact with subsurface data, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of field-scale carbon storage and unconventional oil and gas operations by application of science-based machine learning and data analytics.

Engaging with university, national lab and industry partners, the SMART Team is building off data collected from field laboratories and regional partnerships that have been part of the Carbon Storage and Upstream Oil & Gas Programs during the past 15 years. The SMART team will continue to collaborate with other program efforts — especially Regional Initiatives and field laboratories — to collect and analyze data, share insights and develop new approaches to site visualization and management.

NRAP is a multi-year, multi-national laboratory collaboration, leveraging DOE’s capabilities to quantitatively assess and manage long-term environmental risks in support of commercial deployment of large-scale geologic carbon storage (GCS). Ensuring the safe and permanent storage of carbon dioxide deep underground will allow the continued use of our nation’s abundant fossil energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner.

The NRAP research team has established tools and methods to understand and forecast the response of the GCS system to large-scale injection and build confidence that the system will conform to expected behavior. Now in its second phase, NRAP is refining its award-winning toolset and forging new collaborations with GCS stakeholders to drive improvement in these products in support of the Carbon Storage Program’s strategic goals for GCS commercial deployment.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory develops and commercializes advanced technologies that provide reliable and affordable solutions to America’s energy challenges. NETL’s work supports DOE’s mission to advance the national, economic and energy security of the United States.