Dear Colleagues,

Greetings from the Guest Editor of the Special Issue of Energies on Energy Geomechanics.

We cordially invite you to submit your high-quality manuscripts to the Special Issue of Energies on Energy Geomechanics. This Special Issue focuses on rock mechanical aspects of energy engineering, encompassing petroleum engineering and alternative energy sources, such as geothermal, hydrogen, and nuclear energy.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the geomechanical aspects of:

• conventional and unconventional petroleum wellbores from wellbore construction to abandonment;
• conventional and unconventional petroleum reservoirs and surrounding strata during the hydrocarbon production;
• subsurface disposal of liquid waste and brine;
• CO₂ sequestration;
• underground storage of energy, including hydrogen, synthetic methane, heat, compressed air, and natural gas;
• near-surface and deep geothermal energy production;
• nuclear waste management.

The manuscript may be a review paper or may be based on applied and fundamental studies using physical model testing, mathematical modelling, or field case studies.

We look forward to receiving your manuscripts for this Special Issue.

Dr. Alireza Nouri
Dr. Saman Azadbakht
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• energy
• geomechanics
• subsurface waste and brine disposal
• CO₂ sequestration
• underground energy storage
• hydrogen energy
• synthetic methane storage
• heat storage
• compressed air storage
• natural gas storage
• shallow geothermal
• deep geothermal
• nuclear waste management
• sand production
• hydraulic fracturing
• wellbore stability
• borehole breakouts
• caprock integrity
• reservoir geomechanics
• wellbore integrity
• land subsidence due to reservoir depletion
• surface heave in thermal operations
• fines migration
• borehole-completion interactions
• in situ stress assessments
• geomechanics of shale oil/gas reservoirs
• oil sands geomechanics
• geomechanics of thermal wells
• surface heave in energy storage

Title: Multi-Disciplinary Modelling for Risk Identification in Carbon Capture and Underground Storage (CCUS)
Authors: Assef Mohamad-Hussein*, Monzurul Alam, Qinglai Ni
Affiliation: SLB Geomechancis Center of Excellence, UK
Abstract: There are increasing countries that are making commitments to attain net zero emissions in the future decades. Carbon Capture and Underground Storage (CCUS) can play crucial role in the transition to net zero. The objective of this paper is to identify and assess the risks associated with CCUS during the injection phase and after injection stops. The work integrates multi-disciplines such as seismic, rock physics, geology, petrophysics, fluid-flow, chemistry and geomechanics to identify the risks and suggest mitigation prior to these happening. Carbon storage into geological formations is modelled using a 4D coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) process, which accounts for fluid-flow (T-H), geomechanics (M), and chemical dissolution (C). The model assesses the storage capacity, identifies high-risk regions, optimizes injector location, evaluates the state of stress within faults and cap-rock and assess a monitoring strategy. The results include a risk map with low, medium, and high-risk zones, as well as a high-resolution near wellbore integrity simulation using a 3D model. This model considers both short and long-term behaviour, and the results indicate the need for ongoing monitoring during CCUS applications to mitigate residual risks. This study highlights the need for ongoing monitoring during CCUS applications during storage phase and due to residual risks, that continue after injection stops. The 4D coupled Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical-Chemical (THMC) model provided a comprehensive assessment of the carbon storage process by identifying high-risk regions within the reservoir and optimizing injector location with respect to faults. The 3D near wellbore model demonstrated the existence of residual risk after the injection phase, which emphasizes the importance of ongoing monitoring techniques to mitigate potential risks. The risk map obtained from the model illustrated a simple yet effective way of identifying low, medium, and high-risk zones within the reservoir. Additionally, high-resolution near wellbore integrity simulations ensured short-term and long-term safety. These findings demonstrated the importance of accurate modelling and monitoring technologies within an integrated workflow for CCUS applications to ensure successful carbon storage and minimize potential risks.