DEMONSTRATING THE UTILIZATION OF ROKBASE, A PUBLICLY AVAILABLE HIGH-RESOLUTION SUBSURFACE CORE DATA REPOSITORY, WITH COALS FROM THE ILLINOIS BASIN

Rare earth elements and critical minerals are found in coal and the extraction is paramount to meet the growing need for high-tech devices, such as tablets, cellphones, wind turbines, and solar panels.

The Geoimaging and Characterization laboratory at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Morgantown, West Virginia operates several high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scanners and a brand-new multi-sensor core logger (MSCL). Since 2017, the laboratory has generated publicly available data for over two miles of subsurface cores which includes terabytes of static CT images and 3D visualizations, XRF, gamma density, p-wave and s-wave velocity, and magnetic susceptibility data published on the Energy Data eXchange (EDX). The website, RokBase.org, facilitates straightforward exploration via Google Earth associating the well location to the EDX data of the subsurface core.

The research presented focuses on coals associated with the Illinois Basin, specifically the Brush Creek, E. Miller/Hanna City well, Morris well, and Weatherford well. As part of this effort, a non-destructive characterization of the subsurface cores from each well was completed. The potential coal resource of these subsurface cores was evaluated utilizing CT imaging and petrophysical measurements via the MSCL. All this data is published in a technical report series on EDX and a visualization of each well is accessible on RokBase. To meet the growing need for comprehensive and high-quality lithologic data for collaborative research initiatives, NETL uses available resources to develop a systematic approach for the evaluation of subsurface geological core materials.