Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T00:35:09.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Capillary processes increase salt precipitation during CO2 injection in saline formations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

Helena L. Kelly  and
Simon A. Mathias Open the ORCID record for Simon A. Mathias [Opens in a new window]
Helena L. Kelly
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
Simon A. Mathias*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An important attraction of saline formations for CO2 storage is that their high salinity renders their associated brine unlikely to be identified as a potential water resource in the future. However, high salinity can lead to dissolved salt precipitating around injection wells, resulting in loss of injectivity and well deterioration. Earlier numerical simulations have revealed that salt precipitation becomes more problematic at lower injection rates. This article presents a new similarity solution, which is used to study the relationship between capillary pressure and salt precipitation around CO2 injection wells in saline formations. Mathematical analysis reveals that the process is strongly controlled by a dimensionless capillary number, which represents the ratio of the CO2 injection rate to the product of the CO2 mobility and air-entry pressure of the porous medium. Low injection rates lead to low capillary numbers, which in turn are found to lead to large volume fractions of precipitated salt around the injection well. For one example studied, reducing the CO2 injection rate by 94 % led to a tenfold increase in the volume fraction of precipitated salt around the injection well.

JFM classification

Interfacial Flows (free surface): Capillary flows Phase change: Condensation/evaporation Geophysical and Geological Flows: Geophysical and Geological Flows
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 852 , 10 October 2018 , pp. 398 - 421
Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batzle, M. & Wang, Z. 1992 Seismic properties of pore fluids. Geophysics 57, 1396–1408.Google Scholar
Bennion, B. & Bachu, S. 2008 Drainage and imbibition relative permeability relationships for supercritical CO2/brine and H2S/brine systems in intergranular sandstone, carbonate, shale, and anhydrite rocks. SPE Res. Eval. Engng 11, 487–496.Google Scholar
Bjornara, T. I. & Mathias, S. A. 2013 A pseudospectral approach to the McWhorter and Sunada equation for two-phase flow in porous media with capillary pressure. Comput. Geosci. 17, 889–897.Google Scholar
Corless, R. M., Gonnet, G. H., Hare, D. E., Jeffrey, D. J. & Knuth, D. E. 1996 On the LambertW function. Adv. Comput. Maths 5, 329–359.Google Scholar
Fenghour, A., Wakeham, W. A. & Vesovic, V. 1998 The viscosity of carbon dioxide. J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 27, 31–44.Google Scholar
Fucik, R., Mikyska, J., Benes, M. & Illangasekare, T. H. 2007 An improved semi-analytical solution for verification of numerical models of two-phase flow in porous media. Vadose Zone J. 6, 93–104.Google Scholar
van Genuchten, M. T. 1980 A closed-form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 44, 892–898.Google Scholar
Hesse, M. A., Orr, F. M. & Tchelepi, H. A. 2008 Gravity currents with residual trapping. J. Fluid Mech. 611, 35–60.Google Scholar
Hesse, M. A., Tchelepi, H. A., Cantwell, B. J. & Orr, F. M. Jr 2007 Gravity currents in horizontal porous layers: transition from early to late self-similarity. J. Fluid Mech. 577, 363–383.Google Scholar
Kim, K. Y., Han, W. S., Oh, J., Kim, T. & Kim, J.-C. 2012 Characteristics of salt precipitation and the associated pressure build-up during CO2 storage in saline aquifers. Trans. Porous Med. 92, 397–418.Google Scholar
Krevor, S., Pini, R., Zuo, L. & Benson, S. M. 2012 Relative permeability and trapping of CO2 and water in sandstone rocks at reservoir conditions. Water Resour. Res. 48, W02532.Google Scholar
Li, B., Tchelepi, H. A. & Benson, S. M. 2013 Influence of capillary-pressure models on CO2 solubility trapping. Adv. Water Resour. 62, 488–498.Google Scholar
MacMinn, C. W., Szulczewski, M. L. & Juanes, R. 2010 CO2 migration in saline aquifers. Part 1. Capillary trapping under slope and groundwater flow. J. Fluid Mech. 662, 329–351.Google Scholar
MacMinn, C. W., Szulczewski, M. L. & Juanes, R. 2011 CO2 migration in saline aquifers. Part 2. Capillary and solubility trapping. J. Fluid Mech. 688, 321–351.Google Scholar
Mathias, S. A., Gluyas, J. G., Gonzlez Martnez de Miguel, G. J., Bryant, S. L. & Wilson, D. 2013 On relative permeability data uncertainty and CO2 injectivity estimation for brine aquifers. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 12, 200–212.Google Scholar
Mathias, S. A., Gluyas, J. G., Gonzlez Martnez de Miguel, G. J. & Hosseini, S. A. 2011 Role of partial miscibility on pressure buildup due to constant rate injection of CO2 into closed and open brine aquifers. Water Resour. Res. 47, W12525.Google Scholar
Mathias, S. A., Gonzalez Martinez de Miguel, G. J., Thatcher, K. E. & Zimmerman, R. W. 2009a Pressure buildup during CO2 injection into a closed brine aquifer. Trans. Porous Med. 89, 383–397.Google Scholar
Mathias, S. A., McElwaine, J. N. & Gluyas, J. G. 2014 Heat transport and pressure buildup during carbon dioxide injection into depleted gas reservoirs. J. Fluid Mech. 756, 89–109.Google Scholar
McWhorter, D. B. & Sunada, D. K. 1990 Exact integral solutions for two-phase flow. Water Resour. Res. 26, 399–413.Google Scholar
Miri, R. & Hellevang, H. 2016 Salt precipitation during CO2 storage – a review. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 51, 136–147.Google Scholar
Nordbotten, J. M. & Celia, M. A. 2006 Similarity solutions for fluid injection into confined aquifers. J. Fluid Mech. 561, 307–327.Google Scholar
Oostrom, M., White, M. D., Porse, S. L., Krevor, S. C. M. & Mathias, S. A. 2016 Comparison of relative permeability–saturation–capillary pressure models for simulation of reservoir CO2 injection. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 45, 70–85.Google Scholar
Orr, F. M. Jr. 2007 Theory of Gas Injection Processes. Tie-Line Publications.Google Scholar
Perrin, J. C. & Benson, S. 2010 An experimental study on the influence of sub-core scale heterogeneities on CO2 distribution in reservoir rocks. Trans. Porous Med. 82, 93–109.Google Scholar
Piche, R. & Kanniainen, J. 2009 Matrix-based numerical modelling of financial differential equations. Intl J. Math. Model Numer. Optim. 1, 88–100.Google Scholar
Pruess, K. & Muller, N. 2009 Formation dry-out from CO2 injection into saline aquifers. 1. Effects of solids precipitation and their mitigation. Water Resour. Res. 45, W03402.Google Scholar
Pruess, K. & Spycher, N. 2007 ECO2Na fluid property module for the TOUGH2 code for studies of CO2 storage in saline aquifers. Energy Convers. Manage. 48, 1761–1767.Google Scholar
Rutqvist, J., Birkholzer, J., Cappa, F. & Tsang, C. F. 2007 Estimating maximum sustainable injection pressure during geological sequestration of CO2 using coupled fluid flow and geomechanical fault-slip analysis. Energy Convers. Manage. 48, 1798–1807.Google Scholar
Spycher, N. & Pruess, K. 2005 CO2–H2O mixtures in the geological sequestration of CO2. II. Partitioning in chloride brines at 12–100 °C and up to 600 bar. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 69, 3309–3320.Google Scholar
Spycher, N., Pruess, K. & Ennis-King, J. 2003 CO2–H2O mixtures in the geological sequestration of CO2. I. Assessment and calculation of mutual solubilities from 12 to 100 °C and up to 600 bar. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 67, 3015–3031.Google Scholar
Webb, S. W. 2000 A simple extension of two-phase characteristic curves to include the dry region. Water Resour. Res. 36, 1425–1430.Google Scholar
Weideman, J. A. C. & Reddy, S. C. 2000 A MATLAB differentiation matrix suite. ACM Trans. Math. Softw. 24, 465–519.Google Scholar
Zeidouni, M., Pooladi-Darvish, M. & Keith, D. 2009 Analytical solution to evaluate salt precipitation during CO2 injection in saline aquifers. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 3, 600–611.Google Scholar
Zhang, Z. F., Oostrom, M. & White, M. D. 2016 Relative permeability for multiphase flow for oven-dry to full saturation conditions. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 49, 259–266.Google Scholar
Zhou, Q., Birkholzer, J. T., Tsang, C. F. & Rutqvist, J. 2008 A method for quick assessment of CO2 storage capacity in closed and semi-closed saline formations. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 2, 626–639.Google Scholar
Zhu, Q., Zuo, D., Zhang, S., Zhang, Y., Wang, Y. & Wang, L. 2015 Simulation of geomechanical responses of reservoirs induced by CO2 multilayer injection in the Shenhua CCS project, China. Intl J. Greenh. Gas Control 42, 405–414.Google Scholar