Dissolution of CO2 From Leaking Fractures in Saline Formations

Watson, Francesca; Mathias, Simon A.; Hunen, Jeroen van; Daniels, Susie E.; Jones, Richard R.

doi:10.1007/s11242-012-0021-1

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Remedies such as brine extraction and reinjection into overlying aquifers and varying wells' configurations have been suggested to minimize these pressure perturbations [ Ghaderi et al , 2009; Réveillère et al , 2012; Buscheck et al , 2012; Hosseini and Nicot , 2012]. The potential for leakage of CO 2 and native fluids via fractures and faults is an area of considerable uncertainty for geological storage of CO 2 [ Benson and Cook , 2005; Nicot , 2008; Jordan et al , 2011; Stauffer et al , 2011; Selvadurai , 2012; Watson et al , 2012].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical model of leakage through fault to overlying formations

Zeidouni¹

2012

Water Resources Research

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[1] A fault is generally composed of a fault core surrounded by damage zones and can accommodate both lateral and vertical flow. In this paper we develop an analytical model to evaluate the leakage rate through a fault and corresponding pressure changes in the injection zone and a shallower permeable interval. The leaky fault connects the upper interval and the target zone, which are otherwise separated by a confining layer. We account for both across-fault and up-fault flow to honor the general architecture of the fault. We extend the two-formation analytical solution to consider multiple overlying formations with alternating confining layers offset by the fault. The solution methodology involves writing and transforming the coupled governing flow equations successively into the Laplace and Fourier domains and solving the resulting ordinary differential equations. The solution is verified through a comparison with existing analytical solutions for bounding cases. Two examples are presented to demonstrate the behavior and potential applications of our analytical model.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analytical model of leakage through fault to overlying formations

Zeidouni¹

2012

Water Resources Research

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“…There are wide variety of processes that could jeopardize caprock integrity including the reactivation of faults that connect to the reservoir, changes in chemical properties due to CO 2 -brine-mineral interactions, and changes in the stress field [42]. The initial migration of scCO 2 through these systems will primarily occur within the fractures embedded in the caprock matrix, which are the primary pathways for flow and transport in the low permeability caprocks [49]. These fractures form interconnected networks where the range of relevant length scales can span multiple orders of magnitude [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the Impact of Fractured Caprock Heterogeneity on Supercritical CO$$_2$$ Injection

et al. 2019

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We present a set of multiphase flow simulations where supercritical CO 2 (scCO 2 ) displaces water at hydrostatic conditions within three-dimensional discrete fracture networks that represent paths for potential leakage through caprock above CO 2 storage reservoirs. The simulations are performed to characterize and compare the relative impact of hydraulic and structural heterogeneity in fractured media on the initial movement of scCO 2 through these caprock formations. In one scenario, intrinsic fracture permeabilities are varied stochastically within a fixed network structure. In another scenario, we generate multiple independent, identically distributed network realizations with varying fracture network densities to explore a wide range of geometric and topological configurations. Analysis of the simulations indicates that network structure, specifically connectivity and the presence of hanging fractures, plays a larger role in controlling the displacement of water by scCO 2 than variations in local hydraulic properties. We identify active surface area of the network as a single-phase feature that could provide a lower bound on the percentage of the network surface area reached by scCO 2 .

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“…The long time scale of the storage process in realistic geologic formations renders experimental investigations impractical. Although some laboratory studies (Ennis- King and Paterson, 2005;Kneafsey and Pruess, 2010;Moghaddam et al, 2012;Neufeld et al, 2011;Watson et al, 2012) have been performed to evaluate density driven natural convection processes, they cannot replicate specific cases, e.g., heterogeneous permeability distributions, the reservoir size, etc. Hence the viable alternative is numerical experiment which is the motivation behind this work.…”

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confidence: 99%

Numerical experiments of density driven CO2 saturated brine migration in heterogeneous two-dimensional geologic fabric materials

Islam

Meckel

Sun

et al. 2016

International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer

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CO 2 geological sequestration has been recognized as one of the potential solutions for reducing anthropogenic atmospheric emissions. To better estimate the storage efficiency (capacity) of subsurface geologic formations and to understand the plume migration mechanism through porous geologic formations, this study performs numerical simulations of density driven CO 2-saturated brine flow in highly resolved heterogeneous 2D fabrics. While large-scale convective currents driven by gravity have been cited as important for dissolution of CO 2 into brine, the impact of small-scale heterogeneity on the time scale of dissolution and final dissolved concentration is not well understood. Two aspects of smallscale geologic heterogeneity are examined here: 1) the correlation length of the sedimentary structures, or depositional fabric, of the material; and 2) grain size distribution (range of porosity and permeability). Twenty seven clastic facies with three different fabrics were evaluated. These materials have variable horizontal correlation lengths (1:1 to 50:1) and range from extremely well sorted upper-coarse sand to very poorly sorted upper-coarse silt. We consider density contrast between CO 2-saturated brine and initial brine as the main driving force of plume migration due to natural convection. Migration behavior from both vertical and horizontal line sources are explored. The analysis is done using conservation of mass and momentum, governed by Darcy's law. Results show that effective convective migration is possible only in a limited range of facies at the scales investigated (100's sq. cm.).Only the extremely well and well sorted coarse sands have mean permeability and porosity that exceed the critical Rayleigh number (≈4π 2). Results indicate that convective and dissolution processes are influenced primarily by the range in grain size (permeability), while the correlation length of the sedimentary fabric has minor effect.

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Dissolution of CO2 From Leaking Fractures in Saline Formations

Cited by 7 publications

References 24 publications

Analytical model of leakage through fault to overlying formations

Analytical model of leakage through fault to overlying formations

Characterizing the Impact of Fractured Caprock Heterogeneity on Supercritical CO$$_2$$ Injection

Numerical experiments of density driven CO2 saturated brine migration in heterogeneous two-dimensional geologic fabric materials

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