Effects of micro-heterogeneity and hydrodynamic dispersion on the dissolution rate of carbon dioxide in water-saturated porous media

Aggelopoulos, C.A.; Tsakiroglou, Christos D.

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.06.012

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In contrast, other studies on leachate plumes and miscible displacements in oil reservoirs have suggested that the presence of groundwater flow may delay the onset of convection or even prevent it, thus suppressing convective dissolution and the overall dissolution rate (List, 1965;Menand & Woods, 2005;Oostrom et al, 1992;Rogerson & Meiburg, 1993;Schincariol & Schwartz, 1990;Schincariol et al, 1994;Yortsos & Zeybek, 1988). Dispersion was considered in a few studies on CO 2 dissolution in deep saline aquifers, but without the presence of groundwater flow (Aggelopoulos & Tsakiroglou, 2012;Ghesmat et al, 2011;Hidalgo & Carrera, 2009;Liang et al, 2018;Mahmoodpour et al, 2020;Wen et al, 2018). Most of these studies showed that dispersivity has a suppressing effect on the onset of convection, increasing the critical wavelength of the instability and the time of the onset of convection on one hand, while it is increasing the diffusive mixing, on the other hand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of these studies showed that dispersivity has a suppressing effect on the onset of convection, increasing the critical wavelength of the instability and the time of the onset of convection on one hand, while it is increasing the diffusive mixing, on the other hand. The combined effect of the two processes may result in either an increase (Ghesmat et al, 2011; Mahmoodpour et al, 2020), a decrease (Aggelopoulos & Tsakiroglou, 2012; Hidalgo & Carrera, 2009), or a nonmonotonic behavior (Wen et al, 2018) of the overall dissolution rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

Michel-Meyer

Shavit

Tsinober

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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One of the important mechanisms in CO 2 storage is dissolution trapping. The dissolution of CO 2 in aquifer brines increases the brine density and leads to hydrodynamic instabilities, formation of CO 2-rich fingers, and a desirable acceleration of the CO 2 dissolution. In recent decades, there has been an intensive effort to identify suitable deep aquifers for CO 2 sequestration. Despite reports that background horizontal flow exists in many of these aquifers, few numerical studies have addressed whether background flow affects the dissolution process. These studies had no available measurements to support their results. Here, we report on laboratory experiments, using a dyed mixture of methanol and ethylene-glycol (MEG) as a CO 2 analog. The effect of an imposed horizontal water flow was investigated by injecting MEG from above into a cell filled with glass beads. An imaging system was used to provide concentration maps, which were analyzed to calculate dissolution rates and to evaluate the characteristics of the convective fingers. The results show that background flow leads to suppression of the fingers' formation, a fivefold decrease of the fingers' wave number, and a twofold decrease in their propagation rate. Therefore, it was expected that the dissolution rate would also be suppressed, consistent with previous numerical results. However, our results show that the dissolution rate was hardly affected by the background flow. We postulate that the horizontal flow results in a trade-off between the suppression of the convective flux and the enhancement of dispersive fluxes, resulting in negligible net influence on the dissolution rate.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

Michel-Meyer

Shavit

Tsinober

et al. 2020

Water Resources Research

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“…The non-equilibrium dissolution may result in dsCO 2 concentration in the boundary layer that slowly increases with time before reaching solubility, leading to the non-instantaneous dissolution at certain spatial scales. This slow process will affect the development of a stable, diffusion-dominant boundary layer of dsCO 2 -containing brine, the onset and initialization of unstable fingers of dsCO 2 originating from the boundary layer, and the evolution, merging, and decay of these fingers in both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media (Ennis-King and Paterson, 2003;Kneafsey and Pruess, 2010;Neufeld et al, 2010;Backhaus et al, 2011;Aggelopoulos and Tsakiroglou, 2012;MacMinn et al, 2012;Agartan et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pore-scale supercritical CO2 dissolution and mass transfer under drainage conditions

Chang

Zhou

Oostrom

et al. 2017

Advances in Water Resources

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Abstract:Recently, both core-and pore-scale imbibition experiments have shown nonequilibrium dissolution of supercritical CO 2 (scCO 2 ) and a prolonged depletion of residual scCO 2 . In this study, pore-scale scCO 2 dissolution and mass transfer under drainage conditions were investigated using a two-dimensional heterogeneous micromodel and a novel fluorescent water dye with a sensitive pH range between 3.7 and 6.5. Drainage experiments were conducted at 9 MPa and 40 °C by injecting scCO 2 into the sandstone-analogue pore network initially saturated by water without dissolved CO 2 (dsCO 2 ). During the experiments, time-lapse images of dye intensity, reflecting water pH, were obtained. These images show non-uniform pH in individual pores and pore clusters, with average pH levels gradually decreasing with time.Further analysis on selected pores and pore clusters shows that (1) rate-limited mass transfer prevails with slowly decreasing pH over time when the scCO 2 -water interface area is low with respect to the volume of water-filled pores and pore clusters, (2) fast scCO 2 dissolution and phase equilibrium occurs when scCO 2 bubbles invade into water-filled pores, significantly enhancing the area-to-volume ratio, and (3) a transition from rate-limited to diffusion-limited mass transfer occurs in a single pore when a medium area-to-volume ratio is prevalent. The analysis also shows that two fundamental processes -scCO 2 dissolution at phase interfaces and diffusion of dsCO 2 at the pore scale (10-100 µm), observed after scCO 2 bubble invasion into water-filled pores without pore throat constraints, are relatively fast. The overall slow dissolution of scCO 2 in the millimeter-scale micromodel can be attributed to the small area-to-volume ratios that represent pore-throat configurations and characteristics of phase interfaces. This finding is applicable for the behavior of dissolution at pore, core, and field scales when water-filled pores and pore clusters of varying size are surrounded by scCO 2 at narrow pore throats.

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“…Except for Neufeld et al . [] who performed experiments in 2‐D porous media using glass beads, the experiments were carried out either in Hele‐Shaw cells or in one‐dimensional (1‐D) columns using either gaseous CO 2 and water [ Aggelopoulos and Tsakiroglou , ; Farajzadeh et al ., ; Kneafsey and Pruess , ] or surrogate fluids for scCO 2 and formation brine under ambient pressure and temperature conditions [ Backhaus et al ., ; Ennis‐King and Paterson , ; Neufeld et al ., ]. The experimental studies mainly focused on the effects of fluid and formation parameters on the mass transfer rate, and the onset of instabilities leading to convective mixing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study on effects of geologic heterogeneity in enhancing dissolution trapping of supercritical CO₂

Agartan

Trevisan

Cihan

et al. 2015

Water Resources Research

108

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Dissolution trapping is one of the primary mechanisms that enhance the storage security of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO 2 ) in saline geologic formations. When scCO 2 dissolves in formation brine produces an aqueous solution that is denser than formation brine, which leads to convective mixing driven by gravitational instabilities. Convective mixing can enhance the dissolution of CO 2 and thus it can contribute to stable trapping of dissolved CO 2 . However, in the presence of geologic heterogeneities, diffusive mixing may also contribute to dissolution trapping. The effects of heterogeneity on mixing and its contribution to stable trapping are not well understood. The goal of this experimental study is to investigate the effects of geologic heterogeneity on mixing and stable trapping of dissolved CO 2 . Homogeneous and heterogeneous media experiments were conducted in a two-dimensional test tank with various packing configurations using surrogates for scCO 2 (water) and brine (propylene glycol) under ambient pressure and temperature conditions. The results show that the density-driven flow in heterogeneous formations may not always cause significant convective mixing especially in layered systems containing low-permeability zones. In homogeneous formations, density-driven fingering enhances both storage in the deeper parts of the formation and contact between the host rock and dissolved CO 2 for the potential mineralization. On the other hand, for layered systems, dissolved CO 2 becomes immobilized in low-permeability zones with lowdiffusion rates, which reduces the risk of leakage through any fault or fracture. Both cases contribute to the permanence of the dissolved plume in the formation.

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Effects of micro-heterogeneity and hydrodynamic dispersion on the dissolution rate of carbon dioxide in water-saturated porous media

Cited by 15 publications

References 40 publications

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

Pore-scale supercritical CO2 dissolution and mass transfer under drainage conditions

Experimental study on effects of geologic heterogeneity in enhancing dissolution trapping of supercritical CO₂

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Effects of micro-heterogeneity and hydrodynamic dispersion on the dissolution rate of carbon dioxide in water-saturated porous media

Cited by 15 publications

References 40 publications

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO2 in Deep Saline Aquifers

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO2 in Deep Saline Aquifers

Pore-scale supercritical CO2 dissolution and mass transfer under drainage conditions

Experimental study on effects of geologic heterogeneity in enhancing dissolution trapping of supercritical CO2

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

The Role of Water Flow and Dispersive Fluxes in the Dissolution of CO₂ in Deep Saline Aquifers

Experimental study on effects of geologic heterogeneity in enhancing dissolution trapping of supercritical CO₂