This paper summarises the results of a benchmark study that compares a number of mathematical and numerical models applied to specific problems in the context of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) storage in geologic formations. The processes modelled comprise ad-H. Class (B) · A. Ebigbo · R. Helmig · M. Darcis · B. Flemisch vective multi-phase flow, compositional effects due to dissolution of CO 2 into the ambient brine and nonisothermal effects due to temperature gradients and the Joule-Thompson effect. The problems deal with leakage through a leaky well, methane recovery enhanced P. Audigane BRGM, French Geological Survey, 410 Comput Geosci (2009) 13:409-434 by CO 2 injection and a reservoir-scale injection scenario into a heterogeneous formation. We give a description of the benchmark problems then briefly introduce the participating codes and finally present and discuss the results of the benchmark study.

This investigation focuses on the use of microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) to set up subsurface hydraulic barriers to potentially increase storage security near wellbores of CO2 storage sites. A numerical model is developed, capable of accounting for carbonate precipitation due to ureolytic bacterial activity as well as the flow of two fluid phases in the subsurface. The model is compared to experiments involving saturated flow through sand‐packed columns to understand and optimize the processes involved as well as to validate the numerical model. It is then used to predict the effect of dense‐phase CO2 and CO2‐saturated water on carbonate precipitates in a porous medium.

Reactive transport processes in a porous medium will often both cause changes to the pore structure, via precipitation and dissolution of biomass or minerals, and be affected by these changes, via changes to the material's porosity and permeability. An understanding of the pore structure morphology and the changes to flow parameters during these processes is critical when modeling reactive transport. Commonly applied porosity-permeability relations in simulation models on the REV scale use a power-law relation, often with slight modifications, to describe such features; they are often used for modeling the effects of mineral precipitation and/or dissolution on permeability. To predict the reduction in permeability due to biomass growth, many different and often rather complex relations have been developed and published by a variety of authors. Some authors use exponential or simplified Kozeny-Carman relations. However, many of these relations do not lead to fundamentally different predictions of permeability alteration when compared to a simple power-law relation with a suitable exponent. Exceptions to this general trend are only few of the porosity-permeability relations developed for biomass clogging; these consider a residual permeability even when the pore space is completely filled with biomass. Other exceptions are relations that consider a critical porosity at which the porous medium becomes impermeable; this is often used when modeling the effect of mineral precipitation. This review first defines the scale on which porosity-permeability relations are typically used and aims at explaining why these relations are not unique. It shows the variety of existing approaches and concludes with their essential features.

The model for microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) published by Ebigbo et al. (2012) has been improved based on new insights obtained from experiments and model calibration. The challenge in constructing a predictive model for permeability reduction in the underground with MICP is the quantification of the complex interaction between flow, transport, biofilm growth, and reaction kinetics. New data from Lauchnor et al. (2015) on whole-cell ureolysis kinetics from batch experiments were incorporated into the model, which has allowed for a more precise quantification of the relevant parameters as well as a simplification of the reaction kinetics in the equations of the model. Further, the model has been calibrated objectively by inverse modeling using quasi-1D column experiments and a radial flow experiment. From the postprocessing of the inverse modeling, a comprehensive sensitivity analysis has been performed with focus on the model input parameters that were fitted in the course of the model calibration. It reveals that calcite precipitation and concentrations of NH