Density-driven Natural Convection in Dual Layered and Anisotropic Porous Media with Application for CO2 Injection Project

Farajzadeh, R.; Zinati, Farzad Farshbaf; Zitha, Pacelli L.J.; Bruining, J.

doi:10.3997/2214-4609.20146391

Cited by 16 publications

(13 citation statements)

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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

105

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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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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

105

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“…Many authors (Gebhart et al 1988;Nield and Bejan 1999;Ennis-King and Paterson 2005;Li et al 2006;Riaz et al 2006;Farajzadeh et al 2007;Hassanzadeh et al 2007;Pruess and Zhang 2008;Rapaka et al 2008;Hidalgo and Carrera 2009;Kneafsey and Pruess 2010;Pau et al 2010) investigated the density-driven natural convection in homogeneous porous media in view of its application to CO 2 sequestration. The effect of layering and anisotropy in the permeability fields has also been investigated (Farajzadeh et al 2008;Rapaka et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in Heterogeneous Porous media for CO2 Geological Storage

et al. 2012

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We report a modeling and numerical simulation study of density-driven natural convection during geological CO 2 storage in heterogeneous formations. We consider an aquifer or depleted oilfield overlain by gaseous CO 2 , where the water density increases due to CO 2 dissolution. The heterogeneity of the aquifer is represented by spatial variations of the permeability, generated using Sequential Gaussian Simulation method. The convective motion of the liquid with dissolved CO 2 is investigated. Special attention is paid to instability characteristics of the CO 2 concentration profiles, variation of mixing length, and average CO 2 mass flux as a function of the heterogeneity characterized by the standard deviation and the correlation length of the log-normal permeability fields. The CO 2 concentration profiles show different flow patterns of convective mixing such as gravity fingering, channeling, and dispersive based on the heterogeneity medium of the aquifer. The variation of mixing length with dimensionless time shows three separate regimes such as diffusion, convection, and second diffusion. The average CO 2 mass flux at the top boundary decreases quickly at early times then it increases, reaching a constant value at later times for various heterogeneity parameters.

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“…A number of literatures that investigate the solubility of CO 2 by considering anisotropy in the permeability fields are available, e.g. Farajzadeh et al [2008], Rapaka et al [2009] and Cheng et al [2012]. However, none of them are considering the permeability field as a full tensor in their model.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mostly the anisotropy permeability is defined as a first rank tensor with different values in the diagonal components, i.e., the horizontal permeability is several times greater than vertical one. Farajzadeh et al [2008] and Rapaka et al [2009] have investigated the effect of anisotropy and layering in the permeability fields. Farajzadeh et al [2008] studied the natural convection effects in dual layered and anisotropic porous media experimentally and numerically.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farajzadeh et al [2008] and Rapaka et al [2009] have investigated the effect of anisotropy and layering in the permeability fields. Farajzadeh et al [2008] studied the natural convection effects in dual layered and anisotropic porous media experimentally and numerically. From the simulation results, they reached the conclusion that the decrease of vertical permeability reduces the convection effects and increase the critical time for the onset of convection.…”

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Density-Driven Flow Simulation in Anisotropic Porous Media: Application to CO2 Geological Sequestration

2014

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Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) sequestration in saline aquifers is considered as one of the most viable and promising ways to reduce CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere. CO 2 is injected into deep saline formations at supercritical state where its density is smaller than the hosting brine. This motivates an upward motion and eventually CO 2 is trapped beneath the cap rock. The trapped CO 2 slowly dissolves into the brine causing the density of the mixture to become larger than the host brine. This causes gravitational instabilities that is propagated and magnified with time. In this kind of density-driven flows, the CO 2 -rich brines migrate downward while the brines with low CO 2 concentration move upward. With respect to the properties of the subsurface aquifers, there are instances where saline formations can possess anisotropy with respect to their hydraulic properties. Such anisotropy can have significant effect on the onset and propagation of flow instabilities. Anisotropy is predicted to be more influential in dictating the direction of the convective flow. To account for permeability anisotropy, the method of multipoint flux approximation (MPFA) in the framework of finite differences schemes is used. The MPFA method requires more point stencil than the traditional two-point flux approximation (TPFA). For example, calculation of one flux component requires 6-point stencil and 18-point stencil in 2-D and 3-D cases, respectively. As consequence, the matrix of coefficient for obtaining the pressure fields will be quite complex. Therefore, we combine the MPFA method with the experimenting pressure field technique in which the problem is reduced to solving multitude of local problems and the global matrix of coefficients is constructed automatically, which significantly reduces the complexity. We present several numerical scenarios of density-driven flow simulation in homogeneous, layered, and heterogeneous anisotropic porous media. The numerical results emphasize the significant effects of anisotropy in driving the migration of dissolved CO 2 along the principal direction of anisotropy even if the porous medium is highly heterogeneous. Furthermore, the impacts of the increase of density difference between the brine and the CO 2 -saturated brine with respect to the onset time of convection, the CO 2 flux, and the CO 2 total dissolved mass are also discussed in this paper. Motivation and backgroundNowadays, global warming issue has become the world-widely discussed topic due to the change of climate on the Earth. One of the causes of the global warming is the greenhouse gasses emission, i.e., the release of CO 2 into the atmosphere due to the use of fossil fuels in the industry activities such as power plant, refineries, petrochemical industries, oil and gas processing, etc. The amount of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere has steadily increased particularly in the last century, from 280 ppm (prior to the industrial revolution) to 390 ppm (at the current time) with annual increase of 1 to 2 ppm [Firoozabadi ...

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Density-driven Natural Convection in Dual Layered and Anisotropic Porous Media with Application for CO2 Injection Project

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

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

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

Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in Heterogeneous Porous media for CO2 Geological Storage

Density-Driven Flow Simulation in Anisotropic Porous Media: Application to CO2 Geological Sequestration

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Density-driven Natural Convection in Dual Layered and Anisotropic Porous Media with Application for CO2 Injection Project

Cited by 16 publications

References 13 publications

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

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

Numerical Simulation of Natural Convection in Heterogeneous Porous media for CO2 Geological Storage

Density-Driven Flow Simulation in Anisotropic Porous Media: Application to CO2 Geological Sequestration

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

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