Wettability of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide/Water/Quartz Systems: Simultaneous Measurement of Contact Angle and Interfacial Tension at Reservoir Conditions

Abstract

Injection of carbon dioxide in deep saline aquifers is considered as a method of carbon sequestration. The efficiency of this process is dependent on the fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interactions inside the porous media. For instance, the final storage capacity and total amount of capillary-trapped CO2 inside an aquifer are affected by the interfacial tension between the fluids and the contact angle between the fluids and the rock mineral surface. A thorough study of these parameters and their variations with temperature and pressure will provide a better understanding of the carbon sequestration process and thus improve predictions of the sequestration efficiency. In this study, the controversial concept of wettability alteration of quartz surfaces in the presence of supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO2) was investigated. A novel apparatus for measuring interfacial tension and contact angle at high temperatures and pressures based on Axisymmetric Drop Shape Analysis with no-Apex (ADSA-NA) method was developed and validated with a simple system. Densities, interfacial tensions, and dynamic contact angles of CO2/water/quartz systems were determined for a wide range of pressures and temperatures relevant to geological sequestration of CO2 in the subcritical and supercritical states. Image analysis was performed with ADSA-NA method that allows the determination of both interfacial tensions and contact angles with high accuracy. The results show that supercritical CO2 alters the wettability of quartz surface toward less water-wet conditions compared to subcritical CO2. Also we observed an increase in the water advancing contact angles with increasing temperature indicating less water-wet quartz surfaces at higher temperatures.

Direct Measurement of Static and Dynamic Contact Angles Using a Random Micromodel Considering Geological CO2 Sequestration

“…Figure 2a. Results show that the advancing contact angle is considerably higher than the receding contact angle in the same pore throat, consistent with previous studies [18,22,[43][44][45]. The difference between ACA and RCA is attributed to the blemishes on non-ideal surfaces which results in pinning the interfaces to the solid surface [46].…”

“…Average contact angles on flat surface inside micromodel at pressure of one and eight megapascals are 62° ± 7° and 49° ± 21°, respectively, in agreement with Kim et al [58] observations showing a wide range of contact angles from 40° to 80° inside a uniform micromodel. Contact angles on a flat surface in this study are higher than those shown in previous sessile drop or captive bubble tests with large droplet of water or bubble of CO2 (i.e., 8° to 45° on silica or glass surface) [18,22,43,[50][51][52]. This could be due to the micro-scaled CO2 bubble size on a flat surface inside the micromodel of [18,22,43,[50][51][52].…”

“…Contact angles on a flat surface in this study are higher than those shown in previous sessile drop or captive bubble tests with large droplet of water or bubble of CO2 (i.e., 8° to 45° on silica or glass surface) [18,22,43,[50][51][52]. This could be due to the micro-scaled CO2 bubble size on a flat surface inside the micromodel of [18,22,43,[50][51][52]. This could be due to the micro-scaled CO 2 bubble size on a flat surface inside the micromodel of the present study in comparison with the other studies with larger dimension of bubble ranging from a few to tens of millimeter.…”

“…Because of different level of relaxation of the interfaces, various mode of interfaces before stoppage (i.e., receding or advancing), and pinning effect originated from solid surface imperfection, SCA shows wide range of values for the two different tests and also for each test in any throat sizes. The range of SCA at each pore throat size is higher than that of equilibrium contact angle (ECA) measured with CO 2 or water droplet on flat surface (i.e., 8 • to 45 • on silica or glass surface) [18,22,43,[50][51][52]. Static contact angle during drainage and imbibition processes.…”

A molecular dynamics investigation into the adsorption behavior inside {001} kaolinite and {1014} calcite nano-scale channels: the case with confined hydrocarbon liquid, acid gases, and water

“…A plethora of experimental and computational works is available on wetting behavior of reservoir fluids over mineral surfaces, such as quartz (Hou et al 2015;Saraji et al 2013;Wu et al 2013;Xuefen et al 2009), calcite (Benlia et al 2012Cebecia and Sönmezb 2004;Guiwu et al 2009;Khusainova et al 2015;Sakuma et al 2014; Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13204-017-0563-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.…”