An Integrated Capillary, Buoyancy, and Viscous-Driven Model for Brine/CO2Relative Permeability in a Compositional and Parallel Reservoir Simulator

X. Kong, M. Delshad, M. F. Wheeler

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

The effectiveness of CO2 storage in the saline aquifers is governed by the interplay of capillary, viscous, and buoyancy forces. Recent experimental study reveals the impact of pressure, temperature, and salinity on interfacial tension (IFT) between CO2 and brine. The dependence of CO2-brine relative permeability and capillary pressure on pressure (IFT) is also clearly evident in published experimental results. Improved understanding of the mechanisms that control the migration and trapping of CO2 in subsurface is crucial to design future storage projects that warrant long-term and safe containment. Simulation studies ignoring the buoyancy and also variation in interfacial tension and the effect on the petrophysical properties such as trapped CO2 saturations, relative permeability, and capillary pressure have a poor chance of making accurate predictions of CO2 injectivity and plume migration. We have developed and implemented a general relative permeability model that combines effects of pressure gradient, buoyancy, and IFT in an equation of state (EOS) compositional and parallel simulator. The significance of IFT variations on CO2 migration and trapping is assessed.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationModelling and Simulation in Fluid Dynamics in Porous Media
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages125-142
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9781461450542
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 3 2012
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by an Academic Excellence Allianceprogram award from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) GlobalCollaborative Researchunder thetitle X. A portion of this research was supported by the U.S.Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. TheCenter forFrontiers of Subsurface Energy Security(CFSES) is a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center,under contract number DE-SC0001114. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supportprovided by the NSF-CDI under contract number DMS 0835745.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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