HR: 1340h
AN: U43C-1385 [Abstracts]
TI: Design of Carbon Dioxide Storage in a North Sea Aquifer Using Streamline-based Simulation
AU: * Qi, R
EM: ran.qi@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, GBR SW7 2BP,
AU: Beraldo, V
EM: valcir.beraldo@gmail.com
AF: Petrobras, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 70.065-900, Brazil
AU: LaForce, T
EM: t.laforce@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, GBR SW7 2BP,
AU: Blunt, M J
EM: m.blunt@imperial.ac.uk
AF: Imperial College London, South Kensington, London, GBR SW7 2BP,
AB:
We propose a carbon storage strategy where CO2 and brine are injected into an aquifer together followed by
brine injection alone. This renders 80-95% of the CO2 immobile in pore-scale (10s micrometers) droplets
in the porous rock; over thousands to billions of years the CO2 may dissolve or precipitate as carbonate, but
it will not migrate upwards and so is effectively sequestered. The CO2 is trapped during the decades-long
lifetime of the injection phase, reducing the need for extensive monitoring for centuries. The method does not rely
on impermeable cap rock to contain the CO2; this is only a secondary containment for the small amount of
remaining mobile gas. Furthermore, the favorable mobility ratio between injected and displaced fluids leads to a
more uniform sweep of the aquifer leading to a higher storage efficiency than injecting CO2 alone.
This design is demonstrated through the incorporation of a recent model of trapping and relative permeability
hysteresis based on pore-scale modeling into a field-scale streamline-based simulator. One-dimensional
results are verified through comparison with analytical solutions. Results are then shown for storage in a North
Sea aquifer. We design injection to give optimal storage efficiency and to minimize the amount of water injected;
for the case we study injecting CO2 with a fractional flow between 85 and 100% followed by a short period
of chase brine injection gives the best performance.
DE: 3653 Fluid flow
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting