Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO 2 storage

Vilarrasa, Victor; Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Rutqvist, Jonny

doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.07.019

Long-term thermal effects on injectivity evolution during CO ₂ storage

Journal Article · Tue Aug 22 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2017.07.019· OSTI ID:1379923

Vilarrasa, Victor ^[1]; Rinaldi, Antonio P. ^[2]; Rutqvist, Jonny ^[3]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area; Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona (Spain). Inst. of Environmental Assessment and Water Research; Associated Unit Hydrogeology Group (UPC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area; Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology, Zurich (Switzerland). Swiss Seismological Service
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Area

Carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) is likely to reach the bottom of injection wells at a colder temperature than that of the storage formation, causing cooling of the rock. This cooling, together with overpressure, tends to open up fractures, which may enhance injectivity. Here, we investigate cooling effects on injectivity enhancement by modeling the In Salah CO ₂ storage site and a theoretical, long-term injection case. We use stress-dependent permeability functions that predict an increase in permeability as the effective stress acting normal to fractures decreases. Normal effective stress can decrease either due to overpressure or cooling. We calibrate our In Salah model, which includes a fracture zone perpendicular to the well, obtaining a good fitting with the injection pressure measured at KB-502 and the rapid CO ₂ breakthrough that occurred at the observation well KB-5 located 2 km away from the injection well. CO ₂ preferentially advances through the fracture zone, which becomes two orders of magnitude more permeable than the rest of the reservoir. Nevertheless, the effect of cooling on the long-term injectivity enhancement is limited in pressure dominated storage sites, like at In Salah, because most of the permeability enhancement is due to overpressure. But, thermal effects enhance injectivity in cooling dominated storage sites, which may decrease the injection pressure by 20%, saving a significant amount of compression energy all over the duration of storage projects. Overall, our simulation results show that cooling has the potential to enhance injectivity in fractured reservoirs.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1379923

Journal Information:: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Journal Name: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control Journal Issue: C Vol. 64; ISSN 1750-5836

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (56)

Seismic and aseismic deformations and impact on reservoir permeability: The case of EGS stimulation at The Geysers, California, USA: EGS AT THE GEYSERS Jeanne, Pierre; Rutqvist, Jonny; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 120, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JB012142	journal	November 2015
Above-zone pressure monitoring and geomechanical analyses for a field-scale CO ₂ injection project in Cranfield, MS : Above-zone pressure monitoring and geomechanical analyses for a field-scale CO Kim, Seunghee; Hosseini, Seyyed Abolfazl Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1388	journal	November 2013
Effects of fault-zone architecture on earthquake magnitude and gas leakage related to CO ₂ injection in a multi-layered sedimentary system : Modeling and Analysis: Effects of fault architecture related to CO Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Jeanne, Pierre; Rutqvist, Jonny Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1403	journal	January 2014
Thermal and capillary effects on the caprock mechanical stability at In Salah, Algeria Vilarrasa, Víctor; Rutqvist, Jonny; Rinaldi, Antonio Pio Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 5, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1486	journal	April 2015
Fault reactivation during CO ₂ sequestration: Effects of well orientation on seismicity and leakage Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Vilarrasa, Victor; Rutqvist, Jonny Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 5, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1511	journal	June 2015
Transient CO2 leakage and injection in wellbore-reservoir systems for geologic carbon sequestration Pan, Lehua; Oldenburg, Curtis M.; Pruess, Karsten Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 1, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.41	journal	October 2011
Coupled Hydro-mechanical Processes Associated with Multiphase Flow in a Dual-continuum System: Formulations and an Application Liu, Hui-Hai; Rutqvist, Jonny Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 46, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-012-0313-3	journal	October 2012
The Geomechanics of CO2 Storage in Deep Sedimentary Formations Rutqvist, Jonny Geotechnical and Geological Engineering, Vol. 30, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-011-9491-0	journal	January 2012
Shear-Induced Flow Channels in a Single Rock Fracture and Their Effect on Solute Transport Vilarrasa, Victor; Koyama, Tomofumi; Neretnieks, Ivars Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 87, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-010-9698-1	journal	December 2010
Semianalytical Solution for $$\text{ CO}_{2}$$ Plume Shape and Pressure Evolution During $$\text{ CO}_{2}$$ Injection in Deep Saline Formations Vilarrasa, V.; Carrera, J.; Bolster, D. Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 97, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-012-0109-7	journal	January 2013
A note on induced stress changes in hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs Segall, Paul; Fitzgerald, Shaun D. Tectonophysics, Vol. 289, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0040-1951(97)00311-9	journal	April 1998
Effect of shear displacement on the aperture and permeability of a rock fracture Yeo, I. W.; de Freitas, M. H.; Zimmerman, R. W. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 35, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-9062(98)00165-X	journal	December 1998
A modeling approach for analysis of coupled multiphase fluid flow, heat transfer, and deformation in fractured porous rock Rutqvist, J.; Wu, Y. -S.; Tsang, C. -F. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 39, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1365-1609(02)00022-9	journal	June 2002
Status of the TOUGH-FLAC simulator and recent applications related to coupled fluid flow and crustal deformations Rutqvist, Jonny Computers & Geosciences, Vol. 37, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2010.08.006	journal	June 2011
A numerical study on the long term thermo-poroelastic effects of cold water injection into naturally fractured geothermal reservoirs Koh, Joshua; Roshan, Hamid; Rahman, Sheik S. Computers and Geotechnics, Vol. 38, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compgeo.2011.03.007	journal	July 2011
Thermal effects on geologic carbon storage Vilarrasa, Victor; Rutqvist, Jonny Earth-Science Reviews, Vol. 165 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.12.011	journal	February 2017
Detection of surface deformation related with CO2 injection by DInSAR at In Salah, Algeria Onuma, Takumi; Ohkawa, Shiro Energy Procedia, Vol. 1, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2009.01.283	journal	February 2009
Satellite imaging to monitor CO2 movement at Krechba, Algeria Mathieson, Allan; Wright, Iain; Roberts, David Energy Procedia, Vol. 1, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2009.01.286	journal	February 2009
A full field simulation of the in Salah gas production and CO2 storage project using a coupled geo-mechanical and thermal fluid flow simulator Bissell, R. C.; Vasco, D. W.; Atbi, M. Energy Procedia, Vol. 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.249	journal	January 2011
Coupled non-isothermal, multiphase fluid flow, and geomechanical modeling of ground surface deformations and potential for induced micro-seismicity at the In Salah CO2 storage operation Rutqvist, Jonny; Liu, Hoi-Hai; Vasco, Donald W. Energy Procedia, Vol. 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.282	journal	January 2011
Microseismic Monitoring and Interpretation of Injection Data from the in Salah CO2 Storage Site (Krechba), Algeria Oye, Volker; Aker, Eyvind; Daley, Thomas M. Energy Procedia, Vol. 37 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2013.06.321	journal	January 2013
Numerical simulation of non-isothermal compositional gas flow: Application to carbon dioxide injection into gas reservoirs Singh, A. K.; Goerke, U. -J.; Kolditz, O. Energy, Vol. 36, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2011.03.049	journal	May 2011
Solving iTOUGH2 simulation and optimization problems using the PEST protocol Finsterle, Stefan; Zhang, Yingqi Environmental Modelling & Software, Vol. 26, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2011.02.008	journal	July 2011
Simulation of seismic events induced by CO2 injection at In Salah, Algeria Verdon, James P.; Stork, Anna L.; Bissell, Rob C. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 426 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.06.029	journal	September 2015
CO2-H2O mixtures in the geological sequestration of CO2. II. Partitioning in chloride brines at 12–100°C and up to 600 bar Spycher, Nicolas; Pruess, Karsten Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 69, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2005.01.015	journal	July 2005
Evaluating the impact of fractures on the performance of the In Salah CO2 storage site Iding, Martin; Ringrose, Philip International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2009.10.016	journal	March 2010
Coupled reservoir-geomechanical analysis of CO2 injection and ground deformations at In Salah, Algeria Rutqvist, Jonny; Vasco, Donald W.; Myer, Larry International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2009.10.017	journal	March 2010
A study of injection-induced mechanical deformation at the In Salah CO2 storage project Morris, Joseph P.; Hao, Yue; Foxall, William International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 5, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2010.10.004	journal	March 2011
Coupled multi-phase thermo-poromechanical effects. Case study: CO2 injection at In Salah, Algeria Preisig, Matthias; Prévost, Jean H. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 5, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2010.12.006	journal	July 2011
Assessment of carbon dioxide plume behaviour within the storage reservoir and the lower caprock around the KB-502 injection well at In Salah Shi, Ji-Quan; Sinayuc, Caglar; Durucan, Sevket International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.01.002	journal	March 2012
Geomechanical modeling for CO2 storage in Nisku aquifer in Wabamun Lake area in Canada Goodarzi, Somayeh; Settari, Antonin; Keith, David International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.05.020	journal	September 2012
Modeling of deep fracture zone opening and transient ground surface uplift at KB-502 CO2 injection well, In Salah, Algeria Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Rutqvist, Jonny International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.10.017	journal	January 2013
Effects of thermal stresses on caprock integrity during CO2 storage Gor, Gennady Yu.; Elliot, Thomas R.; Prévost, Jean H. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2012.11.020	journal	January 2013
Liquid CO2 injection for geological storage in deep saline aquifers Vilarrasa, Víctor; Silva, Orlando; Carrera, Jesús International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 14 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.015	journal	May 2013
Numerical modeling of the pumping tests at the Ketzin pilot site for CO2 injection: Model calibration and heterogeneity effects Chen, Fei; Wiese, Bernd; Zhou, Quanlin International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 22 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.01.003	journal	March 2014
Long term impacts of cold CO2 injection on the caprock integrity Vilarrasa, Víctor; Olivella, Sebastià; Carrera, Jesús International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 24 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.02.016	journal	May 2014
The microseismic response at the In Salah Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) site Stork, Anna L.; Verdon, James P.; Kendall, J. -Michael International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 32 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2014.11.014	journal	January 2015
CO2 migration and pressure evolution in deep saline aquifers Birkholzer, Jens T.; Oldenburg, Curtis M.; Zhou, Quanlin International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, Vol. 40 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.03.022	journal	September 2015
On the relationship between stress and elastic strain for porous and fractured rock Liu, Hui-Hai; Rutqvist, Jonny; Berryman, James G. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 46, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2008.04.005	journal	February 2009
Development of a coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical model in discontinuous media for carbon sequestration Fang, Yilin; Nguyen, Ba Nghiep; Carroll, Kenneth International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 62 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2013.05.002	journal	September 2013
Hydro-thermo-mechanical analysis during injection of cold fluid into a geologic formation Kim, Seunghee; Hosseini, Seyyed A. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 77 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2015.04.010	journal	July 2015
Fault activation and induced seismicity in geological carbon storage – Lessons learned from recent modeling studies Rutqvist, Jonny; Rinaldi, Antonio P.; Cappa, Frederic Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 8, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2016.09.001	journal	December 2016
Thermal coupling may control mechanical stability of geothermal reservoirs during cold water injection De Simone, Silvia; Vilarrasa, Victor; Carrera, Jesús Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, Vol. 64 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2013.01.001	journal	January 2013
Optimization of a CO2 storage project based on thermal, geomechanical and induced fracturing effects Goodarzi, S.; Settari, A.; Zoback, M. D. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Vol. 134 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2015.06.004	journal	October 2015
On the anisotropy of the aperture correlation and effective transmissivity in fractures generated by sliding between identical self-affine surfaces Mallikamas, Wasin Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL022859	journal	January 2005
Satellite-based measurements of surface deformation reveal fluid flow associated with the geological storage of carbon dioxide: FLUID FLOW ASSOCIATED WITH THE STORAGE OF CO Vasco, D. W.; Rucci, A.; Ferretti, A. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL041544	journal	February 2010
Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture Witherspoon, P. A.; Wang, J. S. Y.; Iwai, K. Water Resources Research, Vol. 16, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1029/WR016i006p01016	journal	December 1980
Comparison of geomechanical deformation induced by megatonne-scale CO2 storage at Sleipner, Weyburn, and In Salah Verdon, J. P.; Kendall, J. - M.; Stork, A. L. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 30 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1302156110	journal	July 2013
Geomechanical behavior of the reservoir and caprock system at the In Salah CO2 storage project White, J. A.; Chiaramonte, L.; Ezzedine, S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 111, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316465111	journal	May 2014
Monitoring the geologic storage of carbon dioxide using multicomponent SAR interferometry Rucci, Alessio; Vasco, D. W.; Novali, Fabrizio Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 193, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggs112	journal	January 2013
Fractured rock stress-permeability relationships from in situ data and effects of temperature and chemical-mechanical couplings Rutqvist, J. Geofluids, Vol. 15, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1111/gfl.12089	journal	September 2014
The role of the stress regime on microseismicity induced by overpressure and cooling in geologic carbon storage Vilarrasa, V. Geofluids, Vol. 16, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1111/gfl.12197	journal	October 2016
Reservoir monitoring and characterization using satellite geodetic data: Interferometric synthetic aperture radar observations from the Krechba field, Algeria Vasco, D. W.; Ferretti, Alessandro; Novali, Fabrizio GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 73, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1190/1.2981184	journal	November 2008
A finite–element model for simulation of carbon dioxide sequestration Bao, Jie; Xu, Zhijie; Fang, Yilin Environmental Geotechnics, Vol. 1, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1680/envgeo.13.00024	journal	August 2014
Plume development around well KB-502 at the In Salah CO2 storage site Ringrose, P.; Atbi, M.; Mason, D. First Break, Vol. 27, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3997/1365-2397.27.1295.28744	journal	January 2009
Geomechanical response to CO2 injection at Krechba, In Salah, Algeria Gemmer, L.; Hansen, O.; Iding, M. First Break, Vol. 30, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3997/1365-2397.30.2.56445	journal	February 2012

Cited By (6)

Natural fractures within Knox reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin: characterization and impact on poroelastic response of injection Raziperchikolaee, Samin; Babarinde, Ola; Sminchak, Joel Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Vol. 9, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/ghg.1933	journal	September 2019
Influence of interphase mass transfer and diffusion processes on CO2-brine displacement in saline aquifers Ding, Tian; Liu, Yongzhong; Hua, Xiaowen Environmental Earth Sciences, Vol. 78, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-019-8679-0	journal	November 2019
Potential of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$CO2 based geothermal energy extraction from hot sedimentary and dry rock reservoirs, and enabling carbon geo-sequestration Singh, Mrityunjay; Tangirala, Sri Kalyan; Chaudhuri, Abhijit Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-019-00139-8	journal	January 2020
The Influence of Coupled Thermomechanical Processes on the Pressure and Temperature due to Cold Water Injection into Multiple Fracture Zones in Deep Rock Formation Figueiredo, Bruno; Tsang, Chin-Fu; Niemi, Auli Geofluids, Vol. 2020 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8947258	journal	January 2020
Geomechanical Response of Fractured Reservoirs Zareidarmiyan, Ahmad; Salarirad, Hossein; Vilarrasa, Victor Fluids, Vol. 3, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids3040070	journal	September 2018
Induced seismicity in geologic carbon storage Vilarrasa, Víctor; Carrera, Jesus; Olivella, Sebastià Solid Earth, Vol. 10, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.5194/se-10-871-2019	journal	January 2019

Similar Records

Thermal and capillary effects on the caprock mechanical stability at In Salah, Algeria

Journal Article · Sun Apr 19 20:00:00 EDT 2015 · Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology · OSTI ID:1407269

Inverse modeling of ground surface uplift and pressure with iTOUGH-PEST and TOUGH-FLAC: The case of CO2 injection at In Salah, Algeria

Journal Article · Sun Oct 23 20:00:00 EDT 2016 · Computers and Geosciences · OSTI ID:1379381

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
cooling
fracture aperture
permeability increase
thermo-hydro-mechanical coupling